Using FUJIFILM Maxima RA4 paper

I hit my stride today. Two quite different images. The first is from a recent series of floral and architectural street shots handheld on rainy days with my Nikon and an old single-coated lens having a color rendering I like. Moderate contrast lighting ratios shot with Ektar film. 8X enlargement, which is about as big as I like to go with 35mm. Maxima proved to be a very good fit for that level of magnification with punchy Ektar.

The second image was a sheet of 8x10 Ektar which I presumed was outdated, and gambled with for a very difficult shot. It was inside a giant burnt out redwood tree stump, almost dark in there. I'm really surprised I even got the composition right along with acute focus. The long exposure was a complete guesstimate with respect to reciprocity failure correction. I opted for a KR3 warming filter due to the intense blue of the shadows under an open blue sky. The charred wood had iridescent blue and violet shades, offset by patches of blue-green fluorescent algae (really difficult to capture on color film), plus a little bit of green moss, with a range of other color accents (and plenty of near blackness).

I'm sure any other photographer who sees the 20X24 Maxima print will accuse me of some kind of Photoshop hanky-panky. But it truly was an otherworldly looking little scene in a burnt out nook in what was once a giant tree. There is a slight exaggeration of the cyan elements - but that's characteristic of Ektar film itself. I don't think any other color paper could have pulled off the full gamma of those hues, except for related Fujiflex Supergloss. Now I'm tempted to make a 24X30 print of it too.

We'd have to see your 20x24 Maxima print first; wouldn't we?

Well, my response is predictable. Anything posted on the web would be a pretty awful representation of the real deal. The web has a color gamut worse than any kind of color paper. If I did need to use the copystand, 20X24 is easier to copy than even bigger prints. The larger the size and higher the sheen, then I'd have to resort to cross-polarized hot lights like I used for copying Ciba prints. The sheer depth of range of blacks in the Maxima print would all come out generic blaah over the web
anyway.

But some day, perhaps in a different life, I'll get around to digitally cataloging my collection. The thought of that chore is just about as appealing to me as filling out income tax forms again.

I'm not in a rush to make 30X40 prints again yet. Even with a 240 lens in relation to 8x10 film, the baseboard for my Durst 10X10 L138 enlarger would be almost to the floor. Meanwhile, my 14 ft tall custom additive enlarger, Ideal for printing that size, needs its complex control module electronics repaired, something I'm just too lazy to do anytime soon, if ever.

BrianShaw said:

We'd have to see your 20x24 Maxima print first; wouldn't we?

Click to expand...

Yeah, I'd like to see some photograph of anything.