Selective colors, is this even possible?

Berri · Dec 10, 2018

Is it possible to selectively change the colour of a particular area? For example, say I have a portrait that prints with neutral tone at 50M 50Y. Would it be possible to change the colour of the eyes from blue to pink without changing the rest?
I was thinking of making a mask on transparent material, has anybody tried this?
Any suggestions?

MattKing · Dec 10, 2018

Most likely you would need to use two separate exposures. One with the negative in place using a filter to dodge the eyes and render them grey. The second to add an overall pink cast just to the eye area.
The original negative probably filters out most of the green that would allow the eyes to print pink (magenta).

dE fENDER · Dec 10, 2018

There are retouching dyes specially for color prints.

thuggins · Dec 10, 2018

Turn off the red eye reduction on the flash.

Berri · Dec 10, 2018

thuggins said:
Turn off the red eye reduction on the flash.

Seriously...did you understand what I am talking about?

Bill Burk · Dec 10, 2018

Berri said:
Seriously...did you understand what I am talking about?

Haa you asked for eyes to be pink and that would do it.

I’ve gone so far as to draw in felt pen (using the complementary color) on glass over the print paper. It served my needs but was not what you would call professional.

Lachlan Young · Dec 10, 2018

Berri said:
Is it possible to selectively change the colour of a particular area? For example, say I have a portrait that prints with neutral tone at 50M 50Y. Would it be possible to change the colour of the eyes from blue to pink without changing the rest?
I was thinking of making a mask on transparent material, has anybody tried this?
Any suggestions?

Yes, colours can be altered selectively by optical means by a variety of masking techniques - though pin registration will become a necessity very rapidly.

kevs · Dec 10, 2018

You could try Marshall's Oils but I've no clue how they would work on colour materials. It's difficult to control the spread of chemicals on plastic-based materials.

The non-analogue method seems more attractive to me; your mileage may vary.

Photo Engineer · Dec 10, 2018

There is a way and it has been done. Use CC filters for dodging and cut them to the proper size and shape.

PE

Prof_Pixel · Dec 10, 2018

Photo Engineer said:
There is a way and it has been done. Use CC filters for dodging and cut them to the proper size and shape.

PE

Back in the days before digital, I was always amazed at the work skilled darkroom technicians could do in the way of photo comp work.

Berri · Dec 11, 2018

Photo Engineer said:
There is a way and it has been done. Use CC filters for dodging and cut them to the proper size and shape.

PE

That's more like what I was asking! I have done it in the past, but not for a very precise area like in the case of eyes. Also while I am masking one eye, the other one will receive normal filtration...I should I do it?

Photo Engineer · Dec 11, 2018

You can always do what you want to do and what you are capable of doing! On this last question, you can use more than one filter and more than one hand when dodging.

BTDT.

PE

Bob Carnie · Dec 11, 2018

Berri said:
That's more like what I was asking! I have done it in the past, but not for a very precise area like in the case of eyes. Also while I am masking one eye, the other one will receive normal filtration...I should I do it?

I worked as a photocomp specialist back in 80's , what you are asking is possible but very complicated and frustrating to do but at some point with proper registration, film masking, and double exposures you can do it.
FWIW I would not want to try this ever again and after you try you may feel the same way.

DREW WILEY · Dec 11, 2018

If a certain color of dye merely needs to be added to arrive at the intended final hue, that is fairly easy, and really not much different than spotting a black and white print. But if you need to do selective bleaching in order to restore a white base prior to retouching, well, that can be pretty tricky. The option is painting over the emulsion using something like Marshall's photo colorants (not to be confused with their dyes). But either acrylic or oil paint is not transparent like a dye, and it's hard to disguise the subterfuge. What Bob just referred to, Photocomping using punch and register technique, requires a fair amount of experience and pricey special equipment. Modest changes can be made by taping a piece of frosted mylar in register with the original and adding tint to that, rather than to the negative itself. Entire books were once written on the subject. Merely reading through them can be intimidating. But along the way, one learns quite a few advanced printing skills which might not meet your immediate need this time around, but could potentially come in handy later. Printing is just like that : you can make it either as simple or as complicated as you wish. Unlike most peoople, if it's going to get complicated, I'd rather do it in the darkroom than on a computer. But I've already got the correct gear.

Selective colors, is this even possible?

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