paper – Koraks tinkers

A round roll in a square box – Cutting RA4 color paper sheets from roll

When I started out color printing on RA4 paper, I bought a couple of boxes of paper from a retailer that offered a cut-sheet option. But sadly, they didn’t offer the papers I really wanted to try, and I also found that buying rolls of paper is far more economical. The only thing is – I had to figure out a way to cut sheets from a roll of paper. In the dark. Turns out it’s not that difficult at all!

Pixels, not grains – Why RA4 paper is ‘digital’, and why this matters (not?)

Look at the back print of some papers, such as FUJIFILM’s Crystal Archive Supreme HD, and the word ‘digital’ features prominently. Indeed, I’ve been told that current Fuji RA4 color papers are exclusively intended for digital exposure. But does that mean we can’t use them anymore for optical enlargements?

Between the lines – The importance of interlayers in RA4 color paper

‘Today I learned’…a lot, in fact! More than enough to fill a couple of blogs, but let’s start with this one. Did you know that color paper has layers that you can’t see, that are actually designed to be invisible, but that play a huge role in the visual aspects of the paper and the images on it? Well, now you do! They’re the interlayers, and they are quite essential, as it turns out. I’ll try to explain.

Easy way out – Inkjet on ‘DIY’ papers

No, I haven’t given up on color carbon yet. But as I was messing with the inkjet printer anyway, making hundreds of digital negatives and greyscale tests, at some point I got experimental in that direction as well. You see, the thing with inkjet is that I just don’t like most inkjet papers. They’re very high-tech and offer great gamut and dmax. But they don’t have much subtlety to them and the paper surface is always lifeless to me. The exception is the (rather pricey) inkjet baryta papers that indeed resemble fiber-based B&W papers. But couldn’t we expand our choices a bit, perhaps by trying something ourselves? Well, turns out, we can…read on!

Making black, making white

There are many things to like about carbon transfer printing (and at least as many to dislike about it…). One of them is that essentially, you’re making the black and the white separately and then marry them when making the actual transfer. The black is the tissue, the white is the final support. Combined, they make for a continuous tone image. Pretty neat if you consider that they start out as pure black and pure white!