Color Darkroom Printing At Home

Showing how I make color darkroom prints at home with Intrepid enlarger.
Easel by Accura (found exact same one on Etsy):
www.etsy.com/l...
My copy stand is from Amazon: a.co/d/5ptARrB
Chemistry and paper from Freestyle photo
Fuji Paper Lustre: shorturl.at/gsBL9
Fuji PAper Glossy: shorturl.at/arxY7
Arista RA4 chemistry: shorturl.at/fL147
Bellini RA4 chemistry: shorturl.at/hpTX5
Where else to find me:
Check my work: www.marinaboic...
IG / marinaboichuk
Prints: analoguediarie...

[@speralta1]

I have the same Intrepid unit. In color mode, pressing the safe light button will turn off the display. That way you don't have to cover it up. Maybe you found that out by now...

[@AnalogueDiaries]

This is brilliant! Thanks for the tip. This was NOT in the manual 🙅‍♀

[@TristanColgate]

Any idea what the "Live" thing means if you hold down the safe light button in colour mode? It seems to lock the Run button, but again, not mentioned in the manual.

[@AnalogueDiaries]

@@TristanColgate I am not sure. When I hold safe light button down in color mode nothing happens in my case. This is with updated firmware.

[@KennethDAstonJr]

WOW. I graduated from photography school in "84" got my first job as a darkroom technician at ViTech Photo Lab in Camden, NJ. I learned B&W and moved to Color printing/processing and at that time, there was no way you could process color prints at home, temperature was very critical and now, DAMN someone get me an enlarger lol. The color print process back in the day took at least 15 mins to go from Wet to dry print. I am currently a photographer with the US Government at the US Naval Academy. Thanks for sharing too, enjoyed watching this brought back some memories. You should purchase some color correcting filters, Kodak used to make them, get you a set. you can adjust all colors but take out or add accordingly

[@wujiali1117]

After watching the video to the end, I got up from the bed, and kissed my Canon Selphy CP1200 printer good night. 😂

[@AnalogueDiaries]

🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

[@ijo58media2]

Thanks for sharing. I haven't been in a darkroom since 1978. Two thumbs up!!

[@lensman5762]

That Cibachrome drum brought back memories. I used to print a lot of Cibachrome at home in the early 1980s with my JOBO print processor.. Cibachrome made absolutely beautiful prints. You should also always develope the negatives and the prints at the recommended temperature. You can use cooler or hotter temps but you risk forcing colourshift. Very well explained BTW, Well done.

[@AnalogueDiaries]

Thank you! I like my Cibachrome drums. They need some time to get used to but they are great and don’t take as much chemistry as Jobo drums

[@stratocactus]

I also started rolling my drum on the ground ^^ Then I made a roller base and it's so much more convenient! Wish I had a Jobo CPE though :) A few remarks about your video : - as someone else stated, you shouldn't start with 100 on the 3 color channels. It's just making a "grey" filter and doesn't correct colors at all. Starting point depends on paper and film base, I personnaly start with Y60 M60 C0. Test strip for exposure density. Then test strip with increments of 5 on Yellow channel only (Warmth slider in Photoshop). Use the new yellow filtration and make another test strip on magenta channel with increments of 5, that's your Tint photoshop slider. Final exposure test strip with new Y and M filtration (to compensate the loss off light due to higher filtartion). Test print and it should be pretty bang on. Saves a lot of paper and chemistry. - you say you're out of chemicals after 10 prints or so. I guess you're doing one shot development then ? I use 1 liter solutions and reuse it up to 20 prints in total. No one shot. And the solutions keep for months (if you're not cross contaminating your developer especially). I'm using Bellini kit too. Tried 20°C (room temp) also and it's just longer than at 35°C. 2min per bath. - a used Durst M605 with color head is not so big and cheaper and way more user friendly ;) - you can definitely do B&W with your current setup. Just need a red safe light and B&W chems. You won't see the dev process in the drum but it's not absolutely necessary. Dev and fix for chemicals recommended times and you'll be fine. Also don't need to warm up B&W chems so you can save space and probably have 2-3 small trays for up to 18x24 prints on your work space :)

[@AnalogueDiaries]

1L of chemicals is about ~15 prints sometimes more. Sometimes I do one shot-sometimes 2 prints out of one portion. For this particular print I used chemistry leftover from another printing session. Hence I ended up with 14 prints total and not shown all. (I made doubles😌). Intrepid is very different from a traditional analog enlarger. I have worked with one at my community darkroom and you are right about starting points and adding and subtracting at 5 point increments. BUT this is not the case with Intrepid. Even 1 or 2 points of the color adjustment can make a very big difference in print outcome. So this 5 point increment rule does not apply here. Using neutral grey as starting point with Intrepid actually makes sense, because I see how my print looks and what needs to be adjusted. Anyways that is what I have noticed when using newer enlarger made with modern technologies versus traditional analog one. I don’t like printing BW, I have no room for it, I tried and it wasn’t good/convenient experience. Also in small bathroom BW chemistry in open trays stinks even with exhaust running, so I can’t stand it 🤢 Intrepid works for me as of now. Nothing will beat it’s portability and convenience. It is not perfect, but nothing is and everything has its own prons and cons. Plus it doesn’t produce heat like a traditional analog enlargers. The same copystand and Intrepid light source is used for my scanning process as well. So every tool is a multi purpose and I like it. If I want to print with a bigger enlarger I would use a community darkroom and sometimes I do.

