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Michael Nagl
16-Mar-2010, 02:37
Dear Colleagues,

Last time I was making analog prints I was using Kodak Endura Portra and Supra. Probably those papers had other names in the U.S., but what it boiled down to was: normal/hard. There also was Ultra, very hard, which I hardly ever used.
I just browsed through B&Hīs inventory of colour negative papers, and as per their respective descriptions each of these papers is the best paper ever made, with super colors and all totally super. Thatīs super cool but not what I wanted to know.
There is: Kodak Ektacolor Generations and Kodak Ektacolor Royal Generations, and Fuji Crystal Archive and Crystal Archive Super C. Also thereīs Fuji Pearl, but I suppose thatīs the same stuff as Kodak metallic (please tell me Iīm wrong!).
So please - which of these papers can I use instead of Portra, which one instead of Supra?

Thanks,
Michael

Larry Gebhardt
16-Mar-2010, 04:42
Given that you are seeing Pearl I suspect you are looking at the roll paper selection. Pearl only comes in rolls, and yes it is similar to Metallic. I know nothing about the Generations or Royal Generations.

B&H still has Supra Endura in sheets, but I think Portra was discontinued a while ago. They also have Crystal Archive Super Type C in sheets as well. These are both normalish contrast papers. My normal combo is the Fuji paper with Fuji film.

So if you can use sheets you can still use Supra. It seems as if we have lost the good low contrast papers. I guess you can still make masks to reduce the contrast, which really isn't as bad as I first thought.

JRFrench
16-Mar-2010, 12:25
You can also play around with the developer to reduce the contrast, there is information on APUG about it. Things to do with sulfite content and pH.

Michael Nagl
16-Mar-2010, 14:36
Sounds interesting, and even more so as Portra seems gone and thereīs nothing to replace it with. Iīll search the APUG forum. Thanks!