Upside down – How color film and paper are fundamentally different

This is a story about chromogenic color film and paper that’s not a secret at all, but it remains untold much of the time. Perhaps because it’s rather technical and it goes beyond what an analog photographer or darkroom printer needs to know. But once you start thinking about the structure of C41 (and ECN2 and E6) film and RA4 paper in particular, it becomes an unavoidable topic. It’s the question how massive color crossover is in these materials. And in RA4 paper in particular, despite the absence of substantial color filtering in the emulsion layers.

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Who’s afraid of cyan, yellow and magenta? Using color C41 and RA4 chemistry at home

I regularly speak to people who would like to start doing color development (film or prints) at home. Often, they’re shunned by the prospect of having to deal with color chemistry in a home darkroom setting. Please don’t let it stop you, though. Doing color work in a home darkroom is really pretty easy. And it doesn’t have to be very expensive, either.

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Ginkgo leaves on expired Vericolor film

Rainy Sunday. Had the studio strobes setup for a bit reproduction. Some ginkgo biloba leaves I picked up in my parents’ backyard were sitting in a tiny vase, waiting. Some old Kodak Vericolor film loaded in cassettes. Heck…why not?

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Flipped – doing color negative inversions manually

One of the frustrating bits of digitizing color negatives is how to get the colors to come out right. At least, that’s how many people feel, and I can relate. There are many ways of doing this, and there’s also software dedicated to this purpose. Since scanning is a bit of sideshow for me, I make do with just the curves tool in GIMP.

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Not just muted – Vision3 250D colors

My interest in Vision3 films was initially sparked a few years ago because of the muted color palette it would give. So my exploration at that time focused on portraiture and other subject matter that I considered this film a good match for. But this is not to say that these films are necessarily limited to just muted, desaturated images with low contrast. Here’s an example.

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Rem-oval: getting rid of the remjet on Vision3 ECN2 film

Kodak Vision3 film is not really intended for still photography, but that doesn’t stop many photographers from using it. Companies like CineStill offer this film without the remjet layer, but I personally prefer the remjet-backed original. That of course does leave the challenge of dealing with the remjet when processing this film. Fortunately, this is pretty easy and it does not require any specialized chemistry or equipment.

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Striking gold – An attempt at carbon transfer orotones

A few weeks ago I was at Unseen Amsterdam, where I saw many gorgeous works. One of the things standing out to me was a series of orotones by Naohiro Ninomiya. Drop dead gorgeous! Partly because of the orotone process, but to be frank, to a large extent due to the minimalistic, contemplative compositions that worked very well as presented at Unseen, in a collage of small images. Well, at least, I could try my hand at this orotone thing, couldn’t I?

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Color potential – Remaining dyes in processed RA4 paper

As I was setting up for a color printing session, I did a quick experiment to prove something to myself that I already knew. It’s just that I had never before empirically witnessed it. It’s about the dye couplers that remain in the emulsion of chromogenic color materials, such as RA4 paper. Yes, they just stay there, even if they’re not part of the image. Pretty neat – or disconcerting?

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Getting organizized – A database for carbon transfer tissues

When it comes to workplace organization, I’m pretty schizophrenic. My desk is generally a mess, and open any cupboard in my darkroom only to find its contents in disarray. On the other hand, I can get carried away trying to properly organize things – to the point of being ridiculous! This blog is about the latter: a database system for keeping track of carbon tissue variants.

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