The DARKROOM COOKBOOK, Third Edition

Reversal Processing
and Enlarged Negatives
Photography is 90% sheer, brutal drudgery. The other 10% is inspiration!
—Brett Weston
Since the fi rst edition of The Darkroom Cookbook, there have been an increasing number of
photographers who have become interested in practicing alternative processes. The interest
has become so great that in 1999 the Photographers’ Formulary, one of the leading providers
of photographic chemicals, established a school largely dedicated to teaching alternative
processes. Because of this surge in interest, this edition of the Cookbook includes this chapter
on reversal processing and enlarging negatives.
Alternative processes are many and varied. The list includes carbro, carbon, bromoil,
gum printing, platinum/palladium (plt/pld), salted paper, Ambrotype, albumen, kallitype,
photogravure, collotype, Woodburytype, and cyanotype. Except for the fi rst two, carbro
and carbon, all of these processes are made by contact printing a negative onto a sensitized
material. From a practical point of view, this means that a 35 mm negative will produce a
print approximately 1 � 1.5 inches. While this may satisfy some, most photographers prefer
slightly larger prints.
There are three techniques for producing an enlarged negative for contact printing, and
none are particularly diffi cult. The easiest technique is to copy a print made from an original
negative using a large-format camera. The procedure is to fi rst make a fi ne print in the
darkroom with all the dodging, burning, and manipulation required, then place two lights on
either side of the print at an angle of 45 degrees, measure the light falling on the center of the
print with an incident light meter. The large-format camera should be placed straight on and
square to the print with no swings or tilts—everything zeroed.
The problem with this method is that if you already have an 8 � 10 inch or 11 � 14 inch
view camera with which to copy prints you are probably already making large negatives anyway
and can skip this chapter. On the assumption that you purchase a large-format camera
for the express purpose of making enlarged negatives keep the following in mind. The camera
itself is not important as long as the bellows is in good condition and the camera doesn’t
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