I can't get the right color filtration.

[MattKing]

I don't know that, statistically speaking, women have better colour vision, but as I understand it, diagnosable colour blindness is more prevalent among males.

 

[DREW WILEY]

I tried to explain how chromogenic printers using old color negs like Vericolor came up with a fishy notion of the color wheel in subtractive printing. That was never the case with those using actual color separations for dye transfer printing, etc, or positive printing processes like Ciba. The physics and physiology of color with RGB being the true primaries, and CMY the tertiaries has never changed, nor ever will, at least for normal human vision. Back in kindergarten kids might be taught that all colors can be mixed with RYB pigments, but that defies actual scientific color theory. And honeybees see wavelengths we don't; but we aren't them. I have the advantage of a couple of enlargers where the control panel works in intuitive subtractive CMY settings, but the actual light output is in pure narrow-band RGB additive. And after all, it's RGB that color print paper dyes are designed to ideally respond to, whether using enlarger light or a color laser printing system, even though no product is perfect in this regard. ... Color blindness is a different topic. I'm speaking about normal vision. But I could tell some very funny stories about color blindness, like a husband bringing home a gallon of living room paint that he thought was lavender, applying it, and then all fury breaking loose when the wife arrived and saw lime green instead.

 

[Vaughn]

There is some research that indicates the female brain can process the information from the cones better than the male brain and thus separate out shades better that way -- rather than having more and/or higher quality cones. A result of brain development (in womb) being influenced by different hormones. But I have not looked into it enough to swear by it.

 

[Michael Firstlight]

There is some research that indicates the female brain can process the information from the cones better than the male brain and thus separate out shades better that way -- rather than having more and/or higher quality cones. A result of brain development (in womb) being influenced by different hormones. But I have not looked into it enough to swear by it.

Ahhhh! So that explains why my wife sees red a lot more frequently when I do stuff she doesn't like.

 

[Tom Taylor]

This is a 11x14 RA-4 print from a 4x5 Fuji negative that I printed several years back. I made two copies and forgot about them until recently rediscovered. Once the correct density was reached, I color corrected to bring the original colors of the temple forward without introducing a color cast in the whites (note the fountain, swan and dome).

The original soft pinks, reds and golds had softened with age but a judicious tweak of the filter pack enables you to bring those back to life.

Thomas

 

[Flavia Daniele]

Hi folks,

new updates: I'm working on the right filtration and I started by following the suggest of @MattKing. I reached 100M and 60Y. I think it's almost the result that I want. I had thsi result but I don't know if is depending by chemicals or by filtration?

I use 100M 40/60Y but so far the other tests with the same values seemed so yellowish/greenish

What do you think about it?

 

[Martin Rickards]

Hi folks,

new updates: I'm working on the right filtration and I started by following the suggest of @MattKing. I reached 100M and 60Y. I think it's almost the result that I want. I had thsi result but I don't know if is depending by chemicals or by filtration?

I use 100M 40/60Y but so far the other tests with the same values seemed so yellowish/greenish

What do you think about it?

I for one would find it easier if the test strip were more recognisable.

 

[Flavia Daniele]

I for one would find it easier if the test strip were more recognisable.

I did this scan... As you can see it's magenta...

 

[Mr Bill]

I did this scan... As you can see it's magenta...
View attachment 245436

Well, magenta or red... I wouldn't wanna say for sure over the internet.

I'd probably take a shot at red, maybe 20cc units as a real wild guess. If so, the fix would be to add both 20M and 20Y to your filter pack. If it overshoots then back some of the correction out for the next test.

If it's actually magenta (rather than red) then the correction is to add magenta to your filter pack.

Just a comment, if you write the filter pack settings on each of your test strips, as well as number them in sequence, you can later retrace your steps to evaluate how you did.

 

[MattKing]

I for one would find it easier if the test strip were more recognisable.

I agree.
It would help if it was a picture of something recognizable, so that we could tell what the colour should be.

 

[Bikerider]

The filtration you are using seems to be extreme. I don't know what your enlarger is but there are basically 2 filtration values. Durst and Kodak. I believe the Durst values are higher when compared to same with Kodak They are significantly different. The colour developer may also make a difference as will the temperature it is used at.

I use an LPL7700 which is calibrated in Kodak values and for a correctly exposed and normally developed negative the filtration is nearly always around 65M and 60Y when developed in the Tetenal 5 litre kit. If you can say what enlarger you are using and the RA4 developer you are using plus the working temperature, that could be helpful.

