Marshall's Spot-All for Color

[tgtaylor]

I've been using Marshall's Spot-All for B&W (6 bottles including Sepia) with great success. I would like to duplicate this with Marshall's for color. Anyone using this or possibly another brand that can comment?

Thomas

[Doremus Scudder]

Thomas,

It's not clear what you are asking here; do you want to spot color prints? Colorize B&W prints? Use the B&W spotting fluids on color prints?

At any rate, Marshall's is right up there with the best and have lots of color choices.

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/buy/Shop-by-Brand-Marshall-Retouching/ci/4/phd/4291344813/N/4294255798

My experience was experimenting with colorizing selected areas of B&W prints (long, long ago). The Marshall's water-based colors worked well.

Best,

Doremus

[tgtaylor]

Sorry, forgot to mention: I want to spot color RA-4 prints. There's two that I'm considering: Marshall's and Berg. Does anyone have any experience with either of these kits that they can share?

Thomas

[Drew Wiley]

I think there might be a bit of confusion here. Marshall's purchased the rights to Spotone, a traditional retouching dye for black and white prints. Their previous
legacy was oil colors (pigmented paint) typically thinned for artificially colorizing black and white prints, not for spotting per se. To do that you need color dyes matched to the specific medium. I don't know if something like that still exists in common circles. If you you use paint (even acrylic) it will affect the surface quality of the print. Labs used to airbrush, of course, and then lacquer over that. Kodak used to offer a three-dye set of dye transfer dyes. Even though the dye
transfer process per se has been discontinued, small bottles of these particular dyes can still be found. I personally use a nice little set of water-soluble dry azo
dyes once marketed by Cibachrome, which are probably more permanent than the dyes present in most chromogenic media, but so far have proven a good match for most of my color prints. The idea of dyes is that they penetrate the print, and don't sit on the surface like pigments.

[tgtaylor]

The Marshall's kit for B&W works great. In fact I used it last yesterday evening on a salt print that I printed in the morning. Of the two locations that I spotted yesterday, I can see no trace of the spot today. So I definitely would recommend Marshall's for B&W.

Right now I'm leaning towards the Berg kit for color: http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/4740-REG/Berg_CRK_Retouching_Kit_for_Color.html primarily because it included the primary colors (RGB) and the complimentary (CMY). But has anyone used the above that can comment?

Thomas

[Drew Wiley]

Interesting. But you'd have to look up the CAS numbers to see what dyes actually go into Berg, if they even provide them. Try them out and let us know; but I'd
want to see how some sun testing over time affects the colors.

[Louie Powell]

The objective of spotting is normally to eliminate unwanted local contrast caused by dust or other debris that produces white spots in the final print.

In the case of color prints, white spots can be eliminated using the same spotting dyes that are used in monochrome work. The fact that the color of the dye being applied to the print is a shade of gray is not important as long as the objective is to make a flaw in the form of a white spot less visible.

However, that won't work if your objective is to actually modify the color in large areas. In that instance, you will need to look for some kind of colored dye. Marshall's or Dr. Martin's are probably the best known and most easily found options. As others have said, Spotone is no longer a viable option (and they never made color dyes).

[StoneNYC]

The objective of spotting is normally to eliminate unwanted local contrast caused by dust or other debris that produces white spots in the final print.

In the case of color prints, white spots can be eliminated using the same spotting dyes that are used in monochrome work. The fact that the color of the dye being applied to the print is a shade of gray is not important as long as the objective is to make a flaw in the form of a white spot less visible.

However, that won't work if your objective is to actually modify the color in large areas. In that instance, you will need to look for some kind of colored dye. Marshall's or Dr. Martin's are probably the best known and most easily found options. As others have said, Spotone is no longer a viable option (and they never made color dyes).

I thought someone said Marshalls IS Spotone? Did I misunderstand?

[Drew Wiley]

Spotone once made very popular BLACK AND WHITE retouching dyes. They went out of business to everyone's dismay. But apparently Marshall bought their rights and reissued the very same dyes. I certainly can't tell the difference except for the label. Marshall made photo colorizing products prior to this.

[StoneNYC]

Spotone once made very popular BLACK AND WHITE retouching dyes. They went out of business to everyone's dismay. But apparently Marshall bought their rights and reissued the very same dyes. I certainly can't tell the difference except for the label. Marshall made photo colorizing products prior to this.

So the Marshalls I bought a month ago should match the Spotone I used in school then? Correct? Thanks.

[Drew Wiley]

Yep

[tgtaylor]

Curiously Marshall's kit now contains only 5 bottles instead of the six which it has room for: http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/576029-REG/Marshall_Retouching_MS5BT_Spot_All_Kit_5.html. The sixth slot in my kit contains Sepia. I bought mine from a local source and paid $25 for it.

I'm going with the Berg kit for color - the idea being to match the surrounding color as closely as possible. Last night I spotted a B&W RC print that had been toned in Nelson's gold toner. The spot was in a dark spot on the print and completely disappeared upon application. If it were instead in the toned sky, it would have proved more challenging.

Thomas

[Drew Wiley]

I finally got around to setting up a permanent luxury spotting station. It has a nice padded black leather office chair, a big tilted black board with an adjustable articulating arm lamp overhead containing expensive German CRI color matching 98 tubes. Then all my little dye wells and bottles on board. I found I had to supplement the basic Marshall set with a couple other dye hues which I bought on the side. But I have all kinds of specialty supplies on hand too. The quality of
spotting brushes is important. Go to a good art store for those, not the camera shop. But when I inspect prints afterwards, it is always under multiple light sources
simulating different display conditions.

[John Olsen]

I bought a 14 color set from Retouch Methods for use with RA4 color prints. The company was located in Chatham, NJ, but I don't know if they're still there. A few years ago I had some large color giclees printed on Ilford glossy paper by a local lab. They had trouble with some flecks not adhering to the paper and gave up. Luckily, I found that my 20 year-old bottles of "Retouching Color" still gave me excellent retouching, which saved the day for me. It was fun, easy and made me feel halfway competent even.

[StoneNYC]

Curiously Marshall's kit now contains only 5 bottles instead of the six which it has room for: http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/576029-REG/Marshall_Retouching_MS5BT_Spot_All_Kit_5.html. The sixth slot in my kit contains Sepia. I bought mine from a local source and paid $25 for it.

I'm going with the Berg kit for color - the idea being to match the surrounding color as closely as possible. Last night I spotted a B&W RC print that had been toned in Nelson's gold toner. The spot was in a dark spot on the print and completely disappeared upon application. If it were instead in the toned sky, it would have proved more challenging.

Thomas

Wait sepia-brown is included, is that different than "Sepia"?

[Katherine Gillis]

I'm a traditional retoucher & spotter for B&W and Color film and prints (over 23 years). I've used many different dyes. In 2017 I'm using Marshall's and yes they bought Spotone.

[Jim Michael]

I used to use a set of Kodak dyes. Are those still around?