How To Print Color

Strangely, nobody has yet mentioned the high CRI daylight-balanced light source needed for colour assessment.

This goes for inkjet and other colour printing methods as well.

To add to the discussion, I develop B&W and color (negatives, and now also slides) at home. B&W and C-41 are easily done without sending to a lab and I enjoy the process a lot. I scan using a Nikon Coolscan 5000. I used a different scanner before but the difference was like day and night. I do minimal edits to B&W but more heavy (color and contrast) corrections to C-41. I used a lot of different software and now settled on the new 'negadoctor' (yes, terrible name) capabilitis of Darktable. C-41+scanning will never give you perfect colors. The process was simply engineered with photographic paper as a key component in mind. Negadoctor has nice features to adjust the color mask differently for shadows and highlights and this helps a lot. As much as I love the analog process (for the sake of enjoying photography as an activity), printing is a different story. Printing B&W is great, printing color seems to be a task that needs very good control and experience. Recreating this in 2020 seems difficult, at least for an amateur like me. If I recall correctly, the types of papers and processes to adjust color contrast in prints are largely gone. Honestly, I have not even tried so far (but may do so in the future). Long story short, I love B&W darkroom prints but for color I simply use my Epson P600. As far as labs are concerned, I have not found a single lab (in the US) that does good prints right off your color negatives consistently. If there is a little bit variation in your photography and scenes, chances are that you will not like the prints. E.g., scans are typically made to be flat to allow for interpretation, prints, however, should not be flat. I would develop at home, invert with negadoctor or another tool, edit, and then send off to a lab or printing service or simply print at home. The P600 is certainly good enough for me. Overall, a modern C-41 workflow with good results (and digital prints) seems very common these days. Oh, btw, I am all for trying. In the end, we all want to keep film and analog processes alive. What counts is whether at the end there is more fun than frustration.

Sorry but the world has become too complicated for me. I just spent a harrowing 20 minutes trying to download a picture I took with my iPhone to my computer.

First I had to email the picture to myself, (easy enough) . Then I clicked on the attachment so I could view the picture and maybe perform some edits. However Google would not let me open the picture with any of the software I have on my computer ?

It gave me a 2 page list of software that of course I had to buy. The only thing I could do is to download the image to my Google Drive. Then I had to run some program so I could open the image with one the editing software packages I have on my computer. That did not work so I had to MOVE the image to my Desktop. After moving the image to my Desktop I could finally open and edit it. Here is the image:

I use daylight because I have a handy window.

The trouble is that daylight isn't that reliable in some parts of the world Conrad, and certainly not available 24/7.

Most of my home colour printing went on late into the night, and even during the day it was inconvenient to roll up the blackout blind in the darkroom just to judge a test strip.

My solution was a high-wattage 'hobby bulb' - a blue-coated incandescent bulb - as the darkroom white light. These days a daylight LED source is probably a better option.

It gave me a 2 page list of software that of course I had to buy.

Download the free Irfanview Harry. It'll open any picture format yet invented.

The trouble is that daylight isn't that reliable in some parts of the world Conrad, and certainly not available 24/7.

 

Most of my home colour printing went on late into the night, and even during the day it was inconvenient to roll up the blackout blind in the darkroom just to judge a test strip.

 

My solution was a high-wattage 'hobby bulb' - a blue-coated incandescent bulb - as the darkroom white light. These days a daylight LED source is probably a better option.

 

Download the free Irfanview Harry. It'll open any picture format yet invented.

The infraview software works fine, thanks !

This may be true for some developers but not for the Kodak RA-RT replenisher, used without starter. I have run sensitometric and visual comparisons to the high temperature developer with identical results. Ron Mowery, a deceased Kodak engineer (Photo Engineer over on APUG-Photrio website) discovered the ability of the RA-RT replenisher to produce excellent results at room temperature sometime after he retired, and endorsed its use, and many printers on that site have use it, although Kodak itself has never promoted this capability.

 

It is true that the C-41 process must be used at the correct temperature to avoid crossover.

I used to run room temp RA4 with some help from Ron way back in 2009. I would sneak into the school darkroom and shut off the safe light. It's not terribly difficult; the main downside is you only get one grade of paper these days. Easiest with a dichro head but can be done with stacking CMY color filters.

FYI the Fuji paper DOES NOT work at room temp, but the Kodak paper does. I still have a stack of well expired Kodak sheets of Endura glossy. I've been meaning to try it again at some point.

Scanning color negative film is quite difficult to do properly. Color slide film can be drum scanned for best results but that's pricey. To be honest real prints just look better than scans to me.

RA-4 color printing is very do-able. I just started, and it is a lot of fun. Check out The Naked Photographer on YouTube.

Scanning and digital printing is probably better, but, for me, working in the darkroom is 10x more satisfying.

RA-4 is doable, and is fun, but it takes a lot of time.

Well, if you have a good color analyzer, it is probably easier

and faster. I don't have one of those.

I only did it a few times, and the chemistry is probably dead by now.

FYI the Fuji paper DOES NOT work at room temp, but the Kodak paper does. I still have a stack of well expired Kodak sheets of Endura glossy. I've been meaning to try it again at some point.

I don't know what Fuji paper you have used but I use Fuji Chrystal Archive II paper, and it does work very well with the Kodak RA-RT Developer/Replenisher at room temperatures when used at about two minutes development time. I see little if any difference between it and Kodak Endura paper. Past versions of the Fuji paper may not have worked at room temperature, but the current version certainly does.

Fuji CA II paper, on the other hand, does not work as well with the process for making prints from slides known as RA-4 Reversal (an experimental, unofficial process) compared with Kodak Endura paper which can give very good results, at least in my experience.