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Thread: Color contact printing

  1. #1

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    Color contact printing

    Hi there all,

    So, I'm about to do some color printing and was hoping I could get some help in how to start out. The film used is Kodak Portra 160 and the paper I intend to use is Fujicolor Type II Lustre. Im using a Durst M670 Color as a light source... and I have to be honest - I have no idea on how to set the yellow, red and blue... or maybe its yellow, magenta and cyan... Whats right for that film?

    Also, I assume I don't have to develop exposed papers right away?

    Cheers
    Peter

  2. #2

    Join Date
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    Re: Color contact printing

    Good advice. ^^^^
    You don't use all three because you'd just be adding neutral density.

  3. #3

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    Re: Color contact printing

    Thanks,

    I'll check out that book.

    Cheers
    Peter

  4. #4

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    Re: Color contact printing

    One more thing... for how long am I supposed to expose the paper? I assumed it would have some sort of ISO like film.

  5. #5

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    Re: Color contact printing

    Quote Originally Posted by pkr1979 View Post
    Also, I assume I don't have to develop exposed papers right away?
    Depends on how you define 'right away', but I don't see how you're going to get the right exposure and a decent color balance if you don't print more or less immediately. You don't know how to adjust your filters if you don't see what you're getting.
    Having said that, the paper manufacturers generally give some info on latent image stability of their papers. If I recall correctly, they usually recommend developing the paper within 24 hours. But again, this only makes sense in a rather tightly controlled environment where you know *exactly* what filter settings will produce the desired result and you could theoretically expose a bunch of paper and then batch develop it. However, in a typical home darkroom, that's just not reality and you work just as with B&W; expose a test strip, develop, evaluate and adjust exposure (& color filtration) as required, and repeat until satisfied with the result and the final print(s) is/are made.

  6. #6
    mitch
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    Re: Color contact printing

    I think you might want to pass on the book by Henry Horenstein i checked it out it $950 on Amazon

  7. #7

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    Re: Color contact printing

    I found the Horenstein book used online for less than $10. On abebooks dot com

  8. #8
    Vaughn's Avatar
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    Re: Color contact printing

    Quote Originally Posted by pkr1979 View Post
    One more thing... for how long am I supposed to expose the paper? I assumed it would have some sort of ISO like film.
    The way I learned was to try to stay around the same exposure time, as colors will start to shift as the exposure gets longer. My test 'strip' was four separate exposures of 10 seconds each on a sheet of paper. I changed the aperture for each 10 sec. exposure and picked the best one...plus or minus a few seconds.
    "Landscapes exist in the material world yet soar in the realms of the spirit..." Tsung Ping, 5th Century China

  9. #9
    Andrej Gregov
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    Re: Color contact printing

    Quote Originally Posted by pkr1979 View Post
    One more thing... for how long am I supposed to expose the paper? I assumed it would have some sort of ISO like film.
    I usually expose an 8x10 print around 6-10 seconds in total. That means about 2-3 seconds per test strip (say 4-5 strips on an 8x10). You don't want to go under around 3 seconds total exposure time as you'll start to hit reciprocity failure. There's little advantage to going longer than around 10 seconds for an 8x10 sized print. Larger size prints (16x20 on up could see longer exposure times depending on the wattage of your enlarger and lens focal length).

    A note on color correcting C prints. It does take some time to learn how to see color casts. You won't likely be very good after a few printing sessions. Give yourself some time. I would suggest at the beginning, make single color changes at a time (red/cyan, yellow/blue, magenta/green). For example, if you see a magenta color cast, then you'll need to add green. You'll need a Kodak Color Print Viewing Filter Kit to help see your color casts. You can find them on the big auction site. As mentioned earlier, all this info is in the Horenstein book. Amazed on it's price these days. It's good but not that good.

  10. #10

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    Re: Color contact printing

    Quote Originally Posted by pkr1979 View Post
    One more thing... for how long am I supposed to expose the paper? I assumed it would have some sort of ISO like film.
    Color paper sensitivity, translated to film terms, would be somewhere around 12 iso or so. Faster than b&w paper, slower than typical film.

    Exposure times vary wildly depending on the negative, enlargement and equipment used. They can be anything between 2-3 seconds to 30 seconds. It all depends...

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