We have built two new film holders for the ULF [ultra large format] camera that are based on the classic Toyo & Fidelity Elite double dark slide design and to test the loading of 20" x 24" media we used Ilford Multigrade RC photographic paper to test for light leaks. There were two reasons why we decided on using photographic paper rather than negative film for our first 20" x 24" photographs, the first being is cost as a paper negative costs �113.00 for a pack of 50 sheets as opposed to over �750.00 for a pack of 25 sheets Ilford ULF negative film. The second reason for using b&w photographic paper was to create paper negatives in the ULF camera that would provide an instant photographic image after being inspired by large format Polaroid instant film used at Mammoth Camera http://www.mammothcamera.com and 20x24 Studio http://www.20x24studio.com/index.html and also by the Impossible Project who are recreating 20x24 Polaroid themselves at http://www.the-impossible-project.com/projects/20x24. We have also investigated Ilford's direct positive photographic paper but results were mixed though we may revisit it at a later date noting the full length portrait work done on the Imago camera in Germany http://www.imago1to1.com/en.
The first tests were done on Kentmere's fibre based photographic paper 16"x 20" pointing the camera outside in bright light to quickly work out the iso which was about 2-3 iso, one of the photographs is below and even with the aperture fully open it required a long exposure resulting in blurs on the figure and tree but the results were rather quite good.
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| 16" x 20" Paper Negative - Kentmere photographic paper |
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| Image scanned and inverted in PhotoShop with adjustments to the image levels |
Next we went into the studio for more controlled lighting to photograph portraits, initially we used continuous tungsten lighting but decided it was too hot for the sitter and the light output was not strong enough resulting in long exposures best suited for still life work rather than by now a rather sweaty sitter who we had rig up a head vice to keep them still.
Finally we moved onto flash lighting that is used Imago camera setup to get the desired light output and a fast shutter speed for portrait work. In the first test only one flash head was used at full power but in the future the light output can be shared across multiply flash heads noting the Imago camera which uses 4 powerful flash heads to get the best out of negative and positive photographic paper which has a very low iso rating. The aperture was fully open at F11 on the Schneider FA XXl 550mm lens with a shutter speed of 125/s giving a very shallow depth of field that made focussing on the ULF camera challenging and in the future we may look at using rails for the camera support that are not dissimilar to a large format copy camera for closeup and detailed work.
After taking the photograph it was into the darkroom and time to develop the photographic paper to create the paper negative. The nice thing about developing paper negatives is you can do it under red light allowing all to see the image emerge from the white surface and no matter how many times you see or do it the magic always remains very much like wetplate processing.
After fix and dry the paper negatives can be pinned onto the wall for all to view giving an instant feedback to ultra large format photography.
Due to the low iso of the photographic paper the paper negative has virtually no noticeable grain and makes it highly suitable for scanning and taking it into the digital darkroom. The negative was scanned on an Epson A3 scanner in two separate scans and stitched together in PhotoShop, the image was then inverted to a positive and subtle adjustments made to the image levels as when inverted the image is washed out and flat.
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| 20" x 24" Paper Negative - Ilford RC photographic paper |
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| Image scanned and inverted in PhotoShop with no adjustments to the image levels |
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| Image scanned and inverted in PhotoShop with adjustments to the image levels |
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| Detail of the eye |
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| Detail of the beard |
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