Color Photo papers.... Recomendations?

[frotog]

Spacegoose,

I have a CPA-2 and process RA-4 in drums. For determining the density and filter pack I use 2 8x10 test drums (a 1520 and 1530 mounted together). On the last wash cycle I walk back and turn the Arkay 1100 dryer on and then remove the print and squeeze it and bring it to the dryer. While its going thru the dryer I rinse the tank and lid out with the hottest water my sink can produce and dry the interior of the drum with a paper towel and shake the water from the lid and dry it also and place booth in a rack. The I retrieve the print which is now dry and cooled from the dryer and place it on a viewing station to determine the density and color and decide if any changes are to be made to the next test print. If so, then I get the first drum and check that there are no spots of water remaining in the tank and no water comes from the lid when shaken (there usually isn't) and proceed to make the 2d test print. If you use two drums like that you don't have to wait for one to dry before the 2d run. Once the density and FP is determined you can switch to a larger drum for running more than one print through at a time. I have processed RA-4 up 16x20 without any problem other than the Arkay only goes up to 11x14. I have a Premier 16x20 dual sided dryer with canvas that I used before the Arkay but it has a tendency to leave small fibers from the canvass on the print. I bought it new but never removed the canvass to clean it so maybe that it the reason for that. The Arkay is perfect.

Thomas

I have a spare 20" fujimoto RT machine that'll make color printing much more enjoyable for you. PM me if interested.

[Tayne]

A couple of tips. Jobo drums fill and drain rather slowly due to the tiny opening. So you'll want to standardize on at least 2 min dev times and nothing shorter. Kodak
gives a temp/temp chart for this. I use 84F at 2min with Kodak RA/RT (after fill, but including 10 sec for drain, though my drum fill and drain much faster than Jobo's.) The second tip concerns Ektar, which I have addressed elsewhere, under film topics per se. It is very important to correctly color balance it to begin with
for any serious color temp anomalies. Then, in the darkroom, once you get close to a proper colorpack or colorhead setting, fine-tuning the result is a lot like power
steering in a car. Very small differences have a more significant effect than with most other color films. But once you've got it dialed in, you can achieve superb
results with Ektar (provided its suitable for your subject matter to begin with). Fine-tuning contrast is a lot more like working with chromes in the darkroom than
most color neg films. If you want precise results, you'll need to learn unsharp masking. That is a basic skill set many of us acquired printing chromes, but it can
be transferred over to RA4 printing as well using the same equipment, but with some distinct modifications in mask dev technique. Learn the basics first, then
a step at a time. Start with a perfectly exposed master neg of a MacBeath color checker chart. Use a color temp meter if necessary, because everything will
depend on getting this right. It's like practicing the chords on a piano - a bit monotonous, but worth the initial effort. Once you can get every patch of color on
that chart to print reasonably accurately on your paper, and still have complete neutrality and gradation on all the gray patches at the same time, you're on your
way. I happen to enjoy these darkroom challenges, so have spent a lot of time ironing out the potential wrinkles. My biggest headache now is simply replacing a
couple of burnt out bulbs in the colorhead.

Sounds like an art form unto its self. Thanks for the input. The 2min for dev time sounds like a good idea. I will look up your post for color tuning. I am unfamiliar with unsharp masking or mask Dev techniques. As far as the macBeath color checker chart I assume I will need to take a picture of it with my camera using the same box of film, paper and chemicals, than balance the colors and exposure to get the correct grey and color scale. I expect this will take a far amount of time to get it right. Then hopefully make minor changes when paper and film boxed change. I have a lot to learn. Currently building my enlarger stand for my Omega D5XL 4x5 enlarger. Almost done.

[Tayne]

I don't use a color analyzer in my workflow for color analog printing. Here are my steps:

1. Start with a test strip print to preview density
2. Print several full images to nail density. I evaluate prints dry on a light board.
3. Once I get a density I want, I start on isolating color casts (working magenta or yellow in the filter pack)
4. Again, I judge various adjusted color versions, dry on a light board.

For me at least, if I couldn't do my color work using one of the print processors, honestly, I'd move to scanning my negs and printing on a inkjet for work prints and send out exhibition quality work for digital C printing (via a light jet). Note, I have complete access to a wet darkroom and everything I need to print color at home. But I think I would find it too hard to work with judging color on wet prints and the time to print them using a drum based setup. That said, I have no experience using a color analyzer. Perhaps they may lessen the need for making lots of versions to get to a color correct image? Your Jobo is phenomenal for film. It's more clunky for prints IMO. But by all means, go for it! Only you can know what you want out of your workflow.

You might consider some color print filters to help evaluate color casts. http://www.adorama.com/LEVK3.html

As for Portra, it's definitely more neutral than Ektar. I used to shoot with the Portra VC variant which was great for saturation and better behaving than Ektar for me. But it's discontinued. I'd stick with the Ektar for now as you like more saturated colors. If you find you're having difficulty controlling colors when printing, maybe try a box of Portra.

Thanks for the input. What is a light board? At some point I expect I will get a scanner, but for now I want to try my hand in the darkroom.

[agregov]

Sorry, I use the term light board simply to refer to a wall with gallery lighting. The wall could be a cork board so you can easily put up prints and evaluate them for color casts. A metal board is even better as you can use magnets to pin the print up--nicer than pinning to a cork board. But either work. Once on the board, I look through color filters to help me judge how many points of color to adjust an image. For example, if an image shows a small magenta cast, I might add a few points of magenta (effectively adding green to the image). Then I run another print, lay it side by side with the first to compare, and continue adjusting as needed. Ideally, the better quality your lights, the easier it is to see color casts. I've seen some gallery lights throw some nasty color casts. My lights run around an EV 10 off a grey card off the wall. Good quality lighting is more important for reviewing color images than b&w. John Caponigro has a nice write up on choosing lights for print review. http://www.johnpaulcaponigro.com/blo...olux-lighting/

[tgtaylor]

I have a spare 20" fujimoto RT machine that'll make color printing much more enjoyable for you. PM me if interested.

Thanks frotog. I'd take you up on it if I was printing a lot of color negative but my usage at this point wouldn't justify the upkeep. I've used a processor in the past and it's nice to just load the print in one end and have it do the processing with a dry print emerging at the other end. With the Jobo you have to wait for the drum to come up to processing temperature and manually walking it through the processing steps. Time consuming. Which reminds me, I have several Porta 160 negatives that need printing.

Thomas