 

[MattKing]

Bikerider's point is a good one - many of us here are speaking in terms of Kodak CC values, and colour heads aren't necessarily using those values.

 

[Flavia Daniele]

The filtration you are using seems to be extreme. I don't know what your enlarger is but there are basically 2 filtration values. Durst and Kodak. I believe the Durst values are higher when compared to same with Kodak They are significantly different. The colour developer may also make a difference as will the temperature it is used at.

I use an LPL7700 which is calibrated in Kodak values and for a correctly exposed and normally developed negative the filtration is nearly always around 65M and 60Y when developed in the Tetenal 5 litre kit. If you can say what enlarger you are using and the RA4 developer you are using plus the working temperature, that could be helpful.

I'm using a MEOPTA OPEMUS 6 with color head. The paper is fuji crystal archive and the chemicals are Bellini RA-4 35°

 

[pentaxuser]

Flavia it looks much better than the test strips which were unrecognisable to me, so you are getting close I believe. However as others have said a better negative to print from is one that has a range of colours and is of a scene that we can more easily identify the right colours. Skin tones and a range of colours with a patch of grey are better Choose a mid grey such a might be found in a wall or clothing or a car colour that you know to be mid grey then you can compare the colours to what you know they were in the actual scene

pentaxuser

 

[DREW WILEY]

(Detour again, sorry)... Vaughn, every serious color pro I knew was male. One day many years ago I was chatting with the head of the International Color Council, who made a seven figure income and was so successful that he a owned a highrise flat overlooking Central Park in NYC. He was accustomed to people asking him what kinds of color he used in his own residence. It was all bright red. Why? Because his wife was Peruvian. As he explained it, to a Peruvian, red is their equivalent of a neutral, and she was in charge of color choices. His personal career carried a zero vote in his own home.

 

[Vaughn]

That's why I said, in general. On a bell curve there will be males with excellent color abilities, also...and females with lousy color abilities And yes, at our ages I am not surprised at all that all the top anyones were male.

 

[Flavia Daniele]

Hi everyone,

I think I reached the correct filtration but I still have problems with some magenta areas... I'm sure they are caused by chemicals but I don't how. I refresh the chemicals and I'm using them at the right temperature... They are Bellini RA-4 temperature 35° .I developed them in a paterson thermo drum. Do you know any possible answer to this problem?

Thank you so much

 

[twelvetone12]

Would you mind posting a print of the full image? I have a hard time figuring out what is going on. I used bellini ra4 a lot and you need to be super careful not to contaminate the developer with the bix or it dies, when it dies the whites on the paper (like the white margins) turn mushy yellow. Clean the drums very very well between prints. I personally do it in open trays to avoid this problem.

 

[koraks]

The test strips that I've seen in this thread all look like they are partly fogged by light. Perhaps the box they're stored in before processing isn't properly light tight?

 

[Flavia Daniele]

This is the last test I did. The tones seems to be what I want but this magenta is make me crazy @twelvetone12

 

[MattKing]

That magenta is a problem with either light fog or uneven processing - are you trying to use a safelight?

 

[Flavia Daniele]

No, I'm completely in the dark.

That magenta is a problem with either light fog or uneven processing - are you trying to use a safelight?

 

[Mainecoonmaniac]

Correct one color at a time. If it's too blue, you'll have to subtract yellow. If it's too green, you'll have to subtract magenta. I would get a book on RA color printing so you could learn how to balance a print. It took me years because it's totally counter intuitive. As you fine tune your final colors, a set of viewing filters is helpful.

 

[Flavia Daniele]

Correct one color at a time. If it's too blue, you'll have to subtract yellow. If it's too green, you'll have to subtract magenta. I would get a book on RA color printing so you could learn how to balance a print. It took me years because it's totally counter intuitive. As you fine tune your final colors, a set of viewing filters is helpful.

Yes finally I think I reached the right filtration but I think I have another problem right now... And I don't know if is about chemicals or other

 

[MattKing]

No, I'm completely in the dark.

Flavia,
I expect that English might not be your first language, so I hope you don't mind if I tell you that this is a colloquialism that is very funny (in the circumstances).
The colour of the unstained part does look quite close to correct, so you should be feeling encouraged.
What procedure are you using to develop the paper?