RA4 safelight vs candle?

[John51]

Is an RA4 safelight brighter than a candle flame or darker? I'm trying to get an idea of how much can be seen when using an RA4 safelight.

 

[Bill Burk]

A candle is very bright.

For example, one meter candle second is a lot of light which fully exposes a lot of photographic material.

 

[markbau]

I think you are approaching the question from the wrong end. When it comes to safelights in darkrooms I have set up and used I go with the minimum I can work under and then test the safelight. Most people comment on how dark my darkroom is, meaning my safelights are a long way from the paper and never direct light onto the paper, always bounced off a white surface. Even then I often turn off the safelight if I'm developing for 3 minutes. In my experience, most darkrooms are too bright and are fogging paper and many people do not test their safelights. You must expose paper to get a very light grey and then put it near the developer tray with a coin on top for at least twice as long as you expect the paper to be exposed to the safelight. Older books talk about just putting a coin on a piece of unexposed paper which tells you nothing. Short answer, set your safelight up and do a proper safelight test until you get no coin outline for much longer than you expect the paper to be exposed to safelight, whatever the result is, is how much light you'll have to work under.

 

[John51]

As long as I don't bump into anything and can pick up what I'm supposed to pick up, that's enough light for me. Apart from watching the print develop, I like seeing the image emerge. If it's say 2.5 minutes developing, then I'll need 4 or 5 minutes for safety. Once I'm ready for testing paper, I'll try the tealight just in case it does the job.

If not, no big deal.

 

[DREW WILEY]

The Fuji spec sheets plainly state No safelight at all - total darkness. But it was tricky for me to correctly mount big heavy 40" Fujiflex rolls onto the spool mechanism of my cutting table in total darkness. So I dug out of storage my old amber Jobo Minilux and hung it around my neck. It's very dim, and I only turn it on a few seconds at a time, but it does the trick, and no fogging so far (I tested it for fogging first, of course).

 

[btaylor]

I thought I would like a little light when I was banging around the darkroom doing RA4 printing. So I finally bought a Kodak approved filter and set it up with the wattage recommended. It was so dim I decided it wasn’t worth the trouble. A candle would be many many times brighter than the dim greenish glow of an RA4 safelight. I might try the Thomas filters one of these days, but total darkness is always safe!

 

[AgX]

What RA-4 safelighr is referred to anyway?

A little LED-light as Drew hinted at or a Sodium lamp?

 

[Photo Engineer]

The WR13 (AMBER) safelight is recommended for Kodak papers. They have always maintained a "hole" in the sensitivity of the paper due to the dyes in the films that allows a safelight to be used. A WR13 exactly matches that hole and can be relatively bright. It is NOT green. If it is, you have the wrong filter.

A candle emits a broad spectrum of radiation, even if dim. It can thus fog the paper even if you think it cannot.

Phosphorescent glow strips can fog paper.

PE

 

[DREW WILEY]

I used that little Minilux again an hour ago for cutting 20x24 sheets from a big 40" roll. It seem brighter than I remembered, but that's probably because I'd been in the dark already for half an hour, and my eyes were better adjusted. Too bad they still don't make them, but used ones sometimes turn up. I have the correct filters for the old Kodak beehive lights, but they proved too dim with the recommended bulb wattage and safe distance to see anything, other than which end of the room they were at.

 

[btaylor]

PE, indeed- it was an amber filter in a Kodak beehive safelight. My experience matched Drew’s. I will look into the Minilux— sometimes it is nice to be able to see a little.

 

[John51]

Thanks for the replies.

I decided to do things properly and buy a safelight for b+w. I chose a Photax amber/red dome as it did well in a multi test review. I can practice full dark printing for RA4 once I'm up and running with b+w.

Phosphorescent glow strips can fog paper.

There goes my idea for glow in the dark paint.

 

[Photo Engineer]

Another thread mentions amber GITD paint. Take a look there. IDK if it is safe.

PE

 

[John51]

That was me.

 

[John51]

My Photax safelight arrived. Dimmer than a candle. Also a lot dimmer than the Paterson cone I used 30 years ago.

Just enough light to work under. Hope it passes the safelight test as it's already dim enough for me.