Color Printing in Your Bathroom (questions!)
Tim Takahashi
up a room-temp EP-2 kit and 25 sheets of "Konica" paper.
And last night, I got the enlarger set up, the color printing
filters dusted off and tried it out.
Not bad!
Filtration was easy to home in on, my usual RA-4 filtration of 55M,45Y
was roughly approximated by a 40R + 10R filter pack. And the
whole process seemed to work OK.\
Now, I have a few problems, perhaps someone can enlighten me?
1. my test prints have occasional browish staining along the edges
(where the print touches the ridges in the unicolor drum)
2. my test prints have occasional blemishes (my fingerprint shows up
on one, looks like "air bubbles" on another)
3. contrast is high, color saturation is weak - I'm printing some
Agfa Ultra 50 negs (low contrast, high-color saturation) -
is this something I'm doing wrong? the prints look really different
than the same from Kodak Ektatcolor RA-4.
My questions :
must the tank be 100% dry before the print is inserted? (i.e. are my
print defects due to water droplets on the emulsion)
should I pre-wet the emulsion with tap water?
is room temp (72 deg) processing the cause of the color/saturation
shift I'm experiencing?
thanks
tim
Steve Wall
t...@fulcrum.me.rochester.edu (Tim Takahashi) wrote:
> Well, I finally tried it! On ymy last order to Freestyle, I picked
> up a room-temp EP-2 kit and 25 sheets of "Konica" paper.
> And last night, I got the enlarger set up, the color printing
> filters dusted off and tried it out.
>
[snip]
>
> Now, I have a few problems, perhaps someone can enlighten me?
>
> 1. my test prints have occasional browish staining along the edges
> (where the print touches the ridges in the unicolor drum)
>
These ridges go the length of the drum, and not around the circumference?
If so, it might indicate that you need to pre-wet the paper to get the
chemistry to flow to the edges. It might also indicate that there's
still some bleach-fix clinging to these ridges.
Stains/discolorations along the edge of the paper that wraps the
circumference of the drum would suggest other problems like a
non-level rolling surface, light leaks, or pre-wetting problems
again.
> 2. my test prints have occasional blemishes (my fingerprint shows up
> on one, looks like "air bubbles" on another)
>
I'll bet you didn't wash and dry your hands carefully enough between
prints, hence the fingerprint. Air bubbles again suggest that a pre-wet
is in order.
>
> My questions :
>
> must the tank be 100% dry before the print is inserted? (i.e. are my
> print defects due to water droplets on the emulsion)
>
Possibly. You should be extremely careful to rinse away any hint of residual
chemistry from your last print. I always dry my tube between prints.
> should I pre-wet the emulsion with tap water?
>
It couldn't hurt to try. I vaguely remember pre-wetting when I printed
EP-2, but I was mostly doing Cibachrome back when EP-2 was popular, so
my experience is limited.
--
Steve Wall
Bill Branan
t...@fulcrum.me.rochester.edu (Tim Takahashi) wrote:
I still use Kodak Ektacolor+ with Jobo Printmaster EP2 at 100F, 30sec prewet,
1-min dev, 20sec stop, 20 sec rinse, 2-min blix, two rinses in the tank:
1. Do you use a stop bath between developer and blix? I've found this
necessary
to avoid the stains.
2. The cause of my fingerprints was putting the paper in the easel with
fingers that were not clean and dry.
3. Might be overexposure & underdevelopment.
I don't dry the tank other than shake out the loose water.
I prewet the tank to get the temp up and it seems to provide more even
development, fewer blemishes & air bubbles, especially with the 1-min cycle.
There is noticable visual difference between different papers and processes,
but you should be able to get a pretty good print with either one. I've noticed
filtration changes between different processes and temps with the same paper,
but if the chemistry was designed for room temp, it should be OK.
One caveat with the bathroom: Make sure you have good ventilation to outside
air. Many bathroom fans just pass the air over a charcoal filter; not too
useful.
Bill Branan .-- -... ....- -.-. .... - eai...@email.mot.com
Peter Cheung
>Well, I finally tried it! On ymy last order to Freestyle, I picked
>up a room-temp EP-2 kit and 25 sheets of "Konica" paper.
>And last night, I got the enlarger set up, the color printing
>filters dusted off and tried it out.
one questions before I start, why are you using EP-2, when the
rest of the population are converting to RA4. I am currently using
EP-2 as well, but once my chemicals and solutions are used up,
I will eventually going to RA4. It just seems like you are going
backwards...
>
>Not bad!
>
>Filtration was easy to home in on, my usual RA-4 filtration of 55M,45Y
>was roughly approximated by a 40R + 10R filter pack. And the
>whole process seemed to work OK.\
>
>Now, I have a few problems, perhaps someone can enlighten me?
>
>1. my test prints have occasional browish staining along the edges
> (where the print touches the ridges in the unicolor drum)
are you doing a rinse with either stop bath of water after the
first step? Sometimes that happens with EP-2.
>
>2. my test prints have occasional blemishes (my fingerprint shows up
> on one, looks like "air bubbles" on another)
again, this could be caused by the same thing that caused 1.
