The process of making prints from slides is getting easier because
there are fewer choices to make. Traditional wet chemistry darkroom printing
can still be done by you in your own darkroom, but the number if labs offering
these services is dropping like an anvil down a well. These days, about
the only way to get your slides printed by a lab is to have them digitally
scan the slides and then print from the digital files.
I think this change if for the better, by the way, since a high-quality
scan captures all of the detail present in the slide, and image control
in digital printing is infinitely greater than the crude control one had
in the darkroom. A scan at a resolution of 4,000 ppi will capture almost
all the information in the transparency. Scans of 5,000 to 6,000 ppi record
everything the slide has to offer. Drum scans, which are expensive, give
the highest quality scan due to their high resolution and superb dynamic
range. High-end desktop scanners are almost as good, and should suffice
for all but the most demanding applications.
Let's look at some slide printing options.
Materials are still available to do your own Ilfochrome printing. Ilfochrome
is a paper/chemistry system to print directly from slides. (It is sometimes
known under its older name of Cibachrome.) These prints have high resolution,
incredibly dynamic color, and decent archival lifespan. They are also expensive.
The Deluxe Glossy "paper" is Ilfochrome's best: the emulsion
is coated onto a polyester (mylar plastic) base and has a remarkably glossy
Ilfochromes can appear stunning, but the paper is contrasty and can
be hard to print. A master printer can control the contrast by use of contrast
masks, which are black and white negatives that are exposed in registration
with the original slide. When the slide is printed in registration with
the mask, the mask holds back light from the bright parts of the scene
and thus the contrast range is reduced. If you want to learn more about
Ilfochrome printing, check out The Lightroom. This site provides a great tutorial. Without a mask, Ilfochrome will work best for low-contrast slides.
Fuji makes a very similar product - also on a polyester base - called
Fujichrome Super-Gloss Printing Material Type 35. The Fuji website lists
this as having "limited availability," however, so it's anyone's
guess how long they will continue to offer it.
An internegative is a color negative shot from your slide. One can then
use the negative to make conventional darkroom color prints. Internegs
are shot using a special film, however, that as near as I can tell is no
longer available, so internegative printing is now only of historical interest.
A high quality scan of your slide provides the luxury of correcting
or improving upon your image in the computer. You can enhance the shadow
detail that is barely present in your slide, correct adverse color casts,
and so forth. After you're done with any manipulations you might care to
do, you have your choice of three main digital output options: inkjet prints,
traditional paper prints, and dye-sublimation prints.
Inkjet prints can give fully photorealistic output. Inkjet printers
can print on a wide variety of paper surface finishes, from paper that
looks like a traditional photograph, to fiber-base watercolor papers, to
Be careful with your choice of paper and inkjet. Some ink/paper combinations
will fade within a few months! On the other hand, archival pigmented inks
and a few archival dye-based inks that are now available offer, on the
right paper, a predicted lifespan of over a century. Even if that prediction
is off, the best inkjets will outlast the best traditional color prints,
those made on Fuji Crystal Archive paper.
PRINT TO TRADITIONAL PAPER
You can have a lab "burn" the digital image with precision
colored lasers or LEDs directly to Crystal Archive paper in a special machine.
The Crystal Archive paper then gets processed chemically. The image colors
get painted across the face of the paper, exposing it in a similar way
that your color TV "exposes" the phosphor screen. Brand names
of some of these specialized exposure boxes are the Fuji Frontier, Cymbolic
Sciences LightJet, Durst Lambda, and the ZBE Chromira. If your lab is using
one of these machines to make your prints, you are getting a print on traditional
color photo paper.
The cheapest way that I know of to get prints from slides is to use
a mail-in service located in Colorado. They scan your slide and burn the
file to Crystal Archive paper. The results are as good as you can expect
from a non-custom lab.
The last major digital output possibility is a dye-sublimation print.
Dye-subs look photorealistic and avoid the tendency of inkjet prints to
smear when wet. Dye-subs are limited, however, in the largest print size
and in the papers available. They are also more expensive than inkjet prints.
A photographer who shoots an event and provides prints by the end of the
shindig is probably taking advantage of the speed of dye-sublimation printing.
In terms of color range, print consistency, print sharpness, and longevity
as compared to inkjet prints, there seems to be little consensus.
Self-serve machines that let you print a slide, a negative, or even
copy a print, probably use dye-sublimation. Nothing is faster for getting
a print out, and the results often look great. But with the limited controls
these machines have, a great print is by no means guaranteed.
When using self-service machine, by the way, be sure never to
copy someone else's photo. Copying a wedding shot or portrait that a professional
photographer took is tempting; we often think of them as "our"
photos to do with what we will. But they are almost certainly under copyright
protection, so copying them is illegal. Even if the law doesn't bother
you, an ethical person would not act to take money out of the pocket of
the hardworking pro who took the original photos. They offered you reprints
on their price list; buy your extra copies from them.
WHAT I'M NOT TELLING YOU....
In this Photo Tip I've been restricting myself to relatively inexpensive
techniques for printing slides, techniques that will be of most interest
to most photographers. There are other deluxe methods available that give
superior image quality and phenomenal archival lifespan, but they come
with a hefty price tag. Because of the expense of these processes I haven't
gone into them here.
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