Information and discussion on all aspects of British photographic history
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These look like the type of negative that would have been stripped in to a plate for printing purposes. From my slightly hazy recollection the film used was thinner than 'normal' photographic cut film. The red tape was used to mask off areas not required for printing. The positives are presumably test prints and printed on to different paper stocks. Someone with a background in pre-digital litho printing may be able to add a more technical explanation.
Thank you Michael. This is very helpful, as it gives me a direction as to where to direct my research. It is entirely possible that they were donated to the archive from a commercial source so it does make sense.
Michael Pritchard said:
These look like the type of negative that would have been stripped in to a plate for printing purposes. From my slightly hazy recollection the film used was thinner than 'normal' photographic cut film. The red tape was used to mask off areas not required for printing. The positives are presumably test prints and printed on to different paper stocks. Someone with a background in pre-digital litho printing may be able to add a more technical explanation.
Seeing the red tape here made me feel quite nostalgic. It was used, as Michael has said, to mask off unwanted areas and while that may not seem sensible for a semi transparent tape, almost all printing house processes used orthographic materials, i.e. they were insensitive to red light. Which is why of course they could be handled in a red safelight. The materials were indeed very thin and very shiny and while they came in standard sizes they were often used in large sheets, cut to fit the particular job. So you are definitely dealing with printing house materials and they changed so quickly, especially in the 1960's and 70's that it may not be possible to identify particular processes..... unless you find a printer as old as me!
I should have said, the graduated scale is just that, a strip of exposed film (or paper) that would be exposed (or copied) along with the job so that the printer could keep an eye on the reproduced tonality. It could be used quickly with a densitometer to check the exposure. Kodak produced paper ones, which a photographer would use along with the more familiar colour strip beside a painting in colour transparencies.
Thank you, all and any help is much appreciated here. The items are currently listed in the database that is searchable by the general public as just 'photographic negatives' I'd like to add more detail to this entry to highlight the difference from an in camera neg for those using the database online. Do you have any suggestions as to naming the items - so far not much is springing to mind- Photolithography sheet negative- seems to be the only one I can think of??
Dr. Joe Rock said:
I should have said, the graduated scale is just that, a strip of exposed film (or paper) that would be exposed (or copied) along with the job so that the printer could keep an eye on the reproduced tonality. It could be used quickly with a densitometer to check the exposure. Kodak produced paper ones, which a photographer would use along with the more familiar colour strip beside a painting in colour transparencies.
'Lithographic negative' would be fine.
Centre for British Photography
Victoria and Albert Museum's photography collection
National Science and Media Museum
RPS Journal 1853-2012 online and searchable
Photographic History Research Centre, Leicester
Birkbeck History and Theory of Photography Research Centre
William Henry Fox Talbot Catalogue Raisonné
British Photography. The Hyman Collection
The Press Photo History Project Mapping the photo agencies and photographers of Fleet Street and the UK
The correspondence of William Henry Fox Talbot
Historic England Archive
UAL Photography and Photography and the Archive Research Centre
Royal Photographic Society's Historical Group
www.londonstereo.com London Stereoscopic Company / T. R. Williams
www.earlyphotography.co.uk British camera makers and companies
Fox Talbot Museum, Lacock.
National Portrait Gallery, London
http://www.freewebs.com/jb3d/
Alfred Seaman and the Photographic Convention
Frederick Scott Archer
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