MONOCHROME PHOTOGRAPHIC DIAPOSITIVES -
A RETROSPECTIVE
by Harvey W. Yurow Ph. D.

Darlington Statue, Spring Washington, D.C. Kodak Translite Film from a Kodak IR Negative

Vintage diapositive materials are occasionally offered for sale on e-bay or at camera shows. Relevant information from the previous Unblinking Eye article on antique photographic papers is applicable here. While diapositives have a clear advantage over paper prints regarding gradation range, the latter have the benefit in the large variety of surfaces available, e.g., canvas, linen, silk, tapestry, and velour, which are advantageous for reflected viewing. This characteristic translates into greater individuality among the various papers, while most diapositive materials are esthetically interchangeable. Thus, such papers as Dassonville, Gevaluxe, and Kodak Old Master fall into the "legendary" class. This adjective rarely applies to diapositives, an exception being Ilford Alpha Lantern Slide Plates, which are described by Carrell as giving "superb colours, all of the highest transparency". The author would include Kodak Translite Film in this category, an example of which is included in this article.

In the following Table, are listed black-and-white diapositive materials produced from the period 1900 to the present (2007). Motion picture reversal  films are not included, but motion picture positive print films, often used to prepare slides, are given in the Table. In addition to listings in company literature, advertising sources are found in various photographic periodicals including: American Photography (and Annual), British Journal of Photography (and Almanac), The Camera, and Photo Era. In addition, a number of relevant old photographic periodicals are available for viewing on the Internet at book.google.com. Initial diapositives produced were lantern slide plates and transparency plates or films (window or lamp shade display), popular in the 1890's and continuing until the 1930's with the rise of miniature (35mm) slides. These latter in turn lost favor to color slides, beginning in the 1960's.

                                               Diapositive Materials

Manufacturer                  Diapositive                                 Description
   Agfa                        Black-tone Plate                             Pure black
                                  Warm-tone Plate                             Brown to red tones
                                  Matt Transparency Plate                 Warm black
                                  Isolar Lantern Plate                               -
                                  Agfacontour                                    Equidensity image
                                  Transparency Film                           Pure black
Agfa-Ansco                Direct Copy                                    Solarized reversal emulsion
                                   Diapositive Plate                             Speed approx. bromide paper
                                   Fine Grain Superpan Reversible       Reversal process
Agfa-Gevaert              Scala                                               Reversal process
Ansco                         Direct Copy (Memo)                       Reversal process
                                  Minipan                                           Normal to high contrast processing
                                  Safety Positive                                 Normal to high contrast processing
                                  Commercial Ortho                           Normal to high contrast
Barnet                        Warm Tone Plate                            Wide tonal range
                                   Cold Tone Plate                              Cold tone
                                  Lantern Plate                                    Warm black
                                  Gaslight Lantern Plate                       Black to warm black
                                  Verona Lantern Plate                       Warm tone
British Photo               Chess Bromide Lantern Plate           Black
                                  Chess Gaslight Lantern Plate             Brown to red
Cadett                        Lantern Plate                                         -
Carbutt                       Lantern Plate                                          -
                                  "A" Transparency Plate                     For positives
                                  Ground Glass Transparency Plate     Window transparencies
                                  Opal Plates                                      Glossy or matt
Central                       Sepiatone Plate                                Warm tone
Cowen                       Chlorobromide Plate                        Warm tone
Cramer                       Lantern Slide Plate                                  -
Criterion                     Mezzotone Rapid Lantern Plate        Warm tone
                                   Lantern Slide Plate                                  -                                              
Defender/Du Pont       Seed Lantern Slide Plate                  Black tones
                                   Standard Lantern Slide Plate            Black tones
                                   Adlux                                              Translucent film
                                   Duolux                                            Translucent film
                                   Microscopy                                     High contrast
                                   Safety Positive                                 For motion picture positives
                                   Fine Grain Safety Positive                High contrast
Edward's                     Special Plate                                          -
Foma                          Fomapan R100                                Recent addition
Gem                            Lantern Plate                                   Black to warm tone
Gevaert                       Warm Tone Plate                            Bromide
                                    Lantern Slide Plate                         Three contrasts
                                    Lantern Slide Transparency Plate    Three contrasts, warm & cold tone
                                    Opal Plate                                      Translucent glass
                                    Diafilm Opaline                               Translucent film, chlorobromide
                                    Dia-Direct 26 Pan Reversal             Reversal process
                                    Diapositive                                      Bromide, normal and contrast
Grieshaber                   Varieta Plate                                   Warm tone
Griffin                           Gaslyt Plate                                           -
Halifax                          Gaslight Lantern Plate                            -
                                     Rapid Lantern Plate                               -
Ilford                            Alpha Plate                                     Black to red, brown, sepia,
                                    Special Lantern Plate                      Black to warm tone, bromide, 3 contrasts
                                    Warm Black Lantern Plate              Warm black to red-brown, chlorobromide
                                    Gaslight Lantern Plate                      Black to warm tones, chloride
                                    Fine Grain Safety Positive               High Contrast
Illingworth                    Slogas Lantern Plate                       Chloride
                                    Special Black Tone Lantern Plate         -
Imperial                       Gaslight Plate                                   Chloride, black tones
                                    Gaslight Plate                                   Warm tones
                                    Special Lantern Plate                        Black tones
Jahr                              Lantern & Transparency Plate          Black or warm
Kodak                         Permanent Bromide Transparency    For projection printing
                                   Eastman Lantern Slide Plates            Low, normal & high contrasts
                                   Eastman Positive Film 1301             Normal contrast
                                   Eastman Process Film                      High contrast
                                   Velox Transparency Film                 For use with Velox Water Colors
                                   Translite Film 5361                          Translucent film, warm tone
                                   Translite Paper                                 Translucent paper
                                   Transferotype Paper                         Stripping emulsion layer
                                    Lantern Slide                                   Soft, medium, hard
                                    Fine Grain Release Positive 5302     For motion picture positives
                                    Direct Positive Pan 5246                  Reversal process
                                    Safety Positive                                 Printing from continuous tone negatives
                                    High Contrast Safety Positive           Printing from line negatives
                                    Micro-File Safety                             High contrast
                                    High Contrast Copy 5069                Printing from line negatives
                                    B/W Duplicating Film SO-132         Solarized reversal emulsion
                                    Eastman Direct MP Film 5360         Solarized reversal emulsion
Kodak Ltd.                  L.1 Lantern Slide                              Blue-black
                                    L.5 Lantern Slide                              Warm Black
                                    L.10 Lantern Slide                            Warm black
                                    L.15 Lantern Slide                            Warm black
Lumiere                        Lantern & Transparency Plate          Black or warm
Marion                         Lantern Plate                                         -
Mawson                       Lantern Plate                                    Black to brown
                                    Simplex Lantern Plate                       Black to brown
New York Dry Plate    Lantern Plate                                           -
Paget                           Slow Plate                                        Bromide, warm black to red
                                    Gravura                                            Chloride, various tones
                                    Rapid                                               Sixfold speed
Royal                           Standard Lantern Plate                                -
Seed                            Transparency Plate                                      -
                                    Lantern Slide Plate                                      -
                                    Opal Plate                                                  -
Thomas                        Lantern Plate                                    Black to warm tones
Wellington                    Lantern Plate                                    Cold black to sepia             
                                    SCP Lantern Plate                            Cold black to sepia, slow
Wratten & Wainwright  Lantern Plate                                    Bromide

