Wet Printing My Grandfathers Negatives

480sparky · Joined: 16 Apr 2013 Posts: 355 Location: Iowa

When my dad's mother passed away in 1983 (his dad died in 1960), I took ownership of all the photos she had saved from before they were married until 1960.

My grandfather was a very avid photographer, and was rarely without a camera. I have over 1400 of his film negatives alone, which I have in the past year sorted, cataloged, digitized and placed in archival storage sleeves. In all, they take up two 3" binders.

Last year, I got back into printing black & white film the old fashioned way.... with chemicals in a darkroom. Well, not a proper darkroom, just my master bath temporarily rearranged. The enlarger I got is capable of holding negatives up to 4x5".

I recently realized I now had the ability to actually make real, genuine 'wet' prints of my grandfathers negatives. Although I have digitized all of them and it would be stupid-easy to email the files off to a lab, I decided to take a different path. Yes, actually put his old negatives into my enlarger and make wet prints.

I started going through all the digitized images, and selected 24 candidates. Mostly, shots of my dad and his four siblings. Most were taken in the 30's and 40's. From those, I narrowed them down to 10.

There was only one problem, however. The vast majority of the negatives are not of a standard, 'modern' size. They are 4� x 5�. Since 5 inches is the maximum for this enlarger, I had no chance to find a carrier for such an antiquated format size.

I did, however, find out that not only is a 4x5 carrier standard, but there were at least two version of a 4x5 carrier that had two thin glass plates in it. Primarily, it was to hold curled film perfectly flat. But I thought, "Hmmmm. I wonder if I could put some of these odd-sized negs in and make some prints?"

So this morning, my phone notified me that the glass carrier I won on ebay last week was 'Out for Delivery'. So down to the local brick-n-mortar camera store to drop a c-note on a box of top-notch paper. When I came home, there was a box at the door. The carrier had been delivered. I was now set to start printing my grandfather's negatives... the same way he did back in the 20's and 30's.

My plan is to take all 10 negatives and make 5 8x10s of each and put them in an album. 10 images, a set for each of his children. Taken by their father, and printed using the same method he used.

I cleaned up the carrier (the glass was filthy!), and just a moment ago I put the first of my selections into the enlarger. After making the proper adjustments, I brought the image into focus.

A shiver actually went down my spine. I was looking back in time. I was peering at my dad, my aunt and three uncles. The shot was taken around 1936 or 1937 by their ages. Even though I had seen the negative before, and even prints that had been made way back then, and even the processed image I created digitally from the negative........ there was just something magical about looking at that reversed image that has survived almost 80 years.

My dad would be the one right smack dab in the middle.

After dark (my 'darkroom' is not so light-tight), I'll pour out the chemicals into the trays, fire up the timers, and pay tribute to a man and a photographer I never had the chance to know.

Stay tuned!

mo · Expire: 2016-07-30

Wow what a great story,thanks so much for sharing, it's like history coming to life again. Very Happy

480sparky · Joined: 16 Apr 2013 Posts: 355 Location: Iowa

First image is complete.

I decided to make 6 of each... so I can have a set.

MartinCrabtree · Joined: 10 Jan 2015 Posts: 121

Great. I'm attempting to save the family's photos. Difficult after poor storage.

Do keep posting please.

fuzzywuzzy · Expire: 2013-11-30

Awesome!

480sparky · Joined: 16 Apr 2013 Posts: 355 Location: Iowa

Second selection:

mo · Expire: 2016-07-30

These are great,do you have any idea of what camera was used?

480sparky · Joined: 16 Apr 2013 Posts: 355 Location: Iowa

While digitizing them, I got to wondering that. I thought if I could find out what it was, I'd make a serious attempt to locate one, working or not, and buy it.

Then, I noticed in one of the negs he was holding something square, with a round part on it. I couldn't tell looking a the smallish negative what it was, but it was certainly the right size for a camera of the era. So I was anxious to see on the computer, once I processed the image, what it was.

What a bummer.

JJB · Joined: 02 Oct 2014 Posts: 424 Location: USA

How wonderful! There are family photos of this vintage of my own relatives. I wonder if the negatives still exist?

