John H. Henderson
2-Feb-2001, 10:54
Last weekend, I ventured into color processing (C-41) and printing (RA-4) using my Jobo CPE-2.
If it's been a long time since that first thrill you got the first time you watc h a B&W image appear in the developer tray, try color printing with room tempera ture RA-4. It's a blast to see that first color iamge some out! I have to spil l the beans - it's not the witchcraft that some people lead you to believe. And I did not need to spend $300 on a used dichroic head. I used a $30 set of colo r filters in the filter tray. You spend so much time in the chemicals, exposing , focussing, etc., the time spent changing filters is not significant.
Anyway, my questions focus on 4x5 C-41 process. I used Tetenal's C-41 kit (firs t time buyer gets half price). I had my temp as dead-on as I could, and followe d the included instructions - 3:15 in the developer, etc. I used the chemicals one shot in the 2500 series drum with one 4x5 reel, no more than 4 sheets loade d at a time.
So I get out color negatives. Yay! But the unexposed background (the "mask" I guess) is darker than with my plethora of professionally-processed 35mm negative s. They also don't have the contrast of the 35mm negatives, but they might just appear that way because the mask is so dark. The film was Kodak Pro 100 and Po rtra 160.
The negatives seemed to print OK. The prints didn't seem lacking in contrast, a nd I don't think I made drastic changes to the filter pack after printing some 3 5mm negs.
So, do the 4x5 emulsions just have a darker mask than 35mm emulsions? I don't h ave any 4x5 negatives to compare. Am I not bleach/fixing long enough? (I am fo llowing the recommended times).
I don't want to experiment a lot with C-41 due to its horse-choking cost, but wa nted to know that I could do it if I had to - particularly for 4x5 since no one locally processes it. (and mailing 1 or 2 sheets at a time is expensive if I kn ew where to send it.)
Can I put a negative BACK into bleach/fix after stabilizing and drying to try to reduce the mask more? (The negs I have are of nothing important - they were te sts.)
BTW - Bleach/fix resembles blood and you'll have it all over the place. Just ad ds to the image that my friends have of me being some mad scientist working in m y lab in my castle at night while lightning strikes all around!
If it's been a long time since that first thrill you got the first time you watc h a B&W image appear in the developer tray, try color printing with room tempera ture RA-4. It's a blast to see that first color iamge some out! I have to spil l the beans - it's not the witchcraft that some people lead you to believe. And I did not need to spend $300 on a used dichroic head. I used a $30 set of colo r filters in the filter tray. You spend so much time in the chemicals, exposing , focussing, etc., the time spent changing filters is not significant.
Anyway, my questions focus on 4x5 C-41 process. I used Tetenal's C-41 kit (firs t time buyer gets half price). I had my temp as dead-on as I could, and followe d the included instructions - 3:15 in the developer, etc. I used the chemicals one shot in the 2500 series drum with one 4x5 reel, no more than 4 sheets loade d at a time.
So I get out color negatives. Yay! But the unexposed background (the "mask" I guess) is darker than with my plethora of professionally-processed 35mm negative s. They also don't have the contrast of the 35mm negatives, but they might just appear that way because the mask is so dark. The film was Kodak Pro 100 and Po rtra 160.
The negatives seemed to print OK. The prints didn't seem lacking in contrast, a nd I don't think I made drastic changes to the filter pack after printing some 3 5mm negs.
So, do the 4x5 emulsions just have a darker mask than 35mm emulsions? I don't h ave any 4x5 negatives to compare. Am I not bleach/fixing long enough? (I am fo llowing the recommended times).
I don't want to experiment a lot with C-41 due to its horse-choking cost, but wa nted to know that I could do it if I had to - particularly for 4x5 since no one locally processes it. (and mailing 1 or 2 sheets at a time is expensive if I kn ew where to send it.)
Can I put a negative BACK into bleach/fix after stabilizing and drying to try to reduce the mask more? (The negs I have are of nothing important - they were te sts.)
BTW - Bleach/fix resembles blood and you'll have it all over the place. Just ad ds to the image that my friends have of me being some mad scientist working in m y lab in my castle at night while lightning strikes all around!