>
>3. contrast is high, color saturation is weak - I'm printing some
> Agfa Ultra 50 negs (low contrast, high-color saturation) -
> is this something I'm doing wrong? the prints look really different
> than the same from Kodak Ektatcolor RA-4.
>
>My questions :
>
>must the tank be 100% dry before the print is inserted? (i.e. are my
>print defects due to water droplets on the emulsion)
I always make a effort to dry the drums before I put any prints in
for processing. Also, make sure that the resevoir part (esp. with
Cibachrome drums) are dried before you place your print in.
>
>should I pre-wet the emulsion with tap water?
I found that different papers made by different manufacturers make
a difference with this. I always pre-soak/wet my paper when I am
using Kodak, but DON'T prewet when using Fuji papers. It DOES
make a difference. If you pre-wet the Fuji papers, the contrast is
so low that it makes everything looking gray, somewhat like
looking through a fog or something. I don't know about the Konica
papers, though. I had posted this problem earlier, but didn't get
much response. Guessed not many EP-2 printers out there any more.
>
>is room temp (72 deg) processing the cause of the color/saturation
>shift I'm experiencing?
>
I always find that 38 deg Celcius works best. I gathered this
from my Photo Lab Tech days when it should not go +/- 1 degree
with film and papers, and I have stuck with this all these years
and it works for me...
hope this helps.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Peter Cheung, EMRG UBC email: pe...@emrg.ubc.ca
University of British Columbia, Vancouver Canada
"All opinions expressed are solely mine... My employer had nothing to do
with them...REALLY!"
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Barry Sherman
> [ responding to queries from Tim Takahashi about some problems with
EP2 processing ]
Tim:
>>must the tank be 100% dry before the print is inserted? (i.e. are my
>>print defects due to water droplets on the emulsion)
Peter:
>I always make a effort to dry the drums before I put any prints in
>for processing. Also, make sure that the resevoir part (esp. with
>Cibachrome drums) are dried before you place your print in.
I'm interested in whether this is due to caution or bad experience?
I ask becuase I always used to religiously dry my drums before
loading them with Ilforchrome paper.
But then one day, when doing a test print, I decided to skip the careful
drying. I reasoned that I give the paper a 1 minute water pre-soak
before pouring in the developer and that as long as the water in the
drum is not contaminated with chemistry, any spots from the wet
drum/lid should just blend in with the rest of the wetted paper
surface during the pre-soak.
So I just rinsed the drum/lid out cuz I can always smell a little
chemistry left in it even after 4 clean water rinses through the Jobo
Lift and drum. Popped the dry print into the wet drum, attached the
wet cap and processed as usual. For the life of me, I could see no
ill effects on the print.
I now never bother drying the drum when doing test prints (usually
either 8x10 or 4x10) and have never noticed the slightest evidence
of that lack. I'm too scared to do so with a full-sized sheet of
16x20 paper and do dry before processing final prints. But I only
do that because I'm superstitious. :-)
Barry
--
Barry Sherman, Amdahl Corp. | Over thar! The great white whale!
b...@oes.amdahl.com | Moby Rush!! He blows! He spouts! He spews!
My opinions, not Amdahl's | (almost) Herman Melville
Peter Cheung
>Peter Cheung writes:
>
>> [ responding to queries from Tim Takahashi about some problems with
> EP2 processing ]
>
>either 8x10 or 4x10) and have never noticed the slightest evidence
>of that lack. I'm too scared to do so with a full-sized sheet of
>16x20 paper and do dry before processing final prints. But I only
>do that because I'm superstitious. :-)
I haven't really tried doing Cibachrome prints while the drum is
still wet, but my experience with regular EP-2 processing is that
if there is a bit of moisture in the drum (in the form of relatively
big drops, when I load paper into the drum in the dark, the edge of
the paper "scoops" up the water droplets before the processing begins,
and hence I get inconsistent tones where the water hit, since some
parts of the print get exposed to water more than the other parts.
Hence the drying of the drum. I have one of the older Cibachrome drums
and I make it a point to "ring out" as much water as possible after
each print, just to avoid the problem mentioned above.
Peter
Donl Mathis
Barry Sherman <b...@DUTS.ccc.amdahl.com> wrote:
>>I always make a effort to dry the drums before I put any prints in
>>for processing. Also, make sure that the resevoir part (esp. with
>>Cibachrome drums) are dried before you place your print in.
>
>I'm interested in whether this is due to caution or bad experience?
>I ask becuase I always used to religiously dry my drums before
>loading them with Ilforchrome paper.
But no, oh Wise One Barry of Ciba!
Actually, since I don't *do* Ciba, maybe I should keep quiet. I will
say, though, that I've noticed problems using your scheme with prints
from negatives. Even a one-minute presoak still didn't blend
everything together, and the prints came out with spots.
Now, since the contrast of negative materials is about four times as
high as that stuff you work with, you may have a bit of a practical
advantage in this regard.
Me -- I'd stay scared, at least for my final prints. :) What's it
worth?
--
- donl
(Please note that any opinions expressed by me are mine, not Auspex's.)