[LargeFormat] 11x14 paper negative

[Guy Glorieux]

I've finally got to the testing stages of my refurbished 11x14 Century
Field camera and did the testing with paper negatives.

First, anybody who talks about 11x14 "field" must be nuts.  The weight
of the camera plus holders and a heavyduty tripod requires a truck to
carry it all around...  Maybe the Wisner is more lightweight but it sure
is heavy on the wallet (US 4,400 at B&H...!).

I've tested the camera inside with artificial ligh using my 1920's
Dalmeyer Adon telephoto lens and was amazed that it would cover pretty
well all the screen with just a touch of vignetting in the corners.  I
really have no idea what focal lenght this lens has, particularly since
it is a "zoom" telephoto.  Perhaps someone can help here.  The distance
between the lens and film plate was about 20'' and the distance between
the lens and main subject was 18 feet.  The negative image was about
1/3,8 scale.

The scene (a streetwindow mannequin which I have at home) was lit with
artificial light and the meter (at ISO 3) indicated 30 minutes at f64
(which was my lens opening).  I made 3 11x14 negatives: 2 on Luminos
Charcoal fiber, which is a low contrast paper and 1 on Forte cold tone
fiber.  They all have a silver chlorobromide emulsion and I processed
the 3 prints in Lith developer (diluted 10+1).  Exposure compensation
for Lith processing in such highly dilute developer (a process called
"Lith printing" - see book by Tim Rudman) is in the range of + 3 full
stops.  This meant really long exposure times.  Reciprocity failure
plays havock here and it was just pure guess work to determine how long
I should expose the paper.

In the end, I made a 2hr and a 3 hr exposure with the Luminos papers and
a 2 1/2 hr exposure on the Forte paper.

Whaoooo!  Did I get interesting results.  The first sheet of Luminos at
2hr exposure was quite a bit underexposed, but I managed to get the
essense of the mannequin outline.  I did go far beyond acceptable
development times and the emulsion began to react so the there is some
unwanted greying of the whole image.  Still, after selenium toning the
image, it's beautiful!

The second Luminos paper negative was much better.  It did not show the
traditional reaction of Lith printing with the rush in infectious
development in the last couple of minutes of development.  However,
because it is a low contrast paper, I got a very nice printable
negative.  With all the structure of the fiber in the paper, I should
get a beautiful positive.  But, as is, the negative in itself could
stand as the finished work, especially after selenium toning.

The third paper negative was made with Forte and looks great also but
exposure could have been longer.  Selenium toning makes it look like a
finished print with somewhat surreal beauty.  It is much more contrasty
than the Forte negative and I should probably have used a yellow filter
on the lens.

So, the bottom line is that I got myself a nice source of experiments
for the next little while.  Spring is finally coming around and I may
venture outside with the camera on quiet sunny days.  I still need to do
some fixing on the camera.  I'd like to have a faster lens to play with,
one that also gives me a bit of room to do rise and fall (that's all the
camera allows me to do in the front plus some moderate tilt in the
back).  But 11x14 lenses are pricy and I wouldn't know what to look for
and where to start from...

Guy