I haven't done my own darkroom work since I was a teenager, though.

RSalles · Posted: Fri Feb 13, 2015 6:39 pm Post subject:

Great, a lot of work and a family history preservation task also.
Knowing the dimensions of the negative and the years the image were taken t would be possible to narrow the path to identify the camera.
If I could risk an opinion about the lens... I would bet for a Wollensack or Ektar lens by the way it renders the highlights - very long highlight transition - and the shades open. But it's not that easy, its only a first sight.

It also could be a way of enrich the image rendering to use a old-fashioned lens to enlarge these negs, just looking at it its possible to predict their high density, so, maybe a Kodak Enlarger lens or even a Schneider single-coated would do the job. A focal length to this negative size is probably equal or greater then 135mm, isn't it?

Keep posting the results, a true time capsule, I don't have the same luck as you have,

Cheers,

Renato

poilu · Expire: 2019-08-29

great job, keep sharing!

philslizzy · Joined: 07 Aug 2012 Posts: 4748 Location: Cheshire, England

480sparky · Joined: 16 Apr 2013 Posts: 355 Location: Iowa

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480sparky · Joined: 16 Apr 2013 Posts: 355 Location: Iowa

00000110:

I know this one was taken in Nov, 1944, as soon as the oldest (Back right) was 18 and could join the service.

RSalles · Posted: Sun Feb 15, 2015 2:23 am Post subject:

Nice to see the negatives seems very well preserved,

Renato

dabsond · Joined: 22 Jan 2015 Posts: 37

Truly becoming a lost art form. I am amazed when I look at old negatives. After all the years the information is still there. When I pop a CD of images I burned into my computer and get the disk error message I wonder where we will be in a few years.

480sparky · Joined: 16 Apr 2013 Posts: 355 Location: Iowa

007:

I think this one is about as close to a 'formal' image of the kids there is.

RSalles · Posted: Mon Feb 16, 2015 1:24 am Post subject:

Human made stairs... The photos are coming very very clean, even with the old negatives, that's great. Thanks for sharing, Saw also at APUG yesterday,

Best,

Renato

480sparky · Joined: 16 Apr 2013 Posts: 355 Location: Iowa

My grandmother, on left, with her sisters and parents.

480sparky · Joined: 16 Apr 2013 Posts: 355 Location: Iowa

Very blurry, and underexposed to boot. But it shows my grandmother doing what she loved....... picking up rocks, bottles, driftwood etc. for craft projects at home.

This is probably somewhere in South Dakota or Wyoming in the early 50's.

480sparky · Joined: 16 Apr 2013 Posts: 355 Location: Iowa

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaand.................... No 10.

About the closest I'll see to their wedding photo, if this isn't it. The white spots are reflections of the light.

Their marriage was supposed to be a secret, as my grandmother was still in school, even though she was 19. She had to work so much to help support the family she missed a few years.

So the minister was sworn to secrecy. Problem was, his wife wasn't. Next morning, she spilled the beans to my great-grandfather. Since married girls didn't attend school, my grandmother had to drop out.

I have 1 Jan 1926 as their wedding day. But a trip to the courthouse last Friday has it a 31 Dec 1925. Maybe they said 1 Jan 'coz "That's when Father found out."!

Anyhoo... that's the ten I chose. I originally selected 42, and it was damned hard to narrow it down to these precious few. Tomorrow, I go album shopping so I can get them all packaged up and ready to send out to dad & his siblings.

mo · Expire: 2016-07-30

Well done ,can you show the albums when you find the right ones? just to complete the story for us Very Happy

480sparky · Joined: 16 Apr 2013 Posts: 355 Location: Iowa

Found some archival albums today. The will hold 24 8x10s, so there's room to add more.

I just need to make copies of some birth certificates and registration of marriage and out they go.

PWhite214 · Joined: 19 Apr 2014 Posts: 230 Location: Houston, Texas

What a wonderful boon having the original negatives. I have prints from the 1920's, but the negatives are long gone.

Great work, and thanks for showing us the photos.

Phil

Olivier · Expire: 2015-08-06

Fantastic !
Thank you so much to share your/their story with us. Very Happy