RA4 Problems - Magenta Cast

[jon_noble]

Ok. there seems to be no proper forum for traditional colour prints so

i put it here.

 

Right my problem is that all of my prints are coming out with a

magenta cast, even in areas not exposed to light. These are the

details of what was used/done:

 

Fujihunt XPress4 chemicals

Fujicolor Professional Crystal Archive (date bought unknown, kept in a

cupboard at room temp)

processed in a darktube

45secs developer @ approx 30C

60secs bleach/fix @ approx 30C

long wash in luke-warm water

 

Room was completely dark, no extension cord lights showing etc

Chemicals were brand new

Thought it may have been contamination of developer by bleach/fix but

that made no difference

Tried shorter develoment (30secs) and longer bleach/fix (2mins) with

no difference

 

A non-developed piece of paper was put in the bleach fix and cleared

it from blue to white and found out (by mistake) that the print turns

magenta after development (i think this means oxidised developer but

i had barely used it).

 

Please help because its driving me nuts! If it wasnt for this id be

fine with colour printing, its easy.

 

Oh, please ignore the tragic state of the example. It has streaking

and a terrible colour balance but wasnt worried<div></div>

[jon_noble]

!!!Bleeding hell. Whats with the Formating!!!

<p>

Ok. there seems to be no proper forum for traditional colour prints so i put it here.

<p>

Right my problem is that all of my prints are coming out with a magenta cast, even in areas not exposed to light. These are the details of what was used/done:

<p>

Fujihunt XPress4 chemicals<br>

Fujicolor Professional Crystal Archive (date bought unknown, kept in a cupboard at room temp)<br>

processed in a darktube<br>

45secs developer @ approx 30C<br>

60secs bleach/fix @ approx 30C<br>

long wash in luke-warm water<br>

<p>

Room was completely dark, no extension cord lights showing etc<br>

Chemicals were brand new<br>

Thought it may have been contamination of developer by bleach/fix but that made no difference<br>

Tried shorter develoment (30secs) and longer bleach/fix (2mins) with no difference<br>

<p>

A non-developed piece of paper was put in the bleach fix and cleared it from blue to white and found out (by mistake) that the print turns magenta after development (i think this means oxidised developer but i had barely used it).

<p>

Please help because its driving me nuts! If it wasnt for this id be fine with colour printing, its easy.

<p>

Oh, please ignore the tragic state of the example. It has streaking and a terrible colour balance but wasnt worried

[rowland_mowrey]

Jon;

 

That looks like either very old paper, or paper kept in a warm damp place for a long time, or both!

 

I would have said chemical contamination, but you say you have ruled it out. So, accepting that at face value, I would have to lean towards keeping. This would be especially true if you observed any mottle in clear areas. Keeping problems tend to cause a mottled look sometimes in uniform light areas of a print.

 

Ron Mowrey

[rowland_mowrey]

I had an after thought.

 

You are not using a stop bath.

 

Sometimes blix does not stop development properly and you need a 2% acetic acid stop bath after the developer. If you are not using one, give it a try. See if it helps.

 

Ron Mowrey

[jon_noble]

Cheers Rowland for your quick reply. Wasnt sure if id get any response as it seems no one does RA4 anymore.

 

Anyways, i dont think the problem is a lack of a stop bath. There is nowhere in the instructions that says to use one and it doesnt come with one.

 

The paper sounds like the problem. There goes my idea of burning through over 200 sheets of unopened paper

[bob_osullivan]

Have you ever printed these negatives sucessfully? I had a similar probelem once. I discovered it was that the negatives had been developed with expired C41 chemicals. No amount of magenta filtration could print these properly. Scanning and photoshop should help though.

[jon_noble]

i have never got a succesful print (mainly as i had jsut stared RA4 printing

 

however i tried other negs and came out with the same cast. also, there is areas not exposed to light that comes out with the same cast

[rowland_mowrey]

If the unexposed border is magenta, then the problem cannot be with the negative as the border is not exposed at all.

 

If the unexposed border is affected, then it can only be 3 problems.

 

1. Fog from some sort of green light to give a magenta cast.

 

2. Keeping that has made the magenta layer go bad.

 

3. Bad chemical usage or mixing.

 

Everything points to 2 or 3, and everything under 3 was eliminated but the use of a stop bath. If you look carefully at the instructions on the Kodak and Fuji web pages, they remark on the fact that the blix is not a strong stop. Then they go on to recommend a 1% - 2% acetic acid stop.

 

I use one all of the time. If I do not, I sometimes get streaks and blotches and what appears to be fog, especially if I am processing at 100 deg F. If I am processing at room temperature, this problem all but vanishes since development rate is so much slower.

 

It won't hurt to try a stop bath out. But I am afraid that it might be the keeping of the paper.

 

Ron Mowrey

[Fotohuis RoVo]

If you have not too much experience with RA-4 it's difficult to give an accurate answer:

 

A fog of green light will indeed cause this magenta color. But if you're working in complete darkness even without sodium light source (590nm) fresh chemicals and you're not able to filter it out by increasing the M filtering, you can be sure it's in the RA-4 photopaper.

RA-4 papers should be stored in a real cool place, refrigerator or even better in the freezer when not in use.

 

Do yourself a favor and buy a new fresh RA-4 paper or ask a minilab very friendly to cut a piece of RA-4 from the rol for you. Buy your RA-4 paper from a reliable source because old, wrong stored RA-paper is a real disappointment.

[jon_noble]

Thanks for your input Robert and Rowland.

 

I used no safelight and had made sure all light sources (on 4-gangs) were showing.

 

As you can see i had tried to narrow the source down by making sure contamination didnt happen.

 

Well, i think i was hoping for too much from over2yr old paper. howver it can make some nice bw prints

[Fotohuis RoVo]

Printing RA-4 is a rather technical thing.

The whole process is made on just reproducebility.

 

Use a prof. C41 film with a predictable (same) color correction.

Use always the same chemicals.

Use the same RA-4 photopaper.

If possible use a table paper developer machine like Thermaphot, Printo or a Nova, all systems are temperature controlled.

Use a grey card/color card on each film (beginning) so that it is easy to check the color correction.

If you know how you have to filter and you need some work flow buy a color analyser. I can recommend the FEM-Kunze CFL-4012. Still fully supported. In fact this sytem can calibrate itself on the grey card from your negative.

Exposure times from your enlarger for RA-4: Minimum 8S till approx. 25 S.

When you 're starting, use fresh chemicals and photo paper. If not you will be lost in the amount of failures and possibilities what can be go wrong.

 

Best regards,

 

Robert

 

http://www.FotohuisRoVo.nl