I agree, even when we had Cibachrome and Ektachrome RC, it was much more difficult to come up with good prints than with color negative film and paper.I don't think so. It's mostly an antihalation dye as I understand. I doubt removing it would magically bring color rendition and contrast in line with natural light (and consequently miles off a projected c41 neg).
Maybe a little, but I'd wager that would offset fairly easily with a yellow filter of appropriate strength (for Fuji paper; cyan for Kodak). But most of the "problem" is inherent to the transfer characteristics of the emulsion itself.Still the antihalation layer should be filtering light, right?
Rodrigo Silva sent me this video a while ago on Matt Marrash trying the process:
I contacted Matt and he said he hasn't figured out the color shifting.
IR and UV filters did not help (which was assumed to possible be the culprit to color shifting).
Does anyone think if this will ever be solved?
This process really inspires me deeply and I would love to see if there might be a solution.
I agree, doesn't make sense if you are trying to make a well balanced color print. Way too many things going against a "normal", reproducible result. For creative type people might be fun. The development I see in the video, seems to me, to be less than optimum. From a reproducibility standpoint.Maybe a little, but I'd wager that would offset fairly easily with a yellow filter of appropriate strength (for Fuji paper; cyan for Kodak). But most of the "problem" is inherent to the transfer characteristics of the emulsion itself.
Apparently Matt Marrash (Large Format Friday on YouTube) has been getting good enough results he demonstrated the process live -- with the color development done outdoors! -- at Photostock this past month. Filtration is the key, and that's going to require testing in the exact light for each session...
The basic starting point would be a cleared C-41 or ECN-2 film base with additional adjustments depending on the ambient conditions.
I made my own first developer for RA-4 reversal, and the results are quite improved in terms of color balance and consistency, but I think I've pretty much hit my limits on reducing contrast with this paper.
Lets call the developer.. uhh, "RFD-1"
* 800ml of hot water
* sodium sulfite - 15g
* potassium carbonate - 15g
* HQ - 2g
* phenidone - 0.4g
* thiocyanate - 1g
* pot bromide - 1.7g
* iodide 1% - 1.4ml (1.5ml should be safe)
* fill with water to 1L
Usage: undiluted, room temperature (~22C), 3m development time with constant agitation. 2m will give slightly less contrast but also will have slightly warm grey whites and more green color crossing in shadows
The developer was designed to be a fairly alkaline developer for how much developing agent was actually in it (rather than resembling just a diluted developer). It was inspired by a combo of a homemade E-6 first developer recipe and a low contrast print developer. The amount of iodide and bromide was hand adjusted after mixing. I basically wanted something that would be low contrast, but also develop a good dmax (in negative). I also wanted something a bit more friendly than metol so I used phenidone. The amount of HQ is purposefully "inadequate" just so that it would behave mostly like a phenidone only developer, but with more stability and longevity, and also to further help dmax. The thiocyanate is another addition for improving dmax helping the whites "run away" a bit. The amount of bromide was initially 1g, but increased to 1.7g to slightly reduce tendency for highlights to clip at the 3m developing time.
The results were pretty surprising. It effectively makes the paper about 3/4 stops faster than D-72 with bromide/iodine and/or Dektol. It also requires a very different filter stack than I was using with Dektol/D-72, a lot less yellow and magenta filtration needed. With this, you will get some yellow looking stains around the edges of the print after the first developer. This appears to have no actual effect after color processing though.
The main benefits of this first developer is that it still pretty much minimizes as much contrast as possible from the high contrast RA-4 paper, but will also give very deep blacks, and brilliant whites. Color balance, and especially reproduction of the color green also seems to be a bit better compared to D-72/Dektol, though still not particularly great.
One other discovery. Color balance does not work the way one would expect. Removing yellow filtration will increase the amount of green. Decreasing magenta will increase the amount of blue. It can be really difficult to judge what the true results of a filtration change will be. Also, exposure latitude is still very narrow and even a minor filtration change like adding 5Y may require adjusting the exposure time.
Best print of the night processing:
* f/8, 8s
* 35M, 90Y
* 3m first developer, constant agitation
* 2m in color developer
* 2m in bleach-fix
Scanned print (edited the scan a bit to match the look of the print)
View attachment 231928
Jim, Dave, that's really interesting information you guys are coming up with! I never realized the possibility of washing out the filter dyes before exposing the paper. Makes perfect sense though!
We use cookies and similar technologies for the following purposes:
Do you accept cookies and these technologies?
We use cookies and similar technologies for the following purposes:
Do you accept cookies and these technologies?