How to process color paper?

[George R]

Hi everybody,
I am trying to process my color prints myself. (Not much self
confidence to try the film anyway :-)
I have my set up with enlarger and Unicolor Drums and base.

I scanned the web and read some books, But few basic questions remain.

1. What are the chemicals needed? (Developer/fix/bleach/stabliser etc.) I
figure they come in brand names with different manufacturers. This will be
small scale so I prefer solutions to ready mix.
Any suggestions on brands/price...?

2. Are they coming with the instructions on timing/temperature/agitation?

3. Is any site I can refer the details.. step by step?

Any and all help will be appreciated..

George

[Christopher Bush]

I use the Tetenal Mono PK RA4 chemicals. A 1 liter kit costs around US$15
(not including stop bath) and makes 38 8x10 prints. The kit works at room
temperature. The instructions are included, or can be viewed in the support
section of www.jobo-usa.com. The nice thing to me about these is that you
can use trays instead of drums, which I find infinitely easier so long as
you know your way around your darkroom without a safelight. If you opt for
trays make sure you agitate the print alot in the developer as yellowish
borders can result if you don't. Beseler also makes a room temp kit, but I
have never used it.

--
Christopher Bush
http://www.christopherbush.com

"George R" <macb...@home.com> wrote in message
news:macbooky-110...@192.168.123.187...

[Herbert Kanner]

In article <3b9da...@news.starnetinc.com>, "Christopher Bush"
<cb...@dialupnet.com> wrote:

> I use the Tetenal Mono PK RA4 chemicals. A 1 liter kit costs around
> US$15
> (not including stop bath) and makes 38 8x10 prints. The kit works at
> room
> temperature. The instructions are included, or can be viewed in the
> support
> section of www.jobo-usa.com. The nice thing to me about these is that
> you
> can use trays instead of drums, which I find infinitely easier so long as
> you know your way around your darkroom without a safelight. If you opt
> for
> trays make sure you agitate the print alot in the developer as yellowish
> borders can result if you don't. Beseler also makes a room temp kit, but
> I
> have never used it.
>
> --
> Christopher Bush
> http://www.christopherbush.com
>
>

Nice to read that I'm not the only one developing RA-4 in trays. I
recommend using a stop bath and using it in an over-sized tray. Stop
bath is cheap. By using an over-sized tray for this cheap chemical, it
becomes easy to aim for that tray in total darkness. According to the
instructions, and confirmed by at least 1000 prints that I have made,
you can turn on the light after 20 seconds in the stop bath. Thus,
there is no problem moving the print to the bleach/fix; the lights are
on.

Herb

--

In addressing email, replace "acmd" by "acm".
--
Herbert Kanner <kan...@acmd.org>

[Jtown2354]

George - Printing color is relatively easy. I use Kodak RA4 chemicals and
Kodak Supra III paper in surface E (semi-lustre). I use the 1 gallon to 3 1/2
gallon size RA4 units - and keep the developer in an evacuated "cubitainer" (a
collapsable plastic container). I evacuate (using a shop vac and an adapter)
the air from the cubitainer after pouring in the developer. An adapter with a
dispensing hose is available and works well to fill a smaller bottle of
developer. Kodak provides their professional chemicals in the 5 gallon
cubitainers - which I have used. Other sources of the cubitainers are probably
available, however, I do not know of such a manufacturer. One possibility - I
have seen 5 gallon collapsable water jugs with a dispensing faucet - they might
work too.

I use Beseler drums and motor base - similar to your Unicolor drums and base.
I use the 8x10, 11x14 and 16x20 tubes. Be sure to rinse the drum out with
smoking hot water and dry after each use. The bleach/fix can find itself into
small creavices and joints which ruins the next few prints. I control the
motor base via a Gralab dial type timer - works great.

I have developed a procedure which allows me to process prints in any tube at
any temperature between 80 and 96 F and any darkroom temperature between 66 and
82 F. This procedure works great and the prints are virtually identical,
regardless of the tube that they were processed in. The procedure would work
with your system as well - however, I have not calibrated the Unicolor tubes.
They may be close enough to the Beseler tubes - I will have to take a look at a
Unicolor tube.

This procedure was presented to and discussed briefly in a "Darkroom
Photography" magazine a few years ago.

One of the biggest benefits in a color darkroom is a color/exposure analyzer.
A properly calibrated analyzer allows you adjust the filter pack and indicates
the exposure time - which gives an acceptable print on the first exposure
probably some 95% of the time. Sure beats the trial and error method of many
years ago. I use a Beseler PM3L analyzer - which is their digital unit. I
bought mine some 25 years ago and I'm not sure that they are still making them.
They also made (make?) a PM2L analyzer which was an analog (dial meter)
read-out. Either a digital or analog meter will work well.

I have also worked out a procedure to use the color darkroom analyzer as a
densitometer - so that works well for those needing to measure the density of
negatives.

Jerry / Idaho