Finally Got my Ducks in a row - starting RA4 printing

Photo Engineer · May 19, 2011

A bleach or blix is active as mixed and will carry out its job.

A bleach is active as well.

HOWEVER....... Shaking a blix is not advised as it can oxidize the hypo so this is your call. Shaking a used bleach can reactivate it, but it needs replenishment if it is that far gone.

PE

EdSawyer · May 20, 2011

Further note re: Masking for contrast control - Ctein has made his Post Exposure book free, in PDF form. It's officially out of print so he released it to the web for free. Very nice! It's got a great writeup on masking for contrast control with color printing in it.

http://ctein.com/PostExposure2ndIllustrated.pdf

-Ed

hoffy · May 20, 2011

Cheers Ron and Cheers Ed

hoffy · May 21, 2011

Finally done

OK, so my first prints are finally done. Still having fun getting exposures are colour balances right.

Compared to B&W, would it be fair to say that Crystal Archive requires vastly shorter exposure times?

markbarendt · May 21, 2011

Yes, much shorter. Actually true of all the color paper I've used.

hoffy · May 21, 2011

Thanks Mark. I was getting around 7 to 8 seconds, compared to 15 to 20 seconds for similar B&W prints on RC paper. Just wanted to make sure!

Roger Cole · May 21, 2011

markbarendt said:
Yes, much shorter. Actually true of all the color paper I've used.

I remember Ilfochrome then called Cubachrome and type R prints in the early 80s that took a full minute or more. Kind if nice actually - timing was less critical and dodging and burning easier if time consuming. Just had to make sure the slide had already popped.

hpulley · May 23, 2011

I stop my enlarging lens down further if I need more time for color, especially for small 5x7 prints. My lens goes down to f/32 though usually f/11 or f/16 is enough to give me time to work.

hoffy · May 24, 2011

OK, next question! What is the life like of the working solution? I mixed up 1 litre of Developer and 1 litre of Blix and have probably used about 500ml in total. This is sitting in reasonably well sealed half full containers, with a squirt of butane.

Cheers

markbarendt · May 24, 2011

http://www.kodak.com:80/global/en/professional/support/techPubs/j39/j39.pdf

See page 2

EdSawyer · May 24, 2011

working solutions will keep for months if well sealed. And even if not well sealed... I've been using some mixed RA-4 RA-RT chemistry from Kodak since last November, in Doran floating-lid tanks, and it's still fine.

hrst · May 28, 2011

Never had Kodak RA-4 working solutions go bad. I don't print often but as they seem to keep well for more than a year, this is not a problem.

Tetenal RA-4 blix can go bad in hours or days even if it seems to work when mixed.

hka · May 29, 2011

Same experience here, but with de Fuji RA4 chems.
I mixe my working solution in September/October and discard it in April/May the next year.

tomalophicon · Oct 6, 2011

Hoffy, how is this going?
I'm wondering where you got your chems from. Was it Vanbar?

Finally Got my Ducks in a row - starting RA4 printing

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