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Response to Colour negs.

from dk thompson (kthompson@moh.dcr.state.nc.us)
Patrick, I use Panalure.....it doesn't come in graded numbers though, but rather in L (low), M (medium), and H (high)...it's like a color paper, so you have to handle it in near-darkness. I use it with a print processor though, so I really use it in darkness....it's an rc based, developer incorporated paper, so it's pretty easy to process in a tray as well.

Panalure can be funky to use though, getting a good match with certain types of color negs can be tough sometimes....you can use just about any enlarger that you'd use for b&w (no cold heads, though), but it would help *alot* if you have either a set of CP filters for a condenser enlarger, or a color head. The reason why is that you can alter the separation of tones with the filters just like you would when shooting a panchromatic b&w film more or less. Since you have such limited contrast control with panalure, this is the way you do it. You can also raise the contrast by a half grade more or less, by using the cyan filters....in my experience, this does work, BUT it also tends to make the image a bit grainy.

I mostly use the M grade for general work. I use a color head as well...there have been occasions where I have had to use a second enlarger to set up a flash of the paper to knock down the contrast....you might have to resort to this for certain types of negs. You don't need much though, you just want to knock the highligts down a tiny bit....

You can try to use regular b&w papers, but they will never render the tones accurately...I have used Multigrade III and IV a bit for this in the past as well, and handle it by really increasing the contrast...like a 3.5 or higher. Color negs can become really grainy when printed on regular papers like this though, and the tones can get weird...panalure is the best way to go, but using it is not exactly easy sometimes....hope this helps, btw Panalure is tough to find sometimes, you might have to order it....

(posted 8193 days ago)

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