On Monday, April 15, 2002, at 10:24 PM, Shel Belinkoff wrote: > Part of the B&W process is establishing the relationship between film > speed, EI, developer, and printing paper in order to fully realize one's > vision. But with color, since there's really no fooling around with > developers, developer times, and the like, those factors are eliminated > from the equation, and therefore the level of skill required to get a > good color negative or transparency is reduced substantially or > eliminated completely.
You don't need to pick an appropriate paper and film combo in colour? That's news to me. ;) Shel, shoot some Agfa Optima and have it printed at a lab using Kodak Edge paper, or a pro lab printing on Kodak Ultra. Be careful to bring a bucket or one of those airplane sickness bags with you. I think you're either not as picky as you would be with your b&w because the actual process is hidden from you, or you've lucked out with your first lab. Probably the second one. Again, to reiterate, the testing to determine optimal processing is being done by your lab for you. The speed and temperature of the machine are being carefully regulated. In the case of labs running Jobos, agitation is also regulated. Also, just because 4 minutes at 38 degrees C works in one place, that doesn't make it a universal constant -- numerous atmospheric conditions necessitate tweaking the process. Example: a lab in another city and myself have the same processor and use the same chemistry. We share tweaks back and fourth. Both of our machines have been recently calibrated by the same service professional. Yet, he finds he has to run C-41 about 30 seconds longer than I do to obtain the same results. Example 2: Friday morning I got a call from a lab that I absolutely idolize (seriously, they're the lab I want to be), who also use the same processor as me and who were curious about their C-41 results because they had never processed C-41 in their Jobo before -- when they compared what they considered their 'perfect' results with the manufacturer's supplied reference neg, they found their base density was considerably thinner, but that their highlights were still good and that the negs printed fantastically. This is a byproduct of C-41 in the Jobo: more available contrast and stronger black detail (and I believe less grain in the dark blacks, but I haven't done any head-to-head testing to compare that one). Anyhow, after having a tech conversation like that with someone who I've respected for ages, and one where I could offer useful information, was such a pure geek thrill that I was on a high all Friday (ask Dave Brooks, who came to visit -- I was a little hyper), and I barely got any work done. What I'm trying to say is that the process seems easier because the hard decisions are isolated from you. Often, when someone decides that they don't like a specific film it is because they don't like the way their lab processes it, or prints it, or both. You have to find the film that works best in the process your lab is using and with the paper your lab is printing on. This is also why people can have such a wide range of opinions of one film. I'm considering a change of chemistry suppliers over here. It is not wholly a financially-motivated consideration, but that is some of it. It is somewhat of a delivery issue, since we use a less popular chemistry in small batches, and recently there have been some delays in shipping. (I was promised our current order of chemistry Friday morning, then Monday morning, now this morning. I will run out by tomorrow morning. Being a lab with no chemistry is not much fun.) Anyhow, the problem with a new chemistry is, will I get the same results out of the box? Probably not. Can I get the same results with plenty of testing? Probably. Will it be identical? No. Will I alienate customers if my results change? Possibly. Maybe they won't notice. I can tell you for sure which ones will, and I'll be talking to them before I make a change like that. Chances are I'll offer them some test rolls and ask their opinion of the results, since their opinion is infinitely more valuable than a control strip. See, I'm doing what you do in b&w, Shel: straying from reference to obtain what I consider a better negative. Not everyone will agree with my choices, and that's the way it should be. Part of picking a lab is finding a place that you like the results from. -Aaron - This message is from the Pentax-Discuss Mail List. To unsubscribe, go to http://www.pdml.net and follow the directions. Don't forget to visit the Pentax Users' Gallery at http://pug.komkon.org .
