Anhanga Brasil Loc: Cabo Frio - Brazil

Would it be possible to use a good digital projector
mounted vertically to process a negative digital image
over a photo paper and work it the conventional ways ?
Thanks.

rmalarz Loc: Tempe, Arizona

My vote would be that it could work.
--Bob

photogeneralist Loc: Lopez Island Washington State

I think that it would expose the photo paper just like an enlarger-- But the print would be low resolution. Seems to me from my understanding of pixels per inch that even if you could find a 4 g or 5 g projector , the projected image would have far less detail and IQ than if you were printing a good negative with an enlarger

Anhanga Brasil Loc: Cabo Frio - Brazil

It could be great to skip the part of unpacking the film roll,
mounting it to the developing frame, mixing chemicals and
shaking... well you got it, right ?
We could use only the trays part of the darkroom AND (!)
adjust each "film frame" to taste...

Anhanga Brasil Loc: Cabo Frio - Brazil

In the case, it would be a 4K projector... is that it ?
One thing that I think would be critical is the heat
of the lamp (as in projector it is supposed to function
horizontally). Enlargers were built to work both vertically
and horizontally.
As I said, I caught myself thinking about it yesterday and did
not give it too much consideration so forth.
Thanks for the input.

BigDale Loc: Seymour CT.

Could you hold the paper vertically? Next how would you accurately time your exposures? The projector lamp my not be designed to be turned on and off repeatedly, it may shorten its life.

Dik

Lens cap?

BebuLamar

This one would do what you want well but of course it's expensive
http://de-vere.com/

nadelewitz Loc: Ithaca NY

Would the brightness of a projector necessitate extremely short exposure times on photo papers? The ability to manipulate exposure is a big part of the process with conventional film enlarging.

burkphoto Loc: High Point, NC

Possible, yes. Economically efficient? Never. Would you like the results? Hell no.

I'm an ex-lab manager who worked in a portrait lab through the transition from film to digital photography. So I know that all the silver halide paper manufacturers evolved their papers to optimize them for short exposure in digital devices such as LED printers, laser printers, light valve printers, etc. In the lab I worked for, we had 40 such devices — various Noritsu mini-labs — in 2008. Each was capable of at least 400, to as many as 600 8x10 inch prints per hour.

While the current silver halide papers will work with old optical printing processes, you wouldn't like the results as much as you would have 25 years ago. Kodak started optimizing their paper for digital printers in the late 1990s.

In any case, using even a 4K digital projector would not provide sufficient resolution to do justice to a digital file. It's optimized for positive image projection, not printing. Control over color would be nearly impossible, since you need to convert a positive image to a negative and add an orange filter to make it look — to the paper — like a color negative. Fog from stray light coming from the fan vents would be another issue. Exposure control? Fuggeddaboudit. At the end of the day, printing from a digital projector would be, in most respects, similar to printing from an enlarger without control over color and exposure.

The finest prints made today are printed from applications like Adobe Lightroom, directly to high-end Canon or Epson inkjet photo printers. Their archival properties are three to five times those of silver halide papers, and their color gamuts (ranges of possible color saturation) are far more appealing, too. Even a 44" Epson is under $6000, is completely stable, and works the first time out of the box, provided you understand color management. (We had three in our lab.) And it works in normal room lighting.

clint f. Loc: Priest Lake Idaho, Spokane Wa

Just curious why you would want to do that?

BebuLamar

The De Vere Enlarger is designed to do just what the OP want. I can't find the price of it though but I think it would be expensive. At 17MP is would make good prints on B&W or RA-4 paper. That's for low volume doing it at home. If you have the volume to do then one of those used Noritsu or Fuji machine that print on RA-4 paper from a digital file would do.

Anhanga Brasil Loc: Cabo Frio - Brazil

I am not saying I will do it. As for vertical hold of the paper... Not my focus.
Exposure time ? Yes, on-off or (see below) "lens cap".

Anhanga Brasil Loc: Cabo Frio - Brazil

Anhanga Brasil Loc: Cabo Frio - Brazil

Cool. Thanks.