Introduction
A panoramic photograph is more than just an image, a carefully composed scene meant to be seen in its full glory, preferably on print. But translating that vision from film to a physical print is an art in itself. Should you go digital for precision and ease, or embrace the darkroom for that unmistakable analogue charm? How do you ensure the perfect balance of detail, tone, and texture?
We will define key steps of printing panoramic art, from preparing your negatives to selecting the ideal paper and scaling up for large-format. Whether you're a purist who loves the darkroom process or a hybrid shooter seeking the best of both worlds, you'll find insights to elevate your prints to gallery-worthy status.
Let’s start with the foundation: your negative. Is it truly ready to be transformed into a masterpiece?
Preparing Your Panoramic Negative: Making a Digital Copy for Print
No mater whether you want to make an darkroom or digital print of your photo, it is always smart to preview the image digitally first. Making a digital copy allows you to judge first whether you think it is worth it printing the image. Focus, colour and framing can easily be checked. There are several ways of digitising you negatives, one way is getting instant digital copies from the lab, second way is scanning them with something like an Epson V850 scanner and the most preferred way nowadays and cheapest, is scanning with a digital camera. Take a high quality picture with your digital camera of your negative and invert it in photoshop to get an instant preview. With this method, you will need to get your digital camera settings right, cause otherwise your digital camera might affect your perception of your negative.
Digital vs. Darkroom Printing: Which One is Right for You?
When you are fortunate enough to own negatives, the most obvious way of making a print is via a darkroom, this will give you the authentic film look, control over contrast, exposure and tonality. You can even decide to enlarge your negative to allow even bigger prints to be made in the future. However, this process is tedious and requires a sufficient amount of practise.
Digital printing, is the more convenient way of getting a print done. Once you got a digital copy of your negative and you polished it up to your liking, in photoshop or Lightroom or any software of your liking, the print will be the same every single time. Digital printing will be giving you to most consistent prints of your negatives. Additionally, you then also have a different variety of print options available to you. You might prefer Giclée or inkjet prints, there are no limitations. However, considering you are shooting film for a reason going the digital route might affect the uniqueness of film photography.
Either process works and in the end it is more about preference than anything else. Digital is fast and affordable in some cases, whilst there are also special techniques that can make it very costly. In the end, the main difference is that digital prints have dpi, while darkroom prints are not limited to dpi but grain and are more true to the negative. Additionally, printing from negatives requires you to have special equipment and a darkroom, but specialist are also available to handle this for you.
Enlarging Panoramic negatives in the Darkroom
Enlarging Hasselblad XPan negatives is a technique I used several times to be able to make extra large prints. For this you will need an enlarger with mask and a darkroom. Which basically comes down to exposing a large piece of film, for example medium format, to the negative that came from the Xpan. The quality is superb, some quality of the original negative will get lost, because you are exposing another type of film with different qualities to your image. In case you shot your original image on 35mm Ilford Delta 100 then it is recommend to enlarge it on a medium format Ilford Delta 100 film. This will result in similar film characteristics as the original shot. In case you used a unique film stock it might be harder to get an enlargement as not every film is available on both formats.
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Start Small: Test Printing Before Going Large
No matter whether you are doing a digital or darkroom print, it is always recommend to do a small test print first. How an image from a screen translates to an image on paper, is something that is hard to imagine. Make a test print to refine contrast, exposure. This also allows you to experiment with your choice of paper.
Each paper has a different texture and each image can become more interesting when printed on the right paper. Especially when printing in large the paper can contribute or ruin specific details. Depending on how you want the image to be perceived, for example grainy, the paper can really add to the perception of the grain.
When making test prints, it isn’t weird to make multiple over time, because when you made some adjustments you might want to see the changes on paper again. Often enough the second test print suffices as test print for the final large print.
Go Big or Go Home: Printing Large-Scale Panoramic Art
There is a reason that people say: go big or go home. Before you print an Hasselblad Xpan image at large there are few things to consider. The Xpan image can only be printed in large when scanned with proper machine or when utilised correctly in the darkroom. As mentioned before, it is easy to get a larger negative of the image, this can then be utilised for higher quality scanning or bigger prints. When you posses such a large negative, there are almost no size limitations anymore. When using the actual Hasselblad Xpan negative, and working with a digital copy, the largest I have printed was 1,2m wide or 4 feet. At this point the lack of sharpness became noticeable. However, this was potentially because of digital camera that was used to digitise the negative.
When you have the space and the right equipment, I recommend going big. However, before you do, what will be the impact of the image in large, perhaps the image is better in small, due to its striking contrast. Will it be good enough as statement piece?
Then, what often is forgotten, the frame. The Hasselblad XPan has a unique ratio, you can’t easily buy off the shelf frames that suit for its images. Therefore it is good to investigate whether you can actually afford the custom frame.
Find Your Ideal Paper: Choosing the Right Medium for Your Art
Personally I am a huge fan of matt fine art paper types, but there are many different types of finishes that you can choose from. Depending on the image, your can choose between glossy or matte paper and anything in between. The type of base colour of the paper. Behind glass, matt, or a finish on top of the print like a resin coated finish.
Each has an effect on how the final image will be perceived. All of this can be tested well before you print your final image. All of these things can be considered if you want to achieve a specific artistic vision.
Next to the finish, it is important to consider the longevity of the options as it affects the archivability. Some papers are better suited for certain environments than others. If this is something that you want to take into account, look into the archival qualities of the papers and finishes.
Certificate of Authenticity: Adding Value to Your Work
Whether you print it for yourself or for others one thing that can be considered it adding a Certificate of Authenticity (COA). This is a piece of paper that allows people to identify your art work as authentic. Often this will come along when it is a limited edition. No matter whether you sell it or not, the certificate of Authenticity allows people at a later stage to identify it as yours. Perhaps you will become a famous artist and then the certificate will be worth it. Normally a certificate of authenticity includes information about the edition number, unique number that can also be found on the print, print size, paper type, artwork, signature and date. The certificate is often printed on a certificate of authenticity paper, which has its own embedding that will make it harder to reproduce.
No matter what you do, a certificate is a nice to have if it remains in your personal collection and definitely worth considering if you sell it to a collector. All the panoramic film prints I have sold over time have a certificate of authenticity as it allows me track the amount of editions I have sold and allows the collector to track it back to me as an artist.
Conclusion
Bringing a panoramic image from film to print is a creative journey that requires both technical precision and artistic vision. Whether you choose the timeless craft of darkroom printing or the flexibility of digital techniques, each step defines the final presentation of the artwork.
By testing small prints before scaling up and considering archival quality, you ensure that your image retains its impact over time. And if you’re printing for collectors, adding a Certificate of Authenticity elevates its value, reinforcing its uniqueness as a piece of art.
Ultimately, the best print is the one that fully realizes your vision. Trust your instincts, experiment with different techniques, and create a panoramic print that does justice to your film photography.