printing from slide?

[DIRT]

i searched this but found little. how exactly do you print from slides? do you use a regular enlarger? i want to shoot some slide stuff but dont know how to print it. thanks

 

[oriecat]

You could put a slide in an enlarger, but of course since the slide is a positive, you would end up with a negative image. You could then contact print that negative back to a positive. Not sure how well that works, I haven't tried it.

 

[DIRT]

but my question is... what is the "normal" way to print slides? is there a special process?

 

[ksmattfish]

As far as the enlarger is concerned, it's a lot like printing a negative, but you need a positive to positive printing process. The one I'm most familiar with is the Ilfochrome (Cibachrome) process. I do all BW, so I don't even know much about that, but one of my photog buddies used to do all of his color work that way. I know it's expensive and highly toxic.

 

[omalley]

You need an internegative, either a film or paper one. I've had interesting results with PolaPan slide film (you'll need a special processor for that type) and making a high-contrast paper internegative. It gives a kind of softy look, so if you want sharply focused you may want to try something else. There are not very many b+w slide films available, and none that you can process using regular negative chemistry. So maybe you are talking about Cibachromes? For those you would need a dichroic head enlarger, processing drum, whole different set of chemicals, process in complete darkness, etc. Is there a certain look you are going for? Maybe there is a way to do it using negative film.

 

[sbalsama]

Surprised no one has mentioned it, but Vivitar and Daylab (I believe?) sell slide printers that utilize Polaroid materials. Granted they're limited in size, though I wonder if you could use traditional printing methods, with Polaroid film under the enlarger instead of paper...I wouldn't know, far too expensive for me

 

[omalley]

Oh, yeah, completely slipped my mind. You can get an 8x10 film holder and load it with (very expensive) polaroid 8x10 and simply expose that under the enlarger. Or you can use a Daylab, but to me they produce too small of prints. And they have color balance problems.