From Negative to Positive

So, now that you know how to make paper negatives, how do you turn them into positives?

1. At the enlarger, open the aperture (lens opening) so that you have a lot of light coming out of the enlarger.

2. Dial your filter to #3 or place a #2-3 filter in the enlarger (flip the door—remember to turn the enlarger off before doing this).

3. Place your negative face down on a fresh piece of photo paper—remember to place the pieces of paper emulsion to emulsion (shiny side to shiny side). Sandwich with glass.

4. Set your timer to 5 seconds.

5. Cover all but a strip of the paper with an opaque object (cardboard). Expose for 5 sec.

6. Move the cardboard so that you are exposing another strip of the paper. Expose for 5 sec. again. Keep this up until the entire sheet has been exposed for a range of time (5–30 sec.)

7. Develop the test strip.

8. Choose a time where your picture looks the best (not too light, not too dark).

9. Place a fresh, bigger piece of photo paper down and expose the entire negative for the time you determined to be the best. Process paper.

10. Evaluate the print to see if you need to adjust the filter. If your print looks too gray, increase the filter to increase the contrast; if your print looks too contrasty, decrease your filter to lower the contrast. We will discuss filters in more detail soon.

Good luck!