color – Page 2 – Koraks tinkers

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!

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.

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.

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?

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.

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.

How I broke my fixer

“My genius knows no bounds”, Jeremy Clarkson says something. I often feel the exact opposite: my own stupidity never ceases to amaze me! Here’s another one that had me stumped for a while: a weird red/cyan cast on my ECN2 negatives. Annoying!