B&W paper and colour negative

[Ed Sukach]

guys, I was in a pinch for b&w film once, and have a couple of rolls of that C41 processed b&w film. Is this enlargable using normal paper, or is it like the negatives you guys discussed on this thread??
Chris

It is close to black and white film. The image is not really black, as is common on the regular run-of-the-mill black and white film, but a sort of dark brown, formed not of silver, but dyes.

I definitely would print these on black and white paper. The results are far superior to those on color paper - as is common from "one-hour" labs.

[Robert Kennedy]

Which "C41 processed B&W film"?

There are two kinds that I have run into.

There is the Ilford XP2 and the Portra B&W. There are others if I am not mistaken, but they tend to be like Portra.

Andwho.... The Ilford doesn't have a brown base. It has a clear base (well, not THAT clear...seems to be a bit denser than say Pan F). This means you MUST print it on regular B&W paper. Print it on color paper though and it all goes sepiaish. Nice film. I've used and gotten good results.

Now, the Portra stuff has the standard "color brown" base. It is designed to be printed on color paper. When printed on color it comes out B&W. Print in on regular B&W, and well, I guess it works like a color neg on B&W paper.

[Matej Maceas]

guys, I was in a pinch for b&w film once, and have a couple of rolls of that C41 processed b&w film. Is this enlargable using normal paper, or is it like the negatives you guys discussed on this thread??

thx
Chris

I've printed XP2 on B&W RC paper and it came out nicely, and the exposure times weren't any different from regular B&W films.

[David A. Goldfarb]

Panalure is the stuff. I haven't used it for ages, and the look of color neg film on Panalure isn't exactly like traditional B&W, but if you need to do it, that's what it's for.

[DKT]

Panalure works the best. I use it at work occasionally--admittedly with a roller transport processor which makes usng it pretty easy since it's like a color paper & needs to be handled in the dark....

at any rate, it came in 3 grades as mentioned above--low, medium & high. I think medium is all that's left now, although I have used all 3 grades and still have quite a bit lying around. It's sorta funky stuff to use, but works best with a colorhead if you have one. You can shift the tone separation around with a filter pack, and you can also punch about a half grade of contrast higher with cyan filtration--although sometimes you pick up some grain in the image this way as well. If you need to lower contrast, the only way to do it is through flashing the paper or possibly through development. The final image tone can be sorta weird sometimes and has a smoothness, for lack of a better word, that a reg b&w neg doesn't have--although occasionally certain types of negs will end up looking mushy. All in all--it's the only paper that really works good with a color neg because it's panchromatic.

Hope this helps.

KT

[chrisl]

Kodak made this one actually, speed of400. And it's like Ed described w. a dyed look...pinkish/light lavender color base. Guess I'll try reg. b&w paper and if it fails, i'll track some panalure down.
thanks again!
Chris

[Ed Sukach]

Kodak made this one actually, speed of400. And it's like Ed described w. a dyed look...pinkish/light lavender color base. Guess I'll try reg. b&w paper and if it fails, i'll track some panalure down.
thanks again!
Chris

I've printed Kodak "chromogenic" - C41 black and white (I seem to remember a "BW400" edge marking?) for my students.
Printed out on Ilford MGIV and Portfolio, I expected more of an effect on the contrast of the paper, due to the slight color cast of the base and the non-blackness (very slight) of the image itself. Actually, there was very little "shift" that I could notice.

I like the film well enough when printed on black and white paper - I don't like it much, at all, when printed on RA4 (I generally use Ilfocolor).

I've also used "Panalure" for printing color negatives. It is a panchromatic paper, designed to handle the various colors from color negative film, and render "proper" black and white values from them. Being panchromatic, it is sensitive to all colors, including the color of light from the usual safelights, and therefore total darkness is strongly recommended.

I don't think you'll gain much by the use of Panalure. It is designed for "many colors" as described above, and the chromogenic films have monochromatic (although the "mono" isn't a true black) images.

[pierre]

I like Ilford XP2. It's intended to be printed on B&W paper, and it almost makes 35mm look like medium format. The standard prints that come from the minilabs look awful though - they just print them on their regular colour paper. They are really only intended as proof prints. XP2 negatives scan very well too, and you can use the IR dust removal with them, unlike conventional B&W negatives.

[bmac]

I totally agree with you Pierre, XP2 is great in 35mm

[harveyje]

I have had good luck with the chromogenic films (XP2, Kodak, and Agfa) in MF. They print like traditional B&W on VC papers with color head filtration.