Proper proofs for color negative film?

[Jeff Bannow]

I am going through my color negs, and finally am going to make proof sheets (should have done it a long time ago). I really like the concept of "proper proofs" as it applies to black and white film.

Does anyone apply the same principles to color proofs? Would this still be useful, since you can't really adjust film development at all?

 

[DanielStone]

assuming you have good negatives to start with, just take the negs(in sleeves is preferred, since lining them up in the dark is not so easy IMO), and just start out with your 50 or 80mm enlarging lens, and set it to f8 or f11, and start time with ~15s. For kodak portra I use a filter pack, IIRC of like 60Y, 50M to start with. You can dial things in from there color-balance-wise...

oh... I'm using Fuji's crystal archive, glossy surface btw. I've never found "proper" proofs of negatives to be had on luster or matt paper, but thats me. I prefer glossy, easier to tell which negs are sharp and which ones really arent, luster/matte papers seem to diffuse the image a bit too much

-Dan

EDIT: make sure the enlarging lens' circle of illumination covers the contacting piece of glass or frame completely.

I've found that "proper" proofsheets really help speed up the process of selecting the right negatives to start with, especially when using 35mm or 120(can't see the details as good as with 4x5 or 8x10 film )

 

[Jeff Bannow]

I suppose that brings up the question of how to tell if the negs are of the proper density. They aren't grossly under or overexposed. Beyond that, I've never tested for proper film speed for color. Is there such a test?

 

[DanielStone]

yes and no.

personally, I overexpose my color neg film approx 2/3 of a stop. I rate 160NC/VC at 100, mostly to lower the contrast. It suits MY vision. It also helps keep shadow density from going to mush. The highlights can be burned in if needed. These modern color negative materials have SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO much latitude(I've recorded scenes with +/- 10 zones of difference from the brightest highlights to deepest shadows(where I wanted some sort of detail(not really "defined details"), but not a black hole or a white mushy mess in the sky,water etc...

with some burning/dodging(if needed) during exposure of the PRINT(in the darkroom), I've been able to maintain things how I viewed them.

its the same thing for b/w. EXPOSE FOR THE SHADOWS, develop for the highlights. If you have a really flat scene(2-3 zones), you can expand development(if you want to). Color materials are really designed to be able to be PUSHED, not pulled(they can be however). I've pulled E-6 and C-41 up to a full stop on both, and got useable results. You run into color-cast issues when pulling however(and sometimes during pushing as well).

expose your color materials so that you're achieving the level of shadow detail that you want/need, and since you're locked into "normal" development most of the time anyhow, just use that until you need/want to experiment/test with pushing/pulling.

I'm sending you a PM right now anyhow btw

-Dan

 

[hpulley]

I use the normal C41 development times even when I shoot 160 @100 and 400 @250. It seems to work well.

For proofs, well over the years I think I've gotten pretty good at judging the negs just by looking on the light table. I often bracket a couple of shots 2 stops apart and it is usually easy to choose the best shot just by looking at the negs.

 

[colourgeek]

I think you just need to have a go. Follow all the good advice here on this thread and you'll be very pleased. I put my 35mm or 6X6cm negs into a Patterson glass printing frame, which holds them neatly - 36 negs to one 10X8 inch sheet of colour paper. Do a test for density and colour balance and maybe another test or 2 if you're too far out. Mask any very under exposed negs with little strips of cardboard - you'll have to figure out how to remove them quickly during the exposure. The contact sheets look nice in a negative album!!

 

[2F/2F]

Yes; I do the same thing I do for b/w contact sheets. I print the frame edges to maximum black at the filter pack that I know is neutral for that combination of film and paper. If you routinely overexpose negative film (as lots of people seem to suggest doing, but I think is a bad idea), then you should darken the pix until they look normal to you, and use that as your standard time. You could shoot a gray card to use as a guide your first time; print it down to neutral middle gray and use that time and filtration for all future contact sheets.

 

[perkeleellinen]

I also make contact sheets in colour the same way as I do in B&W. The greatest benefit for me is that once I've made one proper print from a roll of film, the contact sheet helps enormously in gauging the starting filtration and exposure for subsequent frames.

 

[Jeff Bannow]

Thanks everyone for the advice. I just got a roll of 10" x 600' paper, so I'll be chopping it down to make the ~200 contact sheets I need.