Grex Photography Conference

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Grex Photography Item 35: Printing for photocopying.
Entered by mcpoz on Thu Apr 18 22:50:58 UTC 1996:

I am looking for a good B&W photo capable of reproduction on a photocopier.
I tried color prints and they were lousy.  I am now trying the Ilford B&W film
which uses color processing.  I think I will enlarge and print this myself,
going for hi contrast.  Any prior experience here?  what works best?  
Thanks.

9 responses total.

#1 of 9 by rcurl on Fri Apr 19 06:34:57 1996:

Once upon a time you could get a "screen" for photocopying photographs,
but I haven't seen one for a long time. Are they still made? Marc,
what are you trying to do (in more detail). Do you want *any* B&W
print that comes out OK as a photocopy? If so, what has that got to do
with film, printing, etc? (I suspect it is related to laltitude and
that kind of stuff, which is what a screen enhances.)

#2 of 9 by mcpoz on Fri Apr 19 23:40:14 1996:

I remember the screens.  They were transparancies with tiny white spots all
over about 0.1" apart.  They broke up the contrast shading and resulted in
a picture much like a newsprint picture.  

I am trying to make a photo which can be copied with reasonable detail for
an advertising mailer.  Today, I took 24 pictures with Ilford XA2 which is
a B/W film developed in auto-color processing.  I asked Huron Camera to do
what they can to enhance contrast.  I will then print the negatives myself,
and try for optimum contrast and detail.  I'll let you know how they turn out.

#3 of 9 by topper on Sat Apr 20 00:41:42 1996:

Hi everybody!

#4 of 9 by mcpoz on Sat Apr 20 02:19:14 1996:

Hi topper & welcome - take any good pictures lately?

#5 of 9 by mcpoz on Sun Apr 21 12:20:23 1996:

Well I got the shots back and they are pretty good.  I took all kinds of
angles and lighting conditions, natural light, flash, etc.  The best shots
were natural light with a polarized filter to remove the hot spots.  They
appear to be razor sharp.  I am going to reprint the negatives myself to
enhance the contrast.  Next step - see how they photocopy.
(The subject is a pair of green camo compact binoculars)

#6 of 9 by rickyb on Mon Apr 22 18:56:24 1996:

Your approach sound reasonable, but I have had less than adequate experience
in similar projects in the past.  The best results I've been able to achieve
were with the use of Kodalith film.  This film has very narrow range of
sensitivity and therefore very high contrast (did I get that right...it's been
so long).

You _definitley_ have to do a roll of test shots at various lighting and
exposure settings to find which is best.  You can get results with very sharp
edges and pure black/white contrast.

I use the kodalith negatives as 35mm slides.  I can type out copy, shoot the
slides using a copy stand and very controlled lighting, then color the lines
of copy with a brush and dyes made for film.  Of course, this was in the days
before you could get slides made from your PC files.  I got very professional
looking results for lectures without paying high prices for professional slide
preparation...and was able to do a f ew extra things as well.

Also available is opaqueing "dye", which can be used to fill in the little
pinholes which may show up in the black areas (especially when you project
them onto a 10 foot screen).  If you try the kodalith idea, you might find
you'll need to opaque out some defects before you make your final paper print.

I used to get the film at Sun Photo, but I think Huron Camera would have it,
as well as lots of other places.  I haven't looked for it for a long time.

W-a-a-a-a-y back in high school, a buddie of mine used it for portraits.  Got
some real wild effects, not unlike Peter Max lithos (which were popular at
the time), especially if you "solarized" the print (expose the paper to light
during deveoplement).  Jimi Hendrix's Purple Haze is only a little better than
the effects you can get, heh.

#7 of 9 by mcpoz on Wed Apr 24 00:57:14 1996:

I think your idea is a good one.  I can imagine taking the print to extreme
contrast so it almost resembles an india ink drawing.  I did this once in the
past by making interim positives from the negative, then making a second 
generation negative on sheet film from the positive, then contact printing
the sheet film.  I may give that a shot.

Thanks for the idea.

#8 of 9 by rickyb on Thu Apr 25 19:43:54 1996:

If you use the kodalith film you may ber able to do the same thing without
all the intermediate steps.  You'll find there is a very narrow range of
lighting which will permit any shades of grey and on either side of that you
will get the kind of contrast I think you are looking for.  One roll of test
shots should give you the correct exposure.

#9 of 9 by mcpoz on Thu Apr 25 22:54:10 1996:

The kodalith sounds better!  I'll give it a try.  Thanks

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