Peter
another method that I have experienced is to shoot scala , try to keep the lighting ratio on the flat side and use drop process to flatten the scala trans, then print with ciba chrome paper, which has three contrasts. The resulting prints are black and white with a very high ciba gloss, as well the printer can slightly adjust the colour filtration to produce any myrid of colour tones.
Peter.
Just for technical and historical information, I think that there was, in the Kodak catalogue, a B&W reversal paper named Kodaprove, used to make reading proofs from colour slides in the good old days of analog printing and analog graphic arts techniques. 25 years ago I asked one of the parisian photo dealers about this paper, and he was definitely negative ;-) about the interest of this paper for doing decent prints except for pre-print proofs. quoting from memory : 'Oh là là, vous voudriez utiliser ce papier Kodaprove, non vraiment ce n'est pas chouette je vous déconseille'. May be the dealer was reluctant to order 25 sheets of Kodaprove for a student who wanted only to experiment ;-);-)
So I never even touched Kodaprove paper, to my geat regret it is only a legend of the past ;-);-)
There was another special Kodak paper not to be confused with Kodaprove, named : Panalure. This was a panchromatic paper used for printing colour negatives on a B&W support by conventional methods. I used this paper as a student in pratical optical courses on lasers and interferences, this paper was actualy a cheap and easy recording medium for red laser light ; @632 nm (He-Ne), no conventional B&W paper exhibits any tiny bit of sensitivity, but Panalure did.
As far the reversal process is concerned. The Kodak kit for T-max is special in a sense that it does not need re-exposure like in the conventional B&W reversal process.
Tetenal used to supply a B&W reversal kit but the bleaching bath was based on concentrated potassium bichromate (in sulphuric acid solution) ; this chemical is definitely banned by health & safety regulations. A substitute exists under the form of potassium permanganate (also in diluted sulphuric acid solution). Foma (in the Czech Republic) does supply a ready-to-use permanganate-based reversal kit for their Foma 100R B&W reversal film (those products are easy to find from German Foto dealers ), unfortunately for MF/LF aficionados it is available in 135 format only. The recipe for reversal with re-exposure is also explained on the Ilford and Maco web sites ; I'm quite sure that mailing to Ilford about this you would get an answer on how to adapt the permanganate-based reversal process for film to to silver halide papers.
I think David Wood may have mentioned somewhere that he was working on a B&W reversal print process for printing from B&W dr5 transparencies, but I'm not sure he's planning to share the details.
Dear Bob,
you lost me in a first sentence of your second message.
Shoot scala, what it means? Do you know any website I can look at the technique you are describing?
Keeping lightning ratio on flat size ... hmm
flatten the scala trans... another hmm
Look kinda interesting technique I would like to know more aboput it...
Dear Emanuel,
what a great information, sometimes I think the world is going not by quality but by the price and few of us are loosing opportunity to go for perfection.
Originaly I am from Slovakia, I live in Canada and FOMA? I grew up with Foma. Futrthermore, I will try to contact Ilford to get som information about it and the result will be posted here.
David,
do you have David Wood e-mail? It might be interesting to contact him directly or ask him to contribute little bit about it.
Fellas, Thanks for responses, Still, anything new about BW direct to print would be appreciated by everybody here.
Peter - you can contact David Wood through http://www.dr5.com/
Bob and Ralph,
especially Ralph, by giving me dr5 website, I have had a chance to review dr5 process.
Doeas anybody know the full dr5 process?
Bob, it is a good alternative to shoot with scala and print it on ilfochrome, but it requires a film which I am trying to avoid for this project. But definitely it was worth to know this option too.
Thanks. Still if anybody have any experience he would like to share, here is your chance...
Hi Peter
Scala is an agfa direct positive film, Toronto Image Works can help you with the technique I suggested, if you are in the States I believe Duggal has a Scala Processor.
For Cibachrome if the trans has a high contrast or high lighting ratio or large difference in transmission between black and white in the scene, there is a possibility in what I call cross curve where the highlights take on one colour ie magenta and the shawdows take on the complimentary colour green , this can show up as red / cyan yellow / blue.
This cross curve was a problem for technicians years ago making good quality internegatives from slides for RA4 printing, there were three main methods of correcting this Density Difference Method, Curve plotting method, and a computer software program that would help guide the technician. At the end we would expose a transparancy that had a graduated grey background onto the interneg material , the transparancy was lit white to black in a continuous bandWhen printed to grey the cross curve would be evident and we would eyeball the final correction and start producing interngs. ( I know this is too much detail info , that should go in one ear and out the other)
If your original Scala transparancie is flat or low lighting ratio 1:1 1:2 the cross curve effect is less.
This inbalance has always been present and is extremely hard to get rid of. therefore the low contrast original is helpful.
Would be interested to see with images how you make out with your endevours
good luck
Peter, dr5 is a proprietary process that David Wood developed on his own to be able to produce positive B&W transparencies directly from various standard B&W films. As such, only David knows the details, and processing is only available through the dr5 lab, as far as I know. I have done some work with dr5, and personally find it more pleasing than Scala - better tonality and wider range. Plus, you have the option of sepia/gold tone or neutral, depending on which of the two dr5 processes you select. I have not, however, had any Ilfochrome prints made from dr5 transparencies, so I'm not sure whether Ilfochrome is able to capture all of the nuance present in the film, nor whether such prints suffer from the same cross-contrast problem Bob describes.
David strikes me as having an inquisitive mind, so he might well be interested in working with you on your direct-print project for the B&W side. I'd suggest sending him an e-mail, and see what thoughts he might offer.
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