Help With Slight Color Cast - RA4

Recent Classifieds

Forum statistics

Threads
199,344
Messages
2,789,993
Members
99,877
Latest member
Duggbug
Recent bookmarks
0

jgwetworth

Member
Joined
Jul 31, 2012
Messages
39
Location
Arizona
Format
Medium Format
Hello Apug,
I have been printing RA4 A lot lately but have noticed no matter how much I try I'm unable to get the colors proper, and when i do the whites have the slightest blue to them or yellow etc never pure white. Its not my paper because its brand new and the edges come out white around the pictures. Im shooting Fuji Superia 400 at box speed indoor with flash, and outdoor on sunny days. Any idea whats up?
 

Mike Wilde

Member
Joined
Aug 10, 2006
Messages
2,903
Location
Misissauaga
Format
Multi Format
The last 5 units of colour correction is always the worst to hunt down.
I cannot do it the same night that I first get back into printing colour in the darkroom after a break.
Always dry the print, and best yet, wait until breakfast and daylight to hunt down the fine cast, and needed corections.

Indoors with flash in theory matches outdoors on sunny day, but the colour temperature of the sun and sky can vary though the day.
So if you find the filtration for the flash, and use the same filtration on the same film to print the outdoor scene, you may need to twea=k filtration to correct for the sky colour temperture shifts.

Vise versa if you have balanced on sky and then next print is later in the day, or under flash.

I am not sure if you are using fresh film.
Some aged films can get 'cross over' in the highlights. Mid tones print fine, but as density in the negative builds, colour biases build.
One colour in an HD plot crosses over the other instead of three plots following each other at a roughly similar offset.
Expose a negative shot though a step wedge, or shoot a reflective test card card sample to get a negative with discrete shades from white to black.
Find a lab to read the densities, and plot them. and you can determine if the film is in spec.
Likely not the most likely problem, but a definitve way to rule it out.


Otherwise, colour printing takes time to develop the ability to see colour hues.
It is not easy to train your eye to discern these hues.

There used to be kits to shoot a grey card, and then you would expose that neg, and get the density right.
Then you put a filter transparency over the print to read off the needed filtration adjustments to render the grey correctly.

Print viewing filiters are another big aid.

I hope this helps in some manner.

It would help to say if you are new to this is just a weirdness with you latest box or newest chemistry.
 
Photrio.com contains affiliate links to products. We may receive a commission for purchases made through these links.
To read our full affiliate disclosure statement please click Here.

PHOTRIO PARTNERS EQUALLY FUNDING OUR COMMUNITY:



Ilford ADOX Freestyle Photographic Stearman Press Weldon Color Lab Blue Moon Camera & Machine
Top Bottom