O/T: Glass Plate Negatives

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Posted By: Adam J. Baxter

Hi all,
I won a pair of 4x5 glass plate negatives on Ebay this past week. I'd like to make some photos for display from the negatives, but don't have the slightest idea how to go about it? I also don't want to risk damaging the slides. I was hoping someone on the board might have a tip or two for me?

Thanks,

Adam

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Posted By: davidcycleback

You can scan the negatives, reverse the images and print them out on your computer. Most computer picture programs can make the scans positive.

Also, many photo shops can make photos out of them. They're the same as modern photo negatives, except they're glass.

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Posted By: edacra

Did you win something in the SCGaynor auction last week?

I'd be careful and use a top lab that can do museum quality work even at a premium. Many labs send their work out of house, meaning your glasss plate would get tossed in an envelope, with stacks of other envelopes, and get impersonal care when it comes to the print. There are people who specialize in archival prints from all types of negatives, and they handle accounts for museums, and big name artists too.

It might even be a good idea to create a 4x5 negative dupe if you're going to do a buncha prints.

This comes from my experience working with some rock photojournalists. I'm curious to hear what Mr. Cycleback says.

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Posted By: davidcycleback

I know a collector who had an about 20x20" 1880s glass negative made into photos. The only practical problem was many photo labs didn't deal with negatives that large. With the size of these negatives, it should be a problem finding a lab to handle it. It makes sense to ask how the negatives will be handled as the are glass. It's not my suggestion that the negatives be dropped into the photo lab box at Walmart.

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Posted By: edacra

Where ever you go, just make sure to ask what they can do in-house.

Here is one example of an on-site lab that specializes in hand printing:
http://www.mvlabs.com/index.html

They also sell preservation materials.

I scanned a bunch of old vintage negatives myself for a film project on a cheapie Epson flatbed scnner and got really good results, so it does work, hit or miss - the rule of thumb is to scan low contrast - but ideally you should use a pro negative scanner with a dedicated slide/neg tray at a really high resolution. So using a digital lab is another option too.

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Posted By: Adam J. Baxter

Thanks for the advice guys, I really appreciate it.

The two negatives (PCL players Bromley & Prough from Scramento) are from Scott Gaynor's recent auction. They are without a doubt two of nicest baseball images I've ever seen and I consider myself very lucky that I had the winning bids. In the future I'd like to make up some decent prints and then make them available for free to boardmembers and other PCL collectors.

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Posted By: davidcycleback

Glass negatives are necessarilly old, as they quit making them out of glass many years ago. Later ones are on plastic film. Gaynor had a bunch of them, but baseball glass negatives are scarce, especially when depicting MLB, PCL or such.