Color Paper Top Emulson Layer

[RedSun]

Read my previous post and look at the scanned Dmax values of the old and new paper.

I've also explained the reason behind the blue color. It is there to adjust speed and to sharpen the image. It washes out. Nothing washes off! The blue color of processed paper that Red Sun is seeing is not related to the blue dye in the paper that washes out! It is probably fog of some sort.

If you fully process a sheet of unexposed paper, and just blix a sheet of unexposed paper, then if they differ in blue color (or cyan), then it is fog. If they do not differ in color, then it is indeed retained blue dye, and this indicates some sort of defect in the paper or process.

PE

Well, well, well....

There is no paper fog at all. The paper has no defect.

The blue color of the processed paper can be washed off, washed away, or washed out, or whatever you want to say it. I tried some strips with 2 minutes RA rinse and the blue color did go away completely, as it supposed to be. The un-exposed 1/2 strips are white color, just as the previous batches.

It is just a simple blue/cyan top coating get washed away during pre-rinse. I do not understand why people made it so complicated....

[RedSun]

YES - That's what I have been saying

YES - Again, that's what I have been saying (But as PE has noted, it is possible that bad paper or processing chemicals might create fog that IS a result of the image dye forming couplers.)

This gets funny. Where is the fog? where is the paper defect? Can you just read what I said????

Thanks anyway. No need to repeat.... Thanks again.

[kevs]

No, no, you completely misunderstood what I was originally asking. Same with most of the people, even PE. This is funny.

I was printing test strips, from 18% grey negative, for calibration. The strips are 1" wide, 5" long. I exposed 1/2 of the strip and left the other 1/2 un-exposed in order to get white base for comparison.

I've done this many times and I never had problem with it. But this time, the white un-exposed 1/2 strips came out light blue. The blue color is darker near the thin edges where the strips attached to the Jobo test drums. When I washed the test strips in tap water, I could see that some of the blue color can be rubbed off with hands and running water. So clearly the strips are not washed well.

The un-exposed paper never received light, no safelight, as PE suspected. The blue color is the coating, not actual image dye.

Here I'm doing an experiment. I cut a strip of Fuji Super C paper. This paper has never seen chemical. Then I put the paper under faucet with drops of water. Here you can see clearly that the blue color was washed off (or washed away) by the running water. There is nothing to do with the chemicals.

With all this, it is clearly that I should not have skipped the final rinse stage. The original blue coating was not 100% washed away.

I know this whole thing made a fool of some body, or some people. But common sense prevails. The problem with APUG is that, people always want to teach a fool, not realizing that who the fool is

Sry no flame here. I just do not understand why folks made it too complicated.

Thx for the help anyway.

Attachment 61166

I see; though my prints were usually rubbish, I never saw anything like that when I used to make RA4 prints on Fuji papers. It's very strange. Sorry for my misinterpretation of your OP (note to self - engage brain before posting...). Thanks for posting the image, I hope you can solve your problem anyway. :-)

Best,
kevs

[RedSun]

Well, I thought I could get away with saving 2 minutes with a test strip. That is about 1/2 of the total processing time. So apparently sometimes it does not work.

This is all the fun stuff with color printing, from color filter setting, density measure to test strips, drying the drums etc... This is also why not many folks still do RA-4 work....

[anikin]

Well, I thought I could get away with saving 2 minutes with a test strip. That is about 1/2 of the total processing time. So apparently sometimes it does not work.

RedSun,

I see what you were trying to do. It makes sense now. When I print color with Jobo, I don't process test strips in the drum. Instead I just dunk the strips straight into the beakers with developer and blix for the given amount of time and then wash them under the faucet with running water. This way the wash is quicker and no need to bother with the test drum. The beakers a small, but if you roll the print into a cylinder diagonally, you can process up to 4x5" that way. Try it, you might find it quicker.

Eugene.

[DREW WILEY]

An unrelated reason for doing test strips exactly the same way as final prints : allegedly there's an
interval of time needed for the latent image to fully "set". If you just pull your sample from the enlarger and right into the dev, it might come out different. I've heard anything from 30 sec to 2 min
with Fuji papers before they should be developed. I've never tested for this myself; but then, I've
never processed a sample that soon anyway.

[anikin]

Drew,

In theory you might be right. In practice, i have not seen any difference. Anyway, the test strips are just for getting close to the right filtration and expose. For fine tuning, i do a full size print anyway.

Eugene.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD

[wogster]

An unrelated reason for doing test strips exactly the same way as final prints : allegedly there's an
interval of time needed for the latent image to fully "set". If you just pull your sample from the enlarger and right into the dev, it might come out different. I've heard anything from 30 sec to 2 min
with Fuji papers before they should be developed. I've never tested for this myself; but then, I've
never processed a sample that soon anyway.

So how does it work in a machine like a Fuji Frontier, where the laser paints the image on and then it immediately goes into the soup?

[RedSun]

I'm not sure the extra "pause" would make any difference. But for me, it already takes me about 2 minutes to load the exposed paper to drum, seal it, walk to the wet side and load the drum.

[RPC]

Red Sun, why do you use drums? When I switched from drums at high temperature (like you used to have to do in the past) to trays at room temperature, and didn't have to wash and dry the drum every print, my productivity increased manifold. I think this is one reason many darkroom workers stay away from RA-4--many still believe you must use drums or processors.

Drew, how long do you wait before putting your prints in the developer after exposure?