Colour contact prints and processing?

[John Bartley]

I don't have a colour enlarger, and I've been doing only contact prints in B&W lately, and developing them myself.

I now have a bit of a hankering to explore the world of colour analog photography, but I'm not real hot to send off the negatives for processing and then send off the negatives to be printed.

I have searched Google, but I can't find very much about contact printing from colour negatives onto colour paper and then how to process.

I wonder if anyone has any DIY info links dealing with colour contact printing in either 4x5 or 8x10?

cheers eh?

EDIT :: one link I found was this one : Colour contact print which shows a quite nice looking contact print.

 

[Nick Zentena]

Do you have an enlarger? Doesn't matter the format. You can get some colour filters and use them to project onto the baseboard. I'd suggest looking for colour enlarger since a small one may be cheaper then a set of filters these days.

If you have an enlarger then the only difference between RA-4 and B&W is you'll need to judge colour balance and the required filter setting. But all that is the same with contact or projection printing.

All I can say is ask more questions -)

 

[John Bartley]

Hi Nick,

I do have an enlarger. It's an old Elwood 5x7 diffusion enlarger, but it's in great shape and it does a fine job on B&W. I have an "over the lens" filter tray in it, and I also have an "under the lens" filter tray as an aftermarket addition.

I guess the reason I was looking at contact rather than enlargement was for simplicity as well as the sharpness that a contact gives. That said, I guess I'll have to do what I am limited to by available supplies and information.

I use an 8x10 camera, but I do have a 4x5 reducing back as well as a selection of lenses for both sizes. I'm not seeing a whole lot of 8x10 colour negative film for sale out there, but I confess that I haven't really searched too hard for that yet.

cheers eh?

 

[TheFlyingCamera]

John- once you search for it, you'll realize why you haven't done so yet. It's bloody awful expensive. About $5-7 USD per sheet!

 

[Nick Zentena]

I guess the reason I was looking at contact rather than enlargement was for simplicity as well as the sharpness that a contact gives. That said, I guess I'll have to do what I am limited to by available supplies and information.

I wasn't suggesting doing enlargements instead of contacts. What I meant was using a colour enlarger instead of buying colour printing filters. Freestyle looks to have a set of CP 3"x3" filters for less then $20 but you might be able to pickup a small colour enlarger for not much more then that.

With the colour enlarger you adjust the dials on the enlarger instead of changing the filters. Easier.

 

[John Bartley]

Oh yes ... use the built in colour filtration and the enlarger as a light source - gotcha!! I misunderstood. I guess I shouldn't have sold the 35mm/MF colour enlarger that I had last winter .... that worked perfectly ... and had built in filtration. Still, for what it sold for, I can buy a good assortment of filters and some chemicals.

I had a pretty good idea that the film itself might be a bit pricey, but I've given up a couple of other hobbies for a little while, one of them being flying, so there's a couple of dollars spare here that I won't feel too bad about parting with.

Any recommendations on decent and simply written "how to" literature?

cheers eh?

 

[Nick Zentena]

The Kodak website has all the documents for the process. It's not really aimed to teach the process but it includes all the info.

http://www.kodak.com/global/en/service/Zmanuals/z130.shtml

The Kodak data sheet for the old Supra paper provides a bit more info.

http://www.kodak.com/global/en/professional/support/techPubs/e141/e141.jhtml

Basically you start with a test strip to establish exposure. You'll need to dry this before judging anything. A small hair dryer comes in handy for this. Onces you've got the exposure right you adjust the filters to correct colour balance. Once you've got both you make your print.

 

[Neal]

John,

Search the forum using the keywords "RA-4 Tray".

Neal Wydra

 

[John Bartley]

Hi folks,

Many thanks for suggestions - they're a great place to start ... so I will!

I get winters off from working and I try to do one "fun" project each winter. Last winter I rebuilt a Delta wood working jointer from the bottom up. This winter I'm planning to take, develop and print my first colour LF photo. It should be fun

cheers eh?

 

[Photo Engineer]

At the current cost of paper and chemistry, I esimate that a single print runs about $1.00 US. This is using a Jobo and running 2 prints per tube.

100 sheets of 5x7 Endura paper was about $20 but they may have stopped making that. I use an 8x10 sheet with 4 4x5 negatives in a contact frame and use my enlarger with filters to expose.

I have also seen it done by masking a light bulb in a beehive safelight or similar lamp housing and using 3x3 filters onto a contact frame.

It is a good, economical way to produce proofs as well.

PE