Question:
If I want to make enlargements say 11×14 or even 20×30, is slide better or negative better? — Raymond Chi
Response:
That’s a loaded question. It depends on the method used to create the enlargement. *Generally* and technically, it is easier and more efficient for labs to produce prints from negatives. The methods used to create prints from slides varies a great deal, and that affects the quality of the print. Some labs use the cheap-shot method of creating internegatives and printing from those. By nature, you are *guaranteed* to lose sharpness and quality. Sometimes you might get satisfactory results, but consider the nitty gritty technical compromises: a slide is typically photographed in its cardboard or plastic slide mount. Inherently, all slide material buckles or bows in standard slide mounts. Right there is a red flag. Even with the best quality optics on the copy camera, you are still introducting another layer of image media. You are always going to lose some sharpness and resolution. Another method is to use reversal color paper and avoid using the internegative process. IMHO, Ilfochrome (formerly Cibachrome) offers *excellent* results. The process is very easy to do even in a home darkroom. Despite how efficient and easy it is to get great results, labs often charge an arm and a leg for Cibachrome/Ilfochrome prints because these are typically true custom prints. I don’t know if Kodak still makes it, but they also have a color reversal paper for making prints form slides, but I haven’t heard much of this product lately. Bottom Line: If you’re willing to pay for it, you can get excellent results from slide to print, *but* if you are going to a lab that’s going to create internegatives anyway, then you will get superior results from your original color negative film.
Response:
: If I want to make enlargements say 11×14 or even 20×30, is slide : better or negative better? Negs are *for* enlarging, all attempts to print chromes are basically just that, attempts. Chromes are for scanning or other photomechanical systems, and are also for making dupes for projection, but were never intended for printing. Regards, - dr
Response:
If I want to make enlargements say 11×14 or even 20×30, is slide better or negative better?
Others have contributed to this thread, but here’s my $0.02: If color balance is important, you may be better off using slides. I have converted to slides for all my "good" photos, because the lab never knows exactly how the color balance of that special light was unless they have a reference. All color negs have to be color corrected in copying, and only the slide film will give the correct color balance. I’ve had a few prints going back and forth between me and the lab, and it’s a bit frustrating for both parties when I say like "no, a little bit cooler, but not that greenish…" and they don’t really know what I want. — St
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