colour dev + printing

david1701

david1701

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Right if I have a colour enlarger and all the other stuff for black and white dev and printing can I just go with colour if I buy the chems and paper

looking at Paper dev chems paper chems

what else would I need?

oooh just thought of bulbs need to replace some blow red ones so I could grab some yellow ones too?
 
You'll have to work in the dark if using trays, also some means of keeping the chemicals warm at the desired temp, I used a long hot plate to keep the trays at 38c.......erm also a count down timer that makes a noise.
 
in the dark? are there no colour safelights :O

might be worth investing in some of those tanks for making prints maybe ?
 
in the dark? are there no colour safelights :O
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Nope, which makes sense when you think that colour paper has to be sensitive to the whole colour spectrum.

Printing colour is a far far cry from B&W and unless you need to, I'd give it a wide berth. Compared to B&W, where it's all down to individual interpretation and taste with a million different options for each neg, colour is pretty much just wrong or right. Unless you run a fairly high output and have a very consistent process, you can spend an age chasing a colour cast round and round and round to get a good print.

An analogy would be trying to imagine that colour temp in digital is controlled by balancing three colour filters and fluctuates depending on the temp of the computer, how long the puter has been on and how many pics you've processed in that session. These factors will also change with the size of the PC and contents of the hard drive.

Cibachrome is lots of fun though. :D
 
I suspect we're not going to talk you out of this and you'll go ahead anyway, but colour processing while sounding cool and very exciting is laborioius and fraught with problems. Even sending your stuff to a pro lab will be cheaper and you'll get a far better result.
 
There are safelights for colour but you can barely tell the difference between it switched on and off. i.e. hardly any light at all.

Colour paper is generally processed in drums which are a bit like the tanks used for film developing but longer (and no spiral). Although the only colour developing I have done has been in trays.

It's not quite as simple as black and white but obviously can be done at home as people used to do it a lot before there were other options.


Steve.
 
david1701 said:
if printing is more aggro than its worth is slide dev more viable ?
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Definitely!!!

If I want to develop at home that's what I do these days and have done for a long time.
 
off to google for slide dev chems

if I had a slide I loved and wanted a print how would I go about it?
(a vvv unlikely scenario but a possibility) Do they go onto computers then get a digital print or is there a printing process for it?
 
I have everything needed for colour printing, but it is just not worth it. Far to hit and miss.
Durst combi enlarger with color analyser.
Durst fully auto dev and fix.
The prob is you have to make a correct print first for all the shots on the neg to be reasonably accurate
 
david1701 said:
off to google for slide dev chems

if I had a slide I loved and wanted a print how would I go about it?
(a vvv unlikely scenario but a possibility) Do they go onto computers then get a digital print or is there a printing process for it?
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Convert from analogue to digital via scanner.
 
There is a wet printing process called Cibachrome. Great results, but I would debate if they are any better than a top quality inkjet from a decent scan.
 
Gandhi said:
There is a wet printing process called Cibachrome. Great results, but I would debate if they are any better than a top quality inkjet from a decent scan.
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I wouldn't exactly go along with that but it is the safest way of thinking. ;)

cibachromes are things of total wonder and there is nothing like it at all in my book. It's like they actually hold light within. They were fairly expensive when people were actually doing them and not easy to get right at all.
 
colour slide is E6 process linky to kit and a different E6 to BnW E6 right?

seeing as its only 60 quid to get a colour transparency set up (+maybe a decent scanner if it gets used) I reckon I'll have the society buy some in for experimenting purposes
 
Yep, colour slide is developed using an E6 process - so that kit it the one to go for. All you need is that and a good scanner and you're on your way.
 
saw a slide copier linked to on here that looks like an idea

and can I use an ordinary flatbed at least to start - maybe pick up somat better along the line :D
 
Gandhi said:
There is a wet printing process called Cibachrome. Great results, but I would debate if they are any better than a top quality inkjet from a decent scan.
Click to expand...

I would also debate that. But I would take the opposite view. Cibachromes (or Ilfochromes as they are now) are fantastic quality. But not many people do them and they are very expensive.


Steve.
 
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