RA-4 1st observations

[perkeleellinen]

I tried colour printing for the first time this morning:

Working in complete darkness isn't that difficult
The colour safetorch from RH Designs helps a lot
Getting a print that is 'getting close' didn't take too much paper
The chemistry isn't offensive in a Nova slot processor.
Most importantly there's a tremendous satisfaction from doing this!

A bit green maybe?

Just to say thanks to all who have answered my questions about RA-4 in threads and via pm. And also to tiberiustibz for his article that inspired me:

(there was a url link here which no longer exists)

I wish I'd tried this ten years ago!

 

[paul_c5x4]

See, dead easy. And with nearly a quarter of a mile of paper, you have plenty to get through

 

[Mick Fagan]

Congratulations, yes it does look slightly green, but this is really only a guess as my monitor is not calibrated and I'm sure that image you posted has been through some interesting computer calculations.

Actually after looking a bit it does appear to be a tad green, but possibly a bit on the cool side as well looking at the road, perhaps there is a bit of a cyan or blue cast as well.

I would suggest you correct for what you think, which is magenta, if it turns out you were not quite correct, you might find there is a bit cyan or maybe a blue cast as well.

That said, you are very close for a first printing session, really close.

Mick.

 

[perkeleellinen]

I would suggest you correct for what you think, which is magenta

The print is a bit greener than what I see on the screen. Seems the digi p&s I snapped with is correcting the colour.

But using the Kodak print viewing filters I decided subtracting 10 magenta might work. I'll try again later when the sun isn't so strong.

 

[Mick Fagan]

Some food for thought.

You believe that magenta is the predominant cast, I agree.

However as you get closer to correcting any cast, look for another slight cast.

Say you correct for 10 units of green cast, your print is looking very good, but maybe ever so slightly green as well.

Take your magenta viewing filter, use the weakest (5 units) window run it back and forth in and out of your vision, then add a 5 yellow viewing filter on top of ½ of the magenta 5 viewing filter and run it through once again and see if the colour looks ever so slightly better with or without the yellow. If it looks a poofteenth better with both filters it is possible that you have a slight green and a slight blue cast. Correct accordingly by adding say three units of magenta and say 3 to 5 units of yellow to the image.

Do the same with the magenta viewing 5 window and the cyan 5 filter ½ over the magenta 5 window. If it looks better with this double combination, then correct accordingly. Say 2 units of magenta and 2 or 3 units of red added to the image.

Something to think about is to sit down and look at the picture and decide what you need to do to correct the cast, which maybe to remove 4 units of red and 2 units of magenta from the print.

Then you work out how to do that in the colour head. This will be difficult at first, but it will be quite easy after a short time.

By deciding what filtration the print requires, then making adjustments to the head separately you may find it easier to come up with correct corrections easier and simpler, than trying to work out all at once what the cast is and the amount and type of correction required in the colour head at the same time.

Colour printing is really easy, getting a very good colour print is a tad harder.

Look at the road surface, should it be black instead of cold looking.

Look at the under garment on the young lass, should those strips be white or near white, instead of the cold colour it looks to me.

Should hte white line markings on the road be white, or are they in fact a slight off colour.

Hair, especially on women who have made themselves into blonds, can be problematic under certain light. The film will see the hair as a different colour, quite often a person who for all intents and purposes is a blond to our eyes, can sometimes appear with reddish hair with film.

I have a wedding set I shot about 18 years ago, the bride was fabulous looking, really fabulous. I used B&W film but as she was a personal friend, I took a body along with colour film (Fuji Reala) and ran it off.

In the colour shots everything is colour correct, except for her hair. She was red haired under the summer sun, but under flashlight, or to be correct, fill flash indoors, she was a blond!

Yes, you will have fun, it is addictive, go for it!

Mick.

 

[perkeleellinen]

Thanks, Mick.

I'm going to try your suggestion of adding the viewing filters together.

I chose this neg on purpose because it has lots of familiar things in terms of colour: my wife, her clothes, grass, the road etc.

The film is Superia 800 and already looks much better than the neg scan I made last week.

 

[paul_c5x4]

When you dry the print, put a little sticky label on the back with the filtration values - This will help when you come to compare prints at a later stage and also means you won't have to mess around too much when doing reprints.

 

[perkeleellinen]

Sticky label is a good idea - I wrote on the back of this one with a ball pen and there's an indentation coming through on the front. Lucky it's only a test print.

 

[Photo Engineer]

I use waterproof magic markers. Yes, you can sometimes see the mark through the print, but for test prints it really makes no big difference.

PE

 

[MattKing]

Here is another hint.

If you are wondering where to look when you are evaluating a print, see if you can find a portion of the print where the light is transitioning from light to shadow. It is in that portion where colour casts really stand out, most likely because they show a range of densities.

One caution though - you have to watch out for shadowed areas that have coloured light being reflected into them. In addition, many shots outdoors are illuminated with two different colours of light - predominantly yellow sun and predominantly blue light from the sky (falling into shadowed areas). With multiple sources and colours of light, sometimes you have to make a choice that expresses a preference, rather than simply chooses a "correct" colour balance.

There are also techniques available (dodging or burning with different filtration) that can be used to correct colour casts in portions of a print.

Have fun!

Matt