RA-4 Reversal Processing Fogging

[WayneStevenson]

I have been re-exposing my paper negatives with both incadescant and daylight. I have found that I have a fogged mottling appearance on the finished print.

Is this caused by the B&W paper development (Dektol in my case), or would this be caused by the re-exposure of the paper?

Would using an E-6 reversal bath be possible with RA-4 papers and/or would this be preventative?

[Photo Engineer]

Use Dektol at 1:2 or 1:3 for 2' at 68F or 20C. You have to experiment.

Stop 30" and wash, then expose with room light and then color develop for 2' with RA-RT developer.

This gives me the best results. Fuji paper is not as good as Endura for this type of processing.

PE

[WayneStevenson]

Thanks. I have been experimenting. So far it has seemed that the most important aspect of this is the initial Dektol development. I am using Fujifilm Crystal Archive II.

Dektol 1:2 for three minutes is what I have found to work the best for me. Then standard RA-4 process. My experimentation has not gotten to the point of extending it as of yet.

Do you know what may be causing this fogging / mottling?

[Photo Engineer]

A large proportion of people who tried this form of cross processing reported poor results with Fuji CA paper. That is about all I can say. My work was all with Endura. This process would not work for me at all with Supra I, II or III.

I saw some mottle with Endura. It was not a consistent problem though. I used to see it with Ektachrome paper as well. Some old notes say that it is typical of reversal color papers.

PE

[Mike Wilde]

I have a formula of a first developer for reversal that Ron gave me on a post here long ago; sorry, my notes are not at hand.

I made it up to within the last six months to try to use some Radiance reversal paper that was gifted to me; alas the stuff was beyond salvaging.

I have struggled with reversal processing conventional RA-4 Kodak paper's in the and have the concept of density of the print from exposure and 2' of first developer at room temp, optical fog and conventional RA-4 chems, but the prints lack 'pop' and have never drawn me beyond the experimenting stage.

[hrst]

I have always had some mottle, no matter what I do, both on Fuji CA and Supra Endura. And yes, it seems to vary. If the mottle is very excess, it's probably just the good old problem of too restrained development, causing also the "cyan highlights" problem. It is mitigated by lowering the bromide level.

Dektol as-is, I got cyan highlights on Kodak Supra Endura, and white highlights but ugly greenish-grey shadows on Fuji CA. For Kodak, the solution was to lower the bromide level (scratch mix, as you cannot remove it from a solution...), for Fuji, it was adding hypo -- the bromide seemed fine.

I have had equally good results with both papers (on average), but the optimum bromide level in first developer is very different; IIRC, something around 0.2 g/l for Endura and 1 g/l for Fuji... Also if you add a bit hypo or SCN to FD, these levels vary between papers -- Fuji NEEDED some hypo to get good blacks, and, OTOH, managed quite high levels of hypo without burning the highlights, whereas Supra Endura worked best without hypo or with 1/10 of the amount of Fuji, to give a careful boost on highlights. Hypo levels suitable for Fuji caused Supra Endura to go very wild in contrast, really a posterising effect, which I will definitely keep in my "artistic toolbox" if ever needed.

Sometimes I had better results with Supra Endura, sometimes with Fuji CA! Go figure. This might need much more testing .

[Photo Engineer]

My experience with Endura totally agrees with HRST.

PE

[ctsundevil]

I had halfway decent results reversing Portra, Supra and Ultra Endura. My only complaint was that the contrast was way too high. I also tried an old box of Agfa Signum paper. It reversed very well. The contrast was good, but the saturation was a little too low.

[Photo Engineer]

You can reduce contrast by adding Sulfite to the color developer. But remember that Endura and CA are negative papers with one emulsion per layer, but reversal papers have up to 3 emulsions per layer. This is done to reduce contrast. But then, reversal papers are no longer made.

PE

[hrst]

IIRC, 0.5 g/l was a good starting point for sodium sulfite in color developer for slight effect or 1.0 g/l for heavier effect. Of course, you can use this same developer in negative printing too to give lower contrast. It mostly eats away the blacks, lowering Dmax.