 BetterPhoto Member |
Slides vs. Prints I generally use print (negative) film because it's much easier to display and get enlarged. (I usually get 1-3 enlargements from a roll, if I was having a good day; the rest of the prints I put in a box). But I'm wondering if it makes more sense to use slide film and get enlargements from that? Is it much more expensive to have enlargements made from slides than from prints, and is the image quality better or worse? Does the store have to make a negative from the slide before enlarging it, or can they print the slide direct to paper? I would prefer to display my photos on a wall - I don't want to fool with a slide projector on a regular basis.
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John A. Lind |
Most gallery and magazine fine art photographers (Nat'l Geographic) use the slower speed "slide" films because of its color rendition and very fine grain. Favorites include Fuji Velvia and Provia, and the classic is Kodachrome. The reason is the dramatic color and contrast these films have when printed. You can get prints made from slides, but typically this must be done by a professional imaging house. It *will* be more expensive than prints from negatives. There are three methods used: (1) The best is the direct print from the slide. The print paper is completely different. It must be a positive paper to make a print from a positive (the slide) and the chemistry for developing the print is different from negative papers. This method requires special print processing equipment but makes the sharpest prints. One of the best print papers for this is known in the trade as "Cibachrome" (or "Ciba"), the old name for it. Owned now by Ilford, the name was changed recently to "Ilfochrome." It's the same thing. Gallery prints are often a special archival "Ciba" that can withstand continuous lighting in a gallery without fading. Both Kodak and Fuji have very good "R-4" positive print papers also used for direct prints. (2) The less expensive method is making an "internegative" from the slide and using that to make prints on conventional negative paper which can be processed as with any print from a color negative. The "internegative" is a special commercial negative film color balanced for copying slides onto negatives and typically has a low archival life as it is intended to be used only at the time of printing and disposed of. A print is actually a photograph of the film itself. With the internegative, you are making a photograph of the original, then making another for the print. This is the same problem as making copies of copies of copies on a copy machine. You lose a bit of resolution with each step. (3) A newer method being used now is a super high resolution drum scan of the transparency, and then a digital print made from the scan. This method is least desirable as digital prints still lack the archival life you can get with conventional enlarging on archival paper. Even with the highest resolution scans you are still limited to about 8x10 at the most and that is pushing it a little. You may get acceptable resolution for a smaller print, but you won't get nearly the resolution of the original slide.
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