Of particular interest in the Table are films or paper on translucent bases, and include Adlux, Duolux (Defender, Trade Winds), Diafilm Opaline, and Translite. These materials could be viewed by any transmitted light source without the need of a supplementary diffusing medium, as is found in table slide viewers. In this connection, diffusion in Translite Film is supplied by heavily matting the emulsion (Kodak 1956), with a resulting transmission of 60%, comparable to that of ground glass. Similarly, Translite Paper has a base density of only 0.6 as compared to 0.8 for conventional single weight photographic papers (Miller).

Darlington Statue, Winter Washington, D.C. Arista Ortho Litho Film, Thiourea Blue Developer from a Kodak IR Negative

In addition to certain of the films in the above Table designed specifically for reversal processing, a number of negative films have been successfully processed to positives by reversal ( Bowler, Jolly, Ilford 2003, Kodak 1956, 1972, Reckmeyer, Verkinderen). Usually, slower films having finer grain, higher contrast and greater maximum density (Dmax) are best. First development is often with a metol-hydroquinone developer containing a small amount of a silver halide solvent such as potassium thiocyanate or sodium thiosulfate. The purpose is to increase film speed and give clear highlights. Bleaching to remove developed silver occurs with acidified permanganate or dichromate. Remaining silver halide is exposed to light or subjected to chemical fogging with subsequent second development. Insufficient reexposure after permanganate bleach can result in a rereversal effect, leading to decreased shadow density and a "hill-shaped" D log E curve (Verkinderen) - a sort of inverse Sabatier effect (Jolly 1997). An exhaustive review of B & W reversal processing is given by Haist. In this connection, the Internet contains a number of references for reversal of such currently available  films as Kodak T-Max and Kodak HIE Infrared (Dietrich, DR5, Laban). Furthermore, a number of recent films, ASA 25-32, by Adox, EFKE, and Maco/Rollei, may be amenable to reversal processing (Freestyle).

