color – Koraks tinkers

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.

Feet of clay – My first impression of Harman Phoenix

The recent introduction of a color negative C41 film by Harman Technology (of Ilford fame) was both unusual and gutsy. Entering the market with a color product with a strong reputation specifically in black & white is a surprising move to begin with. Doing so in a way that resembles a 2020s startup more so than a firm rooted in the early 1900s is even more surprising. But what gives? Let’s look at some pictures! In particular, some optical RA4 enlargements.

Skyfall – A first impression of 4×5″ Kodak Aerocolor IV

Shooting color in large format is for the rich and very dedicated. I’m certainly not the former, and the latter…nah. Well, I can always try to cut a corner here and there, so I splurged on some Kodak Aerocolor IV film, conveniently cut to sheets by Reflx Lab. Here are the results of my first four sheets shot on this film.

Big ugly no longer big (still ugly) – RGB LED head for color printing revision

As soon as something sort of works, I generally leave it as is and use it as is. Until the shortcomings become annoying enough to actually do something about it. Which is the story of my color enlarger project in a nutshell. A story that hadn’t see much development lately – after all, it sort of worked, right? Well, the annoyance got the better of me, so I did another iteration.

Crossroads – A closer look at Kodak and Fuji digital RA4 crossover

Earlier, I wrote about digital RA4 papers suffering from crossover. I feel it’s time to revisit this topic, because I stumbled across some illustrations that make the issue more tangible. Let’s have a look at some theory and split some hairs!