It is much more
economical both in time and in chemicals to process one 8" x 10"
piece of Cibachrome than four 4" x 5"`s, so if you have several
4" x 5"`s to do it makes sense to do them on the larger sizes.
We use a Paterson Orbiter for most of our processing and a home made
masking-frame to do our 4" x 5" pictures, either from one slide or
from separate slides. It
consists of a hardboard frame with four doors.
each door is numbered and painted white on the top so that the
picture can be arranged and focused on it and then removed for exposure.
To make the
fame you will need two pieces of hardboard 12" x 10".
The first piece is the base and this should be rough side up.
The second piece must be cut as follows:
Two long strips 12" x 1" and two short strips 8" x
1", this leaves a piece 8" x 10" which must be cut in half
both ways giving four 4" x 5" pieces.
Stick the two long pieces along the long edges of the base and the
two smaller strips along the short edges forming a frame, not forgetting to
leave a small gap in one edge for a finger hole so that the paper may be
removed more easily in the dark. To
make sure your paper fits snugly into the 8" x 10" space in the
middle, use an old piece of Cibachrome as a pattern but leave a cardboard
thickness gap on each side as otherwise the paper will be difficult to
remove after the exposure.
Glue a button
on to each door and fit them into the space so that they fit together nicely
in the middle and then attach each door to the long strip on the edges of
the frame with insulation tape to form a hinge.
Arrange your slides for printing before placing the Cibachrome paper
into the frame and with the first one in the enlarger and all lined up with
the edge of the door No.1 and focused, in the dark fit the cibachrome paper
into the frame and close all doors. If
you make test prints to find the correct exposure, use your usual method and
make the first exposure. Then
you can replace the door and use the enlarger light to change the slide and
continue to the next door for the second exposure and so on. Then the whole sheet can be processed at one time.