Of considerable theoretical interest are Agfa-Ansco Direct Copy Film, (Arens), Eastman Direct MP Film 5360,  and  Kodak Professional Duplicating Film SO-132, (Kodak 1999), each of  which, after exposure, is developed directly to a positive. These films are originally preexposed to the solarization level by light or by chemical fogging (e.g., arsenite or hydrogen peroxide), so that subsequent exposure removes density (Glafkides, Harmon) by rehalogenation of the initially present silver development centers. Eastman 5360 film has an emulsion that is dyed red, and makes use of the Herschel effect , i.e., second exposure to red light subtracts density (Bacon).

Of special importance in the development of diapositives are the preferred gradient (contrast, gamma) and maximum density recommended for optimum reproduction of the original scene (Lobel and Dubois, Wakefield). When developing a slide one must be aware of the type and intensity of viewing illumination which is to be provided. Nelson indicated that slide transparencies and motion pictures viewed with a dark surround i.e., on a projector screen in a darkened room, with a luminance of 25-100 millilamberts, should have a curve with a gradient of 1.6 in the middle portion, an average gradient of about 1.3, and a Dmax of around 3.2. Slide transparencies viewed with a bright surround i.e., in a well-lit room at 100 foot -candles, on a transparency illuminator, also at 100 foot-candles, should have a curve with a middle portion gradient of 1.1, an average gradient of about 0.9 and a Dmax of approximately 2.0. However,it was observed that with a table viewer, a  denser transparency was found superior to the aforementioned, with 500 foot-candles viewer illumination and 100 foot -candles room illumination. In this connection, Agfa recommended a contrast of 1.4 and a Dmax of 3.0 for Scala 200x reversal film (recently discontinued).

Diapositive emulsions contain silver bromide, silver chlorobromide, or silver chloride, with contrast increase and printing speed decrease following in the same order. Colors produced on processing the latter two types by straight development can vary from cold black to warm red, ( Anon, Brown, Fraprie, Modern Encyclopedia) depending in large part on the size and shape of the reduced silver particles (Baker & Davidson). Milner and Glover have noted that a range of colors can be obtained with a M-Q developer containing: increased potassium bromide, or ammonia, or a "restrainer" of ammonium carbonate and ammonium bromide, without or with thiourea. Because the latter two developers require considerably greater times of exposure and development, a sparse image is produced throughout the emulsion layer, resulting in a noticeably diffuse image (Milner). In this connection, it has been observed that the toe of the characteristic D log E curve with developer containing excess bromide and/or a silver halide solvent, such as ammonium carbonate, becomes more straightened, yielding improved highlight contrast (Miller).The blue image with the last named developer can be changed to green (blue plus yellow) by brief toning with a polysulfide solution, followed by a dilute bisulfite clearing bath.  Formulas of interest are indicated below.

No consideration of diapositives would be complete without a description of coloring methods for an initially black-and -white image (Fraprie, Friedman, Gregory, Kodak 1984, Lockrie, Milner, Neblette, Ryan, Walley, Ward). Considerable impetus has been given to the tinting and toning of diapositives by the motion picture industry (Kodak 1927, Film Archives) , which was also made applicable to lantern slides (Kodak 1924).  Tinting gives an overall color to a slide, while toning changes only the silver image, and both may be used in combination. Early motion picture film stock was often tinted, resulting in a large number of tinting and toning dyes in subsequent years.  With the shift from silent to sound motion pictures , ca 1930, new dyes were required because many of the old dyes strongly absorbed in the infrared and interfered with sound reproduction.

DIAPOSITIVE FORMULAS

Developers

The author has found that ammonium carbonate and ammonium bromide in the above formulas can be substituted by diammonium phosphate and potassium bromide, 20g/100ml and 10g/100ml respectively.

The above formulas work well with lithographic films such as Arista Ortho Litho (Freestyle), to give gamma 2-3 contrast monochrome transparencies, an example of which is included with this article. The author has found that for this film, a 12A + 3B + 1C mixture and 300 seconds development are satisfactory. Litho emulsions contain 60-90% silver chloride and 40 -10% silver bromide (Mueller), resemble fast chlorobromide printing papers, and are amenable to warm tone formation.

Reversal Processing

Tinting and Toning

                                

Kodak T-20 Single Solution Dye Toner Dye g * Acetone 100 cc Potassium ferricyanide 1 g Glacial acetic acid 5 cc Water to make 1000 cc Average toning time 3-9 minutes at 20ºC.

*Dye Color grams/liter Safranine Extra Bluish Red 0.2 Chrysoidine 3R Red 0.2 Auramine Yellow 0.4 Victoria Green Green 0.4 Rhodamine B Magenta 0.4

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