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  #11  
Old 2nd June 2012, 06:33 PM
Dave miller Dave miller is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by RajP View Post
I've done some B&W printing a long time ago at uni, but i was planning on having a go at developing colour negatives. The colour printing part looks quite hard to control especially dish developing, is a print processor pretty much an essential for this?

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No it isn't, but they do make the process easier to control.
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  #12  
Old 2nd June 2012, 06:37 PM
Mike O'Pray Mike O'Pray is offline
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It is possible to develop colour prints at room temp in trays, say 20C minimum, so depending on where your darkroom was it might need some heating even in summer, if today's temp is anything to go by

The main issues with trays( 3 needed dev, stop and blix) is space and heating( see above). Frankly I'd seriously consider a rotary processor such as a Jobo CPE2 which has a temp controlled water bath, uses drums so processing once the print is in the drum is done in room light, and uses much less chemicals.

The alternative is a Nova Quad processor which is trays on their sides with temperature controls. Processing has to be done in the dark( but see below) but it is much easier to locate each slot in the processor and move the print from slot to slot in the dark. However the Quad saves a lot of space and can be used for B&W.

Now the safelight bit. Sodium safelights such as the Duka 10 and 50 are safe at low intensity and give enough light to see what you are doing. They are not as cheap to buy secondhand as most B&W safelights but personally I don't think I'd bother with colour unless I could have a safelight. Some however seem to manage OK in total darkness

So to summarise you can do RA4 printing in total darkness with trays at room temp but in my opinion it would be a struggle and I'd invest in equipment such as I've mentioned to make it a pleasure and not an ordeal.

Finally I'd get a colour analyser to help with colour balance. Again you can do it without but expect to use quite a lot of paper until you get to the stage where you can get close to the right colour balance almost instinctively.

If you go down either route, the primitive or more sophisticated one, treat it as an adventure and be prepared to turn out a low volume of prints in the early days.

Above all have fun.

Mike
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  #13  
Old 11th June 2012, 03:19 PM
darkroomTed darkroomTed is offline
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Default Welcome Raj

Don't know where you are in Bucks..... (big county) or indeed if you only shoot monochrome, but if you are in the south then check out Amersham Photographic Society website. We have a mono group - members shoot both on film (and the O*ther).
Ted
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  #14  
Old 11th June 2012, 06:09 PM
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MartyNL MartyNL is offline
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Welcome Raj.
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