My most technical RA4 print yet

[SeanEsopenko]

The above is a scan of an 8x10 proof I finished yesterday. I spent a lot of time preparing this image for enlargement in the darkroom, more than the usual time I put in. Carefully made CR mask, careful dodging, careful exposure, reduced development time of the negative, 10 minutes dusting the carrier and the two emulsions for the print...

I'll shoot some 6x7 and 35mm film, enlarge it in the darkroom and get frustrated with the tight tones of straight RA4 prints. Then I'll spend some time on a 4x5 shot, masking it off and be reminded this was why I set up the darkroom in the first place. I have a hard time getting scans to "glow" from behind like this print does. Plus the RA4 paper is so sharp you can make out every shingle on the roof and almost every blade of grass in the print. Fun stuff

[chassis]

Good job, looks great!

[LF_rookie_to_be]

Sean, could you provide more details on the process of making a CR mask?

[SeanEsopenko]

You basically contact print one negative against another, develop the newly printed negative then register it against the original in a sandwich and print the two together on to your paper. I use a pin registration system from Lynn Radeka for the registration which saves a LOT of time.

In the dark I have my colour negative ready next to the registered 2 hole punch and the contact printer/registration system. I punch a 5x7 Ilford FP4 100 negative then contact print the 4x5 colour negative against it. The contrast is normally so high when printing on fuji crystal archive the exposure and development time isn't a huge deal for initial proofs because any contrast reduction mask is better than no mask. However, if I'm needing a bit of tweaking I'll bracket 3 masks at different exposure times.

After a bit I learned I have to carefully adjust my colour head's colour wheels when making the CR mask otherwise I end up with strange curves in the different colour channels, most often resulting in magenta shadows and cyan hilights. You can see the hint of this happening in the print above. I still haven't nailed down the balancing of a CR mask yet.

I'll usually prepare masks for 3-4 negatives in the dark then develop them all at once to save time. When it comes time to print to paper I trim the excess film base off the 5x7 negatives, layer them together and spend about 5-10 minutes carefully dusting all the layers of glass and film. Then print.

Here's a video where I briefly go over the benefits of the Lynn Radeka's masking system when printing colour negatives.