General Description

The two general methods availiable for building negatives are digital and analog.  The Digital Method optically scans an original into bits electronically stored on a computor, manipulates the data by software, and prints a negative with ink on a transparent substrate using a printer.  The digital method is discussed in Chapter 13.  The Analog Method consists of enlarging and exposing by optical means onto photographic film and is the subject of this chapter.

The nature of the platinum/palladium print requires that a contact print be made.  Thus the size of the print is restricted to being the same size as the negative.  To make a larger print, a larger negative must be made.  As always, there are many ways that this can be accomplished.  But, the techniques described here will give unsurpassed, excellent results.  It is most important to consider that the built negative can alter and independently manipulate several tonal ranges producing a final negative that would be impossible to create with camera and film alone.  These negative building techniques were learned from Sal Lopes and used over many years.  Finally, after years of building negatives, I have made some minor refinements.

The basic steps are:

Set up original negative in an enlarger.

Make a positive and a shadow mask.

Make a negative and a highlight mask.

Use the negative and highlight mask to make a print.

A general rule to remember is: NEVER take short-cuts.
Materials like direct duping films that bypass the negative step will NOT give anywhere near the quality of the results of the process described here.  Negative building is a time consuming process, but well worth the results.

This chapter will provide information on equipment and materials needed and detailed instructions on how to make the negative, shadow mask, positive, and highlight mask.  Do NOT assume that one can get results quickly or willy-nilly.  One must make an effort to adhere to these directions.  This is the only negative building process I learned from Sal Lopes and the only process I have used and continue to use.  Only after many years of mastering this process have I suggested some small refinements.

Note: Do not attempt to build large negatives until original negative processing and the matrix described at the beginning of this manual have been mastered.  (A waste of time and materials can be the result.)

Enormous control is achieved through these four pieces of film.  The relationship between the masks and the bases is quite interesting.  The exposure will determine the range of image values to appear on the mask.  These image values start at the darkest for the shadow mask and at the lightest for the highlight mask. The range of values may extend as far as one desires.  However it must be remembered that 2556 film it quite contrasty which means that it has a limited range of total value dynamic range.  If one wishes to produce mask of a large value range, they should consider another less contrasty film for the mask.  [Note:  Try to keep the mask film as thin as possible while maintaining dimensional stability.]

An interesting feature of the masks is that they will increase the discrimination of tonal values.  When each mask increases value discrimination on the positive and the negative, an extremely sharp image is formed.  In fact a built 11x14 negative from a 4x5 can have more apparent sharpness than an original 11x14.  Incredible sharp images can even be produced from 35 mm originals.  This overall sharpness effect only works if both a positive and negative are made.  Do keep in mind though that a smaller original negative will have less information to work with.  There is no way to create more original information.

A common need in platinum/palladium prints is enough detail in shadow areas.  Because of the mat surface of most papers, detail is lost in the shadow areas.  The contrast of the shadow mask can be increased to overemphasize the shadow contrast in the negative resulting in a good normal contrast in the print shadows.

A trick Sal Lopes taught me years ago is that the grain in a image can be made to disappear.  When making the shadow mask an embroidery hoop with a nylon stocking stretched across it is placed in front of the enlarger lens and jiggled during exposure.  Then when the negative is made, a piece of Mylar is placed between the positive and the shadow mask.  These actions offset the masks from the bases just enough so that any image resulting from the grain in the original is canceled and disappears.

Burning and dodging of areas can be achieved which would normally be close to impossible and too tedious.  For example:  The image has a sky with many individual clouds in it and to further complicate the situation tree branches are everywhere.  The problem is that a couple of the clouds in one portion of the print are too light and the contrast of the print is perfect and the sky and branches are perfect.  Simple burning would darken portions of the sky and the upper portions of the branches as well.  The solution is to build a highlight mask which only includes the values of the clouds and higher.  The sky and branches (darker tones) will be blank on the mask.  The clouds which are too bright can have some density removed on the highlight mask with the Potassium Ferricyanide solution.  In the final print all the clouds are consistent and the sky and branches are the same.  Remember that the density of the mask is added to the density of the base requiring larger changes than one might first expect.

A general rule is that any hand work should be applied to only the masks, whereas exposure dodging and burning may be done on any of the films.  One should consider that if a general burn or dodge is needed on a base, it will most likely also be needed on the mask.

There have been instances where multiple shadow or highlight masks are used.  An image has some trees with some very dark areas in which there are a lot of lines.  If only a short exposure mask was made, the zone II and III would be lacking some needed contrast.  If the proper exposure and contrast necessary for the dark line were given, the zone II and III would look unnatural.  So, a proper shadow mask is made to accommodate the zones II and III and a second shadow mask is made with less exposure and high development to only add the line to the print. When using more than one shadow mask the mask controlling the lowest values should be placed on the stack last (and furthest from contact).  And when using more than one highlight mask the mask controlling the highest values should be placed on the stack last (and furthest from contact).  These mask will be further from the printing area and thus less focused, but because they are in the darkest or lightest areas of the image any loss of sharpness should not be as noticeable.
 

By this technique one may control many image characteristics.  Some examples:
 

 reduce the contrast in the mid Zones by lowering the contrast of the positives and negatives

 increase contrast in the dark or light zones by increasing the contrast of the shadow or highlight masks

 lose upper or lower end zones by increasing contrast of the positive and lowering contrast of the negative.  This can take zones II through VIII and make them look like zones I through IX.

+++   GOOD  LUCK   +++

 “Luck is a combination of skill and preparedness.”
                                  (Quote by Edward Weston from his daybooks.)

 
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