PGHphoto Loc: Pittsburgh, PA

When I did darkroom work, I often processed and printed from transparencies or slides. Because of the expense of large scale, high quality, digital prints at the commercial labs (when larger than poster) I am thinking of trying to use a high definition digital projector instead of an enlarger to do the exposure and do the darkroom processing of the large print. The size of the enlarger needed is also a consideration since I am able to get a wider spread at shorter distance with a projector. Using the projector would allow post processing to be used and a final product delivered with much higher effectiveness rather than burning/dodging and spot color corrections during paper exposure. Since in PP software, it is also often possible to flip the color to negative, should probably also be able to print on regular paper for printing negatives.

Not sure of a couple of things though - color balance of the projector using various high intensity bulbs and color calibration for the photopapers. I think I could set up a color profile in lightroom and refine it with trial and error but still don't remember enough about the paper requiring a specific K value.

Has anyone tried to use a projector to replace an enlarger in the darkroom ?

DTran

A 4K projector is quite expensive and that's only 8MP barely good enough for an 8x10 print besides how did you print your slides? Direct positive materials have not been available for quite sometime now. The sharpness of a digital projector isn't anywhere near that of an enlarger. If you want to go that route that is printing using light sensitive material from a digital file yourself your best bet is a De Vere enlarger with the LCD but very expensive.
For practical use what's wrong with a good inkjet printer?

lamiaceae Loc: San Luis Obispo County, CA

Quick answer, No. I own two 4x5" enlargers from the film days, and once worked with 8x10" film (contact printed that). I have not seen a projector (slide or digital) that comes close to the resolution of an enlarger! Yikes, I have not used my Kodak Slide projector in probably 20 years! Just photograph your slides with a digital camera and you can go from there. Not sure I even understand what you are proposing? You mean to make old school C-Prints or R-Prints on light sensitive paper? I believe Cibachrome materials are long gone, and conventional color prints were always pretty much crap. B&W printing on Silver paper is a very different animal, and I'd like to try that from a Digital capture to B&W conversion to a Silver print. But for color, short of some expensive exotic commercial process, there is nothing wrong with a high quality Ink Jet Print!

PGHphoto Loc: Pittsburgh, PA

Hadn't checked on the chemistry yet, hmm maybe the idea is dead in the water from the start. The idea was to do large scale prints without a large scale (where the small side is over 32 inches) printer costing $3,000 to $5,000. The newest 8k projectors seem to be high enough resolution to match the old Bogen enlarger I used to have - but again, I have not done the empirical research that would be needed to actually make a decision.

Thanks for the input.

PGHphoto Loc: Pittsburgh, PA

Thanks for the input - was looking to do very large scale prints and those inkjet printers are in the thousands of dollars. I have access to some 4k projectors (and very soon an 8k) used in theatrical presentations so the cost would be pretty much 0 for the projector. I am sure the DeVere is way out of my price range but will take a look at the technology. Appreciate it.

DTran

Well I still think the large format inkjet printer is your best bet. Printing large using photo sensitive material isn't easy especially color. How do you process the print? Trough? I have never attempted anything larger than 16x20". However, what if you use a 13x19" inkjet printer which is reasonable in price and glue them together? With digital it's easy to print a section of an image.

burkphoto Loc: High Point, NC

Take it from a guy who lived through the digital revolution in a professional color lab environment... That is an idea that won't go anywhere.

The finest large format print output available today comes from high-end inkjet printers made by Epson and Canon. That's been true since the early 2000s. The prints last five times longer than conventional silver halide-based prints, and the use of many different ink colors creates a MUCH wider color gamut than traditional photo paper.

In 2003, we had 12 different devices in our lab that made various sizes of large prints. Ten of those were fixed size, automated optical printers with roll paper carriages. One was a 4x5 enlarger, the other a 10x10 enlarger (circa 1943!). It took two guys half a day to keep them in control, clean, and loaded.

At the same time, we had installed nine Kodak Bremson HR500 film scanners, so we could scan film at very high resolutions. Over 90% of our work was smaller than 12x18 inches, so it could run on a Noritsu mini-lab, but we needed the capability to make any custom size up to 60x40 inches. So when I saw a 60x40 portrait of actress Jodie Foster at the PMAI show in Las Vegas that year, I immediately dragged my boss to the Epson Booth to see it. A copy of the same print had sold for $30,000! It was a work of art. My boss took one look at the print, looked at me, and said, "Fill out the paperwork when we get back to Charlotte!" To make a long story short, we replaced all the optical printers with one Epson. It required NO calibration, NO daily setup, and was so stable we could reprint the same image six months later and NEVER tell the difference between the first print and the second.

LARGE prints are the only ones that made economic sense for us to produce on the Epsons (we eventually had several of them). The output is much costlier than silver halide, BUT, photographers (and labs) can sell a large print for much more than they sell an 8x10, so it doesn't matter. And the archival permanence and wider color gamut are worth the cost, if you ask most pros. These printers are used by high-end photographers, high-end service bureaus such as Nash Editions, and high-end art museums that sell limited edition prints of exhibiting artists' work.

The workflow for high end printing is pretty simple. You need a high end computer with a really good monitor, an ICC color profiling and calibration kit to make the monitor honest, software like Photoshop and Lightroom, an Epson or Canon pigmented inkjet printer, and a source for inks and specialty photographic inkjet papers. With proper training, you can make museum quality prints that are better than the finest conventional (wet process) labs could ever hope to produce, and you can do it in a spare bedroom.

PGHphoto Loc: Pittsburgh, PA

Thanks to you and all that responded. Glad I asked before trying !

wj cody Loc: springfield illinois

no - i use a zone VI enlarger for my 5x7 negatives and a beseler 23cII for all other formats.