Making a Pinhole Positive
- These steps will help you make a POSITIVE out of your pinhole NEGATIVE.
- You will need a good pinhole negative and your photo paper.
Set the Height and Focus
- Turn on the enlarger by pressing the FOCUS button on the timer.
- Move the red safety filter out so you can see the light clearly.
- Lay your negative under the light. You should not have any other photo paper out at this point.
- Adjust the HEIGHT of the enlarger so the area of light is a little bigger than the negative.
- Adjust the FOCUS so the edges of the light are crisp all the way around.
- Sometimes you have to go back and forth between the height and focus to get them both adjusted correctly.
Set the Aperture and Time
- Set the APERTURE to 3.5 (the brightest setting).
- Set the TIMER to 5 seconds (5.0).
- Also, make sure the CONTRAST FILTERS are turned off (on the Beseler) or not inserted (on the Omega).
Make the Test Strip
- Place the red SAFETY FILTER under the lens and take out one piece of 4x5 photo paper.
- Place the new piece of paper shiny side up under the light and the negative face down on top.
- Place a clean piece of glass on top of the papers and a piece of cardboard to cover everything except for about an inch of the papers.
- Press the FOCUS button on the timer to turn off the light.
- Move the safety filter out from under the lens.
- Press the RUN button to make the first exposure.
- Move the cardboard over to expose another inch of the papers and press RUN again.
- Continue making 5 second exposures all the way down including one with no cardboard covering any of the paper. You should be able to do 4-6 exposures, each about an inch wide.
Develop!
- Develop the newly exposed piece of paper for the same times as when you developed the negative.
- Test strips do not have to wash for a full 5 minutes, but at least put it in the washer for a few seconds to wash off some of the Fixer and squeegee it.
- You will then have a positive image that will have multiple exposures to determine the best time for your image.
Make the Final Positive
- Once the best time has been determined you will make the final positive.
- Set up for the exposure with a new piece of 4x5 photo paper, setting everything up the same way, but without the cardboard.
- Do the exposure for the determined time with no cardboard and develop.