John A. Lind |
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Linda, There used to be two and now there are three basic methods for making prints from transparencies (slides). (1) Digital:
Professional labs have special print machines that can make temporary very high resolution scans of the slides and output the scan to traditional color negative print material (C prints). Typically this is the least expensive method. The downside is it limits of how large a print can be made compared to the other two methods, and using color negative print materials will make the resulting image look more subdued compared to viewing the slide projected or on a light table. I don't recommend this for "display" prints. (2) Internegative:
The slide is photographed using special color negative film to create an internegative and that is printed using traditional color negative materials (C prints). Unfortunately, the films typically used for this are intended to be temporary, not permanent, although a pro lab can make a special negative "dupe" for you. My experience has been this method, if done well, produces colors more like the slide compared to the scanning printers, but still not completely up to the slide. Often, the internegative is 35mm film. The additional downside is the print is a copy of a copy of the slide and some image degradation occurs, especially in sharpness. There is always risk that the lens focusing is not done very, very carefully when making the internegative and degradation of sharpness can increase considerably. Consumer labs are typically a little sloppy when making internegatives. This can be mitigated at considerably higher cost by having a 4x5 internegative made and then having that printed (not all pro labs can do this either). Even if a negative dupe is made that has greater permanence, it won't have the permanence of the original slide. Color negative material only has about 1/3rd to 1/5th the permanence of transparency, depending on negative and transparency materials. Fuji and Kodak transparency films have the highest archival permanence of any film materials made, and Kodachrome beats out anything else by numbers of decades (in reasonable dark storage). (3) Direct Printing:
Fuji, Kodak and Ilford make reversal print materials specifically for direct printing of transparencies. I highly recommend this method for "display" prints. It is the most expensive, but it can yield the most dramatic and highest quality prints. The transparencies are printed to these materials just as printing color negatives except the print material is processed "reversal" just as transparency films are. Fuji "R" supergloss is an excellent material and has high permanence for continuous display. It is is the "Lincoln Continental" of print materials, and has a unique, somewhat metallic glow to it. The "Rolls Royce" of print materials is Ilford's Ilfochrome Classic super gloss. It used to be called Cibachrome. This is the stuff used for fine art and museum grade prints from transparency. There is nothing else like it and it has a unique metallic sheen that's more subtle than Fuji R. It is also the only color print material that has permanence for display equal to the original transparencies. Properly printed, a "Ciba" of a good slide looks "alive" but it is substantially the most expensive too. Due to their cost and very unique (more complex) processing chemistry, I know of only about a half-dozen labs that print them. The least expensive Fuji "R" prints I know of are done by The Slide Printer in Colorado. These are quite acceptable for something you want to hang on your wall at home or at work. For fine art gallery prints, Ilfochrome is the standard by which everything else is measured. -- John
August 07, 2002
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