Have any of you printed the wonderful 1970s Agfacolor? How do your prints look today?
cc1970, the year my son was born, I photographed a young woman and her younger sister, both wearing brilliantly colored ponchos woven by my then wife. The women are Japanese, the ponchos are almost entirely red and almost entirely purple, intensely dyed Swedish wool.
Graflex XL, C22 Kodak 120 film in Graflex 6X7 back. Tray processed in my home darkroom using Agfa's small volume kit chemistry, having exposed with Kodak gelatin filters in my Durst 609 (was designed to use 6X9 film).
I had friends who were very good printers..my craft was OK. We loved Agfacolor paper because the color could be far more intense than Ektacolor's and far more accurate than Ciba's.
Sadly, Agfacolor was also famous for rapid decay after printing...several years of acceptable color were the best anybody but my friends expected. Ektacolor wasn't very stable, but Agfacolor was worse...if processed per Agfa's instructions.
However my friends believed a last soak with extra formaldyhide (as I recall, the last step involved formaldyhide) would help Agfacolor last longer.
I still have that 1970 print..it remains beautiful after 48 years . Clear, lovely asian skin, Black black hair with faint reddish hair highlights, perfectly accurate ponchos, shaded blue-gray stone background. Fully deliverable by any standard. The only sign of age is faint yellowing of the white border.
cc1970, the year my son was born, I photographed a young woman and her younger sister, both wearing brilliantly colored ponchos woven by my then wife. The women are Japanese, the ponchos are almost entirely red and almost entirely purple, intensely dyed Swedish wool.
Graflex XL, C22 Kodak 120 film in Graflex 6X7 back. Tray processed in my home darkroom using Agfa's small volume kit chemistry, having exposed with Kodak gelatin filters in my Durst 609 (was designed to use 6X9 film).
I had friends who were very good printers..my craft was OK. We loved Agfacolor paper because the color could be far more intense than Ektacolor's and far more accurate than Ciba's.
Sadly, Agfacolor was also famous for rapid decay after printing...several years of acceptable color were the best anybody but my friends expected. Ektacolor wasn't very stable, but Agfacolor was worse...if processed per Agfa's instructions.
However my friends believed a last soak with extra formaldyhide (as I recall, the last step involved formaldyhide) would help Agfacolor last longer.
I still have that 1970 print..it remains beautiful after 48 years . Clear, lovely asian skin, Black black hair with faint reddish hair highlights, perfectly accurate ponchos, shaded blue-gray stone background. Fully deliverable by any standard. The only sign of age is faint yellowing of the white border.
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