Hi all,
I am looking for some advice. Yesterday I did my first Ra4 printing and encountered some situations.
I am Using Tetenal RA-4 (Minilab/ergoline?) chemicals. I had 2L BLIX-RP, 2L CD-ULR and 1,5L CD Starter. The Blix says its for making between 4L to 10L for diff replenishment rates. The starter comes with the instructions attached. The 2L CD-ULR says "for 10 Liter". 10 Liter of what? Working Replenisher / Working final solution?
I developed at high temperatures first, around 38c down to 30c for the first tries with hideous color results, Overdeveloped & blixed borwn whites and color shifting.
Then I lowered the temperatures to around 23c. All done using a Rotatory tank for prints. Results got better but still had some issues of whites. I think I should have used the CD-ULR proportions instead.
At first I mixed the bleach replenisher without starter(I have none) and water to make around 250ml (125ml+125water) of working solution. I think it was too weak because eventually I got yellowish highlights and yellow/brown non-exposed whites.
I also think the I mixed CD too strong at first. My first try was 125ml water+ 15ml Starter + 110 Replenisher. Since I got those yellow whites I ended up diluting the Color developer to make it less reactive and added more Blix replenisher (I read here somewhere that yellow/brown highlights are from faulty Blix or wrongly mixed CD). This alleviated my problems a bit on a test (non-exposed) strip of paper (blixed not developed) and yielded a decent white (I still think the Blix is defective but is good enough for evaluative contact prints.
I managed to do around 8m2 (24 15cmx22cm) of test prints before getting purple blacks (whites as good as the test strip).
Now I dont know how to really handle the replenishment rates of both the Blix and CD. I was working with 250ml solutions at a time, that were mixed based on 1/4 * 1L formulas (see the image for example).
1) Is the amount of paper I developed consistent with he 250ml of solutions I mixed? Or did I do too string mixtures? Or did I actually go above the recommended capacity of that 250ml solution?
2) Should I instead mix 1L working solutions solutions?
3) How do I know what do change on my mixing if the blacks/dmax is purple/blue?
4) How long could those solutions keep? Should I keep them at all or throw the 250ml solutions?
5) Should I be using (and reusing?) smaller quantities of 1L Working solutions per print i.e: 25ml?
6) The 2L CD-ULR says "for 10 Liter". 10 Liter of what? Working Replenisher / Working final solution?
7)After making a working solution how do I use the replenishment rate? Do I need to add the required ml in concentrate/working solution every specified sqm?
I know I cant put 1L on the tank at once, since the inner temporary container would overflow before I could properly put the tank on the processor.
Thanks for the advice!
I am looking for some advice. Yesterday I did my first Ra4 printing and encountered some situations.
I am Using Tetenal RA-4 (Minilab/ergoline?) chemicals. I had 2L BLIX-RP, 2L CD-ULR and 1,5L CD Starter. The Blix says its for making between 4L to 10L for diff replenishment rates. The starter comes with the instructions attached. The 2L CD-ULR says "for 10 Liter". 10 Liter of what? Working Replenisher / Working final solution?
I developed at high temperatures first, around 38c down to 30c for the first tries with hideous color results, Overdeveloped & blixed borwn whites and color shifting.
Then I lowered the temperatures to around 23c. All done using a Rotatory tank for prints. Results got better but still had some issues of whites. I think I should have used the CD-ULR proportions instead.
At first I mixed the bleach replenisher without starter(I have none) and water to make around 250ml (125ml+125water) of working solution. I think it was too weak because eventually I got yellowish highlights and yellow/brown non-exposed whites.
I also think the I mixed CD too strong at first. My first try was 125ml water+ 15ml Starter + 110 Replenisher. Since I got those yellow whites I ended up diluting the Color developer to make it less reactive and added more Blix replenisher (I read here somewhere that yellow/brown highlights are from faulty Blix or wrongly mixed CD). This alleviated my problems a bit on a test (non-exposed) strip of paper (blixed not developed) and yielded a decent white (I still think the Blix is defective but is good enough for evaluative contact prints.
I managed to do around 8m2 (24 15cmx22cm) of test prints before getting purple blacks (whites as good as the test strip).
Now I dont know how to really handle the replenishment rates of both the Blix and CD. I was working with 250ml solutions at a time, that were mixed based on 1/4 * 1L formulas (see the image for example).
1) Is the amount of paper I developed consistent with he 250ml of solutions I mixed? Or did I do too string mixtures? Or did I actually go above the recommended capacity of that 250ml solution?
2) Should I instead mix 1L working solutions solutions?
3) How do I know what do change on my mixing if the blacks/dmax is purple/blue?
4) How long could those solutions keep? Should I keep them at all or throw the 250ml solutions?
5) Should I be using (and reusing?) smaller quantities of 1L Working solutions per print i.e: 25ml?
6) The 2L CD-ULR says "for 10 Liter". 10 Liter of what? Working Replenisher / Working final solution?
7)After making a working solution how do I use the replenishment rate? Do I need to add the required ml in concentrate/working solution every specified sqm?
I know I cant put 1L on the tank at once, since the inner temporary container would overflow before I could properly put the tank on the processor.
Thanks for the advice!
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