Colour contact sheets in the darkroom, for a newbie

There's no such thing as "basic color" when printing color negatives. You
either do it or you don't. You absolutely don't need the colorhead with
dials, but you should invest in a drum (8x10 to begin with and stick with
Beseler, they're the best) and an automatic roller (very cheap on ebay).
You'll also need to buy some color filters to change the filtration (that's
where the colorhead with dials makes life easier). When I first got started
I used the filters and didn't have any problems.

Be aware that color is not as easy as black and white. I've wasted many a
tree just trying to get the filtration correct. I've spent an entire night
just trying to get it right. It's not fun and in many ways would have been
much, much easier to plunk down that $20 for an 8x10 or $35 for the 11x14 at
a custom lab. However, in the end, knowing you made the prints yourself is a
very satisfying feeling. I've only just started doing RA processing (color
negatives). I mostly did b/w and Ilfochrome.

It's been almost 20 years since I started and I'm one of the diehards that
still does things the old fashion way instead of computers, scanners, and
ink-jet printers. I have an Alps MD-5000 when I need to do a quick dye-sub
print (like last night), but I rarely use it. My setup consists of a Beseler
23CII-XL with a dual dicro head, a 50mm f/2.8 and 80mm f/5.6 EL-Nikkors,
Beseler drums (up to 16x20) (stay away from Omega drums - they're ka-ka),
PhotoTherm bath to heat the chemicals, and a Colorstar 3000 analyzer that I
just picked up off Ebay for $100 (what a deal and to think I bought a
Colorstar 2000 years ago for $1000 before returning it).

You can get great deals on Ebay on darkroom equipment, especially since
everyone is going digital.

Good luck and be very patient. Color takes a lot of time.

Nathan

"Jordan Wosnick" wrote in message
...

Hello all --

I have a decent amount of experience in the B&W darkroom and know the
theory of colour materials, but have never printed colour in the darkroom
before (though I have developed C-41 and E-6 at home on several
occasions). I am currently doing my B&W printing at a rental facility that
has automated colour and B&W paper processors (stick exposed paper in, dry
processed print comes out 1-2 mins later).

I'm toying with the idea of trying out some very basic colour printing
(contact sheets from colour negs) at this darkroom. My suspicion is that
the fact that they have an automated processor would make my life easy
enough to make trying this worthwhile. The enlargers all have dial-in
adjustable colour heads.

Is it simply a matter of exposing the contact sheets in the usual way --
after presumably making some preliminary adjustment to the filter settings
(where do I start?) -- and sticking the paper in the processor, or am I
doomed to endless fiddling with filter settings to get a decent-looking
contact sheet? What are my chances of success on the first few tries? And
any suggestions for a good "beginner" colour paper?

Thanks for your collective advice

Jordan
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There's no such thing as "basic color" when printing color negatives. You
either do it or you don't. You absolutely don't need the colorhead with
dials, but you should invest in a drum (8x10 to begin with and stick with
Beseler, they're the best) and an automatic roller (very cheap on ebay).
You'll also need to buy some color filters to change the filtration (that's
where the colorhead with dials makes life easier). When I first got started
I used the filters and didn't have any problems.

Be aware that color is not as easy as black and white. I've wasted many a
tree just trying to get the filtration correct. I've spent an entire night
just trying to get it right. It's not fun and in many ways would have been
much, much easier to plunk down that $20 for an 8x10 or $35 for the 11x14 at
a custom lab. However, in the end, knowing you made the prints yourself is a
very satisfying feeling. I've only just started doing RA processing (color
negatives). I mostly did b/w and Ilfochrome.

It's been almost 20 years since I started and I'm one of the diehards that
still does things the old fashion way instead of computers, scanners, and
ink-jet printers. I have an Alps MD-5000 when I need to do a quick dye-sub
print (like last night), but I rarely use it. My setup consists of a Beseler
23CII-XL with a dual dicro head, a 50mm f/2.8 and 80mm f/5.6 EL-Nikkors,
Beseler drums (up to 16x20) (stay away from Omega drums - they're ka-ka),
PhotoTherm bath to heat the chemicals, and a Colorstar 3000 analyzer that I
just picked up off Ebay for $100 (what a deal and to think I bought a
Colorstar 2000 years ago for $1000 before returning it).

You can get great deals on Ebay on darkroom equipment, especially since
everyone is going digital.

Good luck and be very patient. Color takes a lot of time.

Nathan

"Jordan Wosnick" wrote in message
...

Hello all --

I have a decent amount of experience in the B&W darkroom and know the
theory of colour materials, but have never printed colour in the darkroom
before (though I have developed C-41 and E-6 at home on several
occasions). I am currently doing my B&W printing at a rental facility that
has automated colour and B&W paper processors (stick exposed paper in, dry
processed print comes out 1-2 mins later).

I'm toying with the idea of trying out some very basic colour printing
(contact sheets from colour negs) at this darkroom. My suspicion is that
the fact that they have an automated processor would make my life easy
enough to make trying this worthwhile. The enlargers all have dial-in
adjustable colour heads.

Is it simply a matter of exposing the contact sheets in the usual way --
after presumably making some preliminary adjustment to the filter settings
(where do I start?) -- and sticking the paper in the processor, or am I
doomed to endless fiddling with filter settings to get a decent-looking
contact sheet? What are my chances of success on the first few tries? And
any suggestions for a good "beginner" colour paper?

Thanks for your collective advice

Jordan
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Thank you all for your comments. As I mentioned in my initial
post, I work at a rental darkroom (Toronto Image Works, for those
of you in Toronto) that has a completely automated colour
processor. This rental darkroom is part of a pro lab and the lab
itself uses it for custom colour enlargements, so it gets a lot
of use. The lab has a viewing area with daylight-balanced
lighting and a set of colour viewing filters. I am sure they have
darkrooms with colour analyzers but will need to be trained on
their use. I'm not planning on purchasing any hardware
specifically for colour myself.

Thanks to Nick for advice on where to buy paper. I happen to have
a Henry's gift card that I'll probably use for my first pack.
After that I'll try Photocan. I'm not a huge fan of Henry's but
use it for reasons similar to yours.

Jordan

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Jordan Wosnick wrote:

Hello all --

I have a decent amount of experience in the B&W darkroom and know the
theory of colour materials, but have never printed colour in the
darkroom before (though I have developed C-41 and E-6 at home on several
occasions). I am currently doing my B&W printing at a rental facility
that has automated colour and B&W paper processors (stick exposed paper
in, dry processed print comes out 1-2 mins later).

I'm toying with the idea of trying out some very basic colour printing
(contact sheets from colour negs) at this darkroom. My suspicion is that
the fact that they have an automated processor would make my life easy
enough to make trying this worthwhile. The enlargers all have dial-in
adjustable colour heads.

Is it simply a matter of exposing the contact sheets in the usual way --
after presumably making some preliminary adjustment to the filter
settings (where do I start?) -- and sticking the paper in the processor,
or am I doomed to endless fiddling with filter settings to get a
decent-looking contact sheet? What are my chances of success on the
first few tries? And any suggestions for a good "beginner" colour paper?

Thanks for your collective advice

Jordan
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