Exposing and Developing RA-4 Prints - Help?

[Agfa_Clack]

Hi,
I'm trying to get a grip on some aspects of my RA-4 print-making.

I'm using Arista paper and their developing chemicals (the directions seem to be Unicolor's). The enlarger is a Beseler 45 with a regular b/w head, 75w Eiko bulb, and Arista filter-gels in the chamber.

I am getting pretty good colors, but it's like the brighter areas need too much more exposure than the darker ones. Like the white w/blue sky takes 24 seconds exposure to get the details to show, but my pine trees only want about 7 seconds, or they look like dark brown mud. With short exposures, I get featureless white sky and the distant hills fade out.

It's not ordinarily like this, is it?

My development is in trays at about 71 degrees F, and I'm staying pretty close to the directions. Except I've been doing a stop-bath rinse with the water + a little vinegar, and I usually wash a little longer. I rock the trays constantly, don't move the paper around much. My paper is around 4 years old; maybe that's an issue.

Thanks,

Pete

 

[pentaxuser]

A digital photo of the "offending" negs would be helpful. You haven't mentioned time in the trays at 71 degrees Fahrenheit but if this is about 2 minutes then that's about right.

Other than not knowing the development time I can see nothing obvious in your process that should produce this effect. My experience of RA4 prints was that very little if any dodge and burn was required unlike your unfortunate experience.

The pictures of the negs may give us more clues about whether the problem lies there. I take it that the developer is freshly made each time from concentrate that is not exhausted?

pentaxuser

 

[koraks]

I agree with @pentaxuser that the first thing to look at is the negatives. Do you do your own film development? If so, is your process sufficiently within spec? RA4 is more or less a develop to completion process with fixed contrast. So contrast issues are generally associated with problematic negatives.

 

[Agfa_Clack]

Thanks,
You guys are helping.

First, I had a 4-year-old order of Arista RA4 chemicals that I mixed up, and it looked brown and grainy. I thought it was the obvious problem, so I got fresh chems. The fresh batch is an improvement, but I remembered that I had also ordered a 75w enlarger bulb to replace the 150w, getting me enough exposure time to dodge and burn.

The development kit instructions start at 3 minutes, 20 seconds for 75 degrees F. I've been doing about 3:40. My room's about 70-71 degrees I guess. I've been wondering if the temp is too low.

I developed the negs with the Unicolor C-41 kit; they're Kodak Portra 160. The scans look like what I shot. Including the receipt that fell out of my pocket, and the light-leak spot.

I tried some dodge and burn, also overlayed a cut-out during exposure; then the details and colors start to appear like they're supposed to.

 

[mshchem]

You might have a very high contrast negative. I'm old school Kodak by the book guy. I use Kodak chemistry at the "correct" temperature. I know RA4 works well for most at lower temperature. The film development could be off?? I use Fuji Crystal Archive, not sure how old your paper is? Probably just a hard negative

 

[pentaxuser]

While you have appreciated the help we have so far given, I'd still strongly recommend that you show us the negatives. Until we see those( do they all exhibit the same problems?) we and you are in danger of simply listing possible problems such as poor film development, temperature that is only 1 degree F too little etc and then seizing on one "cause" which may be different depending on the contributor and frankly getting you no nearer a solution.

At the risk of encouraging the very thing I have warned about, can I ask if all the negatives give you the problem you describe or are some better and even some produce OK prints?

pentaxuser

 

[Agfa_Clack]

My paper is about 4 years old, and wasn't refrigerated. It's Arista RA-4 glossy. I was wondering if its age could be the problem. I don't know if the Arista is the Fuji rebranded. It's thin and has a plastic-ey coating on top.
Two negatives have the issue so far, at least.
Guess I will try some others.

Pete

 

[koraks]

RA4 paper does not get more contrasty with age in my experience. It fogs at some point, but contrast remains the same until that point.

I agree again with @pentaxuser: it would help to see the negatives. Digital scans are not a reliable way of getting insight into the contrast of c41 negatives in my opinion. Very hard negatives often still scan fine, but are impossible to print without masking.

 

[btaylor]

I have had problems with fogged Arista RA4 paper out of the box on more than one instance. I switched to Fuji Crystal Archive and problems disappeared. Try a box and eliminate the paper quality question.

 

[Agfa_Clack]

Thank you guys,
You're fast - already answered things I was going to ask.

I spent most of my time working on getting three negatives to work; used dodge and burn, masking. Sounds like that's the way it's supposed to be. I'll try some different negs, and the Fuji paper.
My scans are on another computer; wonder if the site reduces the file size for me when I upload.

 

[MattKing]

My scans are on another computer; wonder if the site reduces the file size for me when I upload.

Resize them down to ~ 750-800 pixels on the longest side.

 

[koraks]

used dodge and burn, masking. Sounds like that's the way it's supposed to be.

No.