Show us test strips using a negative.
Thanks for the reply. Fuji Crystal paper makes a print that has no colour cast at a different combination of Y and M that does Kodak paperHi,
I'm using fuji crystal archive paper. What do you mean here?
As for the test strip, I would suggest starting with Martin's suggestion, and then varying the Magenta and yellow 10 points each way for each step.
Something like the following, with each step occupying a different segment on your strip.
50M 40Y
60M 40Y
70M 40Y
60M 30Y
60M 50Y
Essentially, what you are trying for is a version of a colour "ring-around".
I'm using a Meopta Opemus 6 with color head.We could perhaps offer more specific advice if we knew what enlarger you are using, e.g., dichroic or filter drawer.
It's very hard... I wonder if exists a method to check color quickly...Frustrating isn't it. I finished up my box of Fuji Crystal Archive Type C (actually, ruined the last 20 or so sheets forgetting to close the box before turning the lights on) which I thought I had fairly well dialed in. Bought a box of Type II and I'm almost half way through it and still haven't figured it out.
Everything I read basically says "identify the color cast and adjust it out". My adjustments never seem to work out quite like I expect.
Once you get close to proper color balance, if those are white plates, it will be easy to tell.
I used mostly Kodak paper and it has been a decade or so, but if you use the same film and the same paper, then you'll be able to start the same filter pack pretty close for every print.
Once your starting filter pack is found, I was taught to make 'test strips'" quite differently than with B&W printing. Pick a good time (10 sec?) and make 4 different exposures of 10 seconds but with different apertures. Color balance will shift if one changes the exposure time significantly...makes burning in skies a drag.
One of my boys, many years ago, 120 Portra VC, RA4 print
Perfect, I'll try to print one of the pic of the same film roll that seems have natural light and colors.I'd recommend starting with a negative taken in daylight, preferably with clouds in the sky ir an overcast sky, and some range of "natural" colors (eg foliage, rocks, maybe some colorful clothing, skintones). Your average outdoor snapshot of a friend during a hiking trip would be great, to give just one example. Reasons for this approach are:
* natural light means that the light matches what most color negative films are optimized for, so the chances of an easy to print negative are the highest
* clouds and overcast skies, at least in the late morning or early afternoon tend to be fairly neutral grey, giving you a reference point to focus on. Once you get the clouds to print in a natural way, the other colors should fall nicely into place
* man-made objects an artificial lighting (and certainlt the combination of both) can be a bit harder to nail down due to a variety of factors.
* skin tones are often a decent secondary reference point as humans are generally very sensitive to correct rendition of skin tones; probably has a lot to do with how our brains are wired.
Once you get the sample image to print well, keep the filter settings and try a different negative. You'll find that as long as the lighting is still natural, filter settings only need to be changed a little (if at all) to get a decent print.
Kodak, in the past produced a publication about home printing in colour. I have the Spanish edition, "Tecnicas de Positivado en Color", which is full of useful hints. They also had a set of colour viewing filters through which you could view the finished print to see what the correction should be (they were listed as "Kodak Publication R-25").https://www.amazon.es/KODAK-Color-Print-Viewing-Filter/dp/0879857919It's very hard... I wonder if exists a method to check color quickly...
I really want to buy those filters but it seems hard to fin them in italyKodak, in the past produced a publication about home printing in colour. I have the Spanish edition, "Tecnicas de Positivado en Color", which is full of useful hints. They also had a set of colour viewing filters through which you could view the finished print to see what the correction should be (they were listed as "Kodak Publication R-25").https://www.amazon.es/KODAK-Color-Print-Viewing-Filter/dp/0879857919
By the way,, I also use a Meopta Opemus with the colour head.
Edit.https://camera-house.co.uk/product/kodak-color-print-viewing-filter-kit.html
I was actually trying to do like you said but I was a bit confused by add or substract colors and I had to ask a sort of opinion to figure out the correct combination. Anyway I'll try your suggest too. Thank you !!Hi, you can start anywhere you like, but personally, I'd say you already HAVE a start. I'd go on from there. For the folks that say to go back to a "standard" starting point, fine. Either way, pick one and then go on from there.
From your test that is too blue, here's how I'd approach it: a rule I've used for color correcting since circa 1970s is, "always do the wrong thing." Ok, since the print is too blue the "wrong thing" seems to be to add even more blue (to the filter pack). But following the rule, it IS what you want to do. So... since you're gonna do all your adjustments using only yellow and magenta filtration you've got to convert from blue to these.
Ok, yellow and blue are "complementary" colors, essentially opposites in photographic color. You know you want to add blue, which you don't have, to the filter pack. But since yellow is the "opposite" of blue, then removing yellow from the films pack is equivalent to adding blue. So... you wanna remove some yellow filtration. How much, I have no idea - this is so far off. But if you make several jumps of 30cc it shouldn't take long to zero in. So from your starting point of: 100M, 150Y, I might pull out 60Y, giving pack = 100M, 90Y. If this overshoots, giving a yellowish print, then you could estimate a correction somewhere between the original 150Y and the test value of 90 Y. If it was not far enough, and the print is still too blue, you could try removing another 30Y from the filter pack. Etc., etc.
Alternatively you could use the green print as a starting point. Using the rule, "always do the wrong thing," you would want to add green to the filter pack. As before, you don't have any green filters to work with. But... green is the complementary color to magenta, which means that adding green is equivalent to removing magenta. For the amount to remove, I dunno, but the green doesn't look as "strong" as the bluish print, so it's probably a smaller correction. I'd probably try pulling one or two sets of 30cc magenta. So instead of 140M, 120Y, I might try going to 110M or 80M with the 120Y.
When you reach the point where another color predominates then you can start working on that color.
I should probably describe how to deal with the third primary color, red. If you have a reddish print, you want to "do the wrong thing," and add red to the filter pack. The complement of red is cyan, so adding red is equivalent to removing cyan. But... traditionally we don't adjust cyan filtration. So, the question is, "is there another way to add red filtration?" The answer is yes, if we add equal amounts of both magenta and yellowish, this is equivalent to adding red filtration.
Now, I'm guessing that you don't have the color relationships memorized. A conventional way to work with them is to sketch three overlapping colors; label them as red, green, and blue. Where red and green overlap label it yellow. Where red and blue overlap, label it magenta. And where green and blue overlap, label it cyan. Once you have this diagram its easy to see which colors are opposite (these are complementary), and the result of combining colors. With this you should be able to work out all the colors. Once you are able to recognize them, that is. Most people, when starting out with this, will identify a magenta color as red, and a cyan color as blue. So keep this in mind if it's hard to fine-tune colors.
Once you get a print dialed in, more or less, then it may be worth making a so-called color ringaround. Basically this is a set of color variations in 6 directions. You'd have both plus and minus red (minus red = cyan), plus and minus green (minus green = magenta), and plus and minus yellow (minus yellow = blue). If you do this ringaround in two or three different color strength levels, this would be very useful in learning how to recognize colors.
Best of luck in your endeavors.
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