color – Koraks tinkers

Flipping the movie – Color negative inversion process video

Old hat, you might say. Almost exactly a year ago, I published a blog about how I scan and color balance color negative film. I now follow up on this with a video that demonstrates my approach. I start by inverting a couple of color negatives of my own (coincidentally shot on Kodak Vision3 250D ECN2 film). I then move on to some color negative scans YouTuber Analogue Andy provided me with. It’s a wordy kind of video, but for those who prefer to watch instead of (or in addition to) read, it may be useful. Enjoy!

Seeing the woods for the trees – some medium format shots

I love being in the woods. But for the live of me, most of the time I can’t shoot anything worth a damn in there. Too chaotic, I suppose. And medium format is something I also don’t do much of. So yesterday, I decided to combine both and shoot some Portra 160 in my Bronica SQAi in the woods.

Intermission – What’s up doc?

Hey, long time no speak! It’s been a while since I last posted something here – but it’s not an ‘out of sight, out of mind’ situation. Not by a long shot. Stuff has been brewing and I should really write some of that up. Here’s what I’ve been playing with and what I’d like to update on in the next few….well I dunno; when I get round to it, hopefully soon!

All over the place – The problem with color negative film scans

Scanning color negative film is something that often throws people for a loop when it comes to getting “good” colors. I can relate – I still find it a frustrating endeavor sometimes. And it isn’t helped by the algorithms in scanners and scanning software that are intended to make this process easier. The actual result is that these automatic color adjustments make life pretty frustratingly difficult if you’re after consistency! Here’s an illustration (and a solution, but I already discussed that earlier).

The flipside – A closer look at printing color negatives

In previous blogs, I’ve focused on how color paper responds to a light source. When it comes to printing photos, this leaves out a rather relevant bit – the negative. In this blog, I’m going to explore the interactions between light source, negative and color paper. Hopefully, this will give some more insight into which LEDs work best for color printing (although I have a pretty good idea already…)

Twister fries – More RA4 curves, now with a dichroic head

The other day I set up a Durst M305 color enlarger that I temporarily have with me – just to verify it works. Since I had it out anyway, I figured I could make some step wedges with it. I’ve been doing this with LED light sources recently as well. I couldn’t resist the temptation to see what one might get from a dichroic head. It’s still a bit of the gold standard for darkroom color printing, after all.

Unsafe lights – The iffy business of RA4 safelights

Opinions vary on the issue of safelights for RA4 printing. One person says they’re fine, within rather tight boundaries. Others advise against any lighting and recommend working in the dark. I belong to the latter category, and I believe that I have good reasons, too (of course).

Trans-mission – A parts bin transmission densitometer

I’ve never owned a transmission densitometer. In fact, I consider myself as far too sloppy and undisciplined in the darkroom to be able to put one to good use – so why bother? Then again, sometimes it’s just convenient to be able to take a few quick and dirty measurements on a piece of film. And there’s always the parts bin full of stuff that surely could be fashioned into a densitometer, right? Right.

Perfecting primaries – Another look at LED wavelengths for RA4 paper

Way back I explored the best wavelengths for exposing RA4 paper. In that blog entry, I pitched an idea of optimal wavelengths that I hadn’t tried yet. Well, I picked up the glove myself and I think the results could be pretty relevant. Read on, especially if you’re looking to purchase or build a LED exposure system for color enlargements.