How to Make B/W Slides
Why Black and White Slides?
Black and white slides can be truly beautiful. Their tonal range
greatly exceeds that of prints, and often exceeds that of color slides
as well. You can see the most brilliant highlights side to side to
detail in the deepest shadows, without sacrificing the overall
contrast.
Also, making b/w slides from negatives gives you an alternative to
making proof sheets. While it takes more time, it is easier to judge a
projected transparency than a proof sheet. Moreover, making slides
does not require a darkroom.
The Method
There are two ways to obtain black and white slides:
- Take the photographs on normal b/w film, and then reverse-process
the film.
- Take photographs on normal b/w film, and process it normally.
Then, duplicate the negatives onto high-contrast film, which is also
processed normally, yielding b/w slides.
The first method is preferred when prints are normally not desired.
The second method is used when one already has the negatives, and
wants to make slides of some of them; or when one wants both slides
and high-quality prints. Since I usually want to be able to make
prints from the original negatives, I use the second method. The
method has been taught to me by Ron Speirs, and it can be summarized
as follows:
With a slide duplicator, shoot duplicates of the negatives on Kodak
5302 Fine Grain Positive Release Film, then develop in Kodak D-11.
The Film
Kodak 5302 film is sold in 100 ft rolls, so that you need a bulk
loader to load it in film cassettes. It is very inexpensive: a 100 ft
roll is about $12. Other films that can be developed to a moderately
high contrast would do as well: for example, Technical Pan. I stick to
5302 because it is so inexpensive, it tolerates process variations
fairly well, and because I don't want to begin again testing exposure
and development times for a different film.
The Duplicator
I use a Rokunar 1:1 non-zoom slide duplicator. It is a fixed f/8
duplicator, and the quality is good enough for my taste. This means
that the weakest link of the chain is the quality of my projecting
lens, and not the quality of the slide duplicator. The duplicator
requires a T-mount, that is rather inexpensive. Mail order, one can
get the duplicator and the T-mount for $65 + shipping.
The type of the duplicator is important. The duplicators are normally
designed for slides, not for negative strips. The above 1:1 duplicator
can be used with negative strips; but I don't know whether the same
applies to other brands or to zoom duplicators.
The duplicator comes with a 2"x2" square piece of yellowish diffusing
plastic. This plastic is not ideal since it has a color cast and, more
importantly for black & white, since it does not transmit well blue
light. I suggest that you buy from a glass shop a 2"x2" square piece
of white diffusing glass. This is a much better quality material, and
it will cost you only a few dollars. In my experience, you gain one
stop of light by using good diffusing glass instead of plastic.
With the above duplicator, all you need to do is to get one of those
glassless slide mounts with hinged cover, such that the hinge runs
parallel to the long side of the slide. Then, file the mount so that
you can slip in it a whole negative strip without the mount scratching
it. The mount should still be able to grip the film strip so that it
won't move. Once this is done, it is very simple to position the
slide mount on the negative strip and copy one frame at a time.
Exposing the Film
Kodak 5302 is not very light-sensitive: depending on the blue content
of the light, it is between 1.2 ASA and 0.3 ASA. The film is blue
sensitive, and can be handled under a red safelight (see the
instructions packaged with the film).
I have found that the best way of exposing it consists in shining the
light from a slide projector on the white piece of diffusing plastic
of the duplicator. This is the most intense light source that I have
available in my darkroom. I keep the duplicator about 15 cm from the
projector lens. One must be careful that the light from the projector
illuminates uniformly the piece of white diffusing plastic.
I set the ASA dial of my camera to 50 ASA, and when I read an exposure
time of 1/15, I set the shutter speed to 2 seconds. This is a
starting point (but works fairly well). As usual, you can change this
to obtain particular effects: longer time for a darker slide, shorter
for a lighter slide. The film does not seem to suffer much from
reciprocity failure for these times. I did not find mirror lock-up to
have much effect on the sharpness of the duplicate.
Processing the Film
I develop Kodak 5302 in Agfa Multicontrast Print Developer, diluted
1:4 (the recommended dilution for paper), for 4 minutes at 20C. Other
paper developers, such as Dektol, would probably work fine. During
development, I agitate continuously by means of tank inversions,
taking care of rotating the tank between inversions to improve
homogeneity of development. Then, I follow the usual processing
steps: stop bath, fix (I use two baths of Ilford rapid fixer, for two
minutes and a half each), rinse, hypo clear, final wash.
My advice is to use the developer single-shot (i.e. to discard it
after use). Aside from the fact that it is not expensive, the
continuous agitation hastens developer oxidation. In my experience,
the same developer solution can be used at most twice, at an interval
of time no greater than a few hours.
Acknowledgments
The techniques described above are the synthesis of several
suggestions from Ron Speirs and William Laut, as well as of some
experimentation from my part. I thank very much Ron and William for
their time and patience.
Last Updated: March 1998
@Copyright 1996, 1998 by Luca de Alfaro
Permission to copy, in part or in total, is granted for personal
non-profit purposes only.