[@stratocactus]

@@AnalogueDiaries alright I forgot Intrepid is using variable light LED instead of fixed light + filters. SO it's additive instead of substractive. My bad :) I was considering their light source and timer to use on my homemade 4x5 (mounted as an enlarger). Funny you think B&W chemistry stinks cause I barely smell them in my non ventilated darkroom (I know I know). But I use odorless Tetenal rapid fixer. On the other hand, I can't stand the smell of color developer ahah. Especially when it's heated to 35-38°C :) Good job on the prints BTW ;)

[@AnalogueDiaries]

Thanks! I agree, color chems stinks too but it’s way less of a smell due to the use of printing drum.

[@josemfa9120]

Darkroom magic!!! 😍😍😍

[@AnalogueDiaries]

Sometimes it’s magic and sometimes it’s a frustrating experience. But that’s the best part about it 😅

[@gabrielsilvaz4199]

I use Arista RA- 4 in amber glass bottles That have lasted over six months without any degradation after the chemistry has been mixed into its final solution. lately I have been squirting a little bit of butane gas into all my developer and chemicals bottles to increase longevity and have had developers last over a year without any degradation.

[@AnalogueDiaries]

Nice! I once had pre mixed developer went bad in about 2 weeks (Arista btw), so after that one time I only mix what's needed.

[@allanhugh2044]

Very interesting, first time I have seen how the Intrepid enlarger system works. Certainly the way of the future. Going through your progress of firstly getting a density setting you were happy with, through to getting colour that you were happy with, and from there a colour print you were happy with; I think you did an extremely good job of explaining how colour printing from colour negatives works. Love the home made paper easel; impressive! You may wish to consider using f/stop increments for finding your preferred initial density settings. This may or may not be feasible with your Intrepid unit, but, if it is possible, and from a photographic sense, it is easier to work out correct (or preferred) exposure density. You used increments of 2 seconds, which is fine, but the actual increments in an f/stop change quite dramatically. 2 sec to 4 sec is one f/stop, 4 sec to 6 sec is ½ an f/stop and so on. Using test density sheet increments in this manner is a bit harder the further away you go from 2 seconds; but it is certainly doable. If say you started at 2.1 sec then went ½ a stop for the next exposure that would be 3.15 sec (or rounded to the nearest 1/10 of a sec) followed by 4.2 sec, then 5.9 sec and so on. Each of these time increments is ½ a stop more exposure for each step. It can take some thinking to understand, but in the negative film to paper print world, it works quite well and you will know if the correct density you would like is halfway between two test exposures, it is a quarter of a stop. In colour negative film to colour print in a darkroom world, there are three colours in the film and three colours in the colour head. You are aware that you adjust Magenta and Yellow to add or subtract those colours or their opposite colours. The one colour that is different is the Cyan/Red adjustment. Once you are quite close to your overall correct (or preferred) colour, you should be able to change the print from Cyan to Red by exposure. Adding exposure makes a print more Red, reducing exposure makes a print more Cyan. Now I may be wrong about the Cyan/Red density adjustment scenario with your electronic Intrepid colour enlarging system, but in the dichroic colour enlarger head printing world, that is pretty much how you get correct (or preferred) colour. I've just done some calculations of general RA4 paper developer from my own system. Approximately 16 25.4cm x 20.3cm (8x10") sheets of paper per 1 litre of chemistry is somewhere where it is at. If your colour prints don't look quite right when your chemistry is getting near to exhaustion, look carefully at the blacks in the print. When the blacks in the print are looking a little blue, then the RA4 paper developer is exhausted. It's called, Blue Blacks, adding fresh developer on a replenishment basis at that point hasn't ever worked very well for me. Time to replace the developer.

[@AnalogueDiaries]

Thanks for such detailed information. I appreciate it! 🙌🏻

[@ZOMBIELUIS666]

Thank you ao much for this walkthrough ive been struggling with my color prints 😮‍💨 Yours turned out great!

[@AnalogueDiaries]

Thank you 🙏🏻 Always happy to help.

[@carltanner9065]

I want to get myself the Intrepid enlarger and do some color printing, as well. You can also do B&W printing with the same enlarger, which is an added bonus!!. The only thing it doesn't do is 4x5 negatives, which Intrepid make an enlarger attachment for a normal 4x5 camera, anyway. I'll probably end up with both!!

[@AnalogueDiaries]

I find BW printing so much harder than color and I can’t stand the smell of the chemistry in open trays 😬 I guess it’s possible to use the same printing drum for BW printing but not sure if that’s convenient

[@terrywbreedlove]

Seattle very cool I live about 4 hours away in Forks. Cool to see a local KZbin darkroom channel. I will be in Seattle next weekend to shoot some street and hopefully get a negative with printing. But mostly get some good food and get out of town a couple days :)

[@AnalogueDiaries]

Hi, thanks for watching! Forks is a nice woodsy area and I’m jealous that you live so close to the coast. La Push and pretty much all coastal line is very pretty! I wish I could go that way more often.

[@mendezproductions]

Love it I wish start printing my own

[@judeoorehhh4107]

Thank you for your video 🙂 Inspires me to get starting with this method! Just wondering for that drum… do you have to tilt it sideways when filling it up? I notice on the cibachrome that there is a hole in the other end and it seems like it will just leak out the liquids on the other end which don’t make sense as to why it’s designed like that… unless there is a twist-seal mechanism to prevent it from draining out when pouring in?

[@AnalogueDiaries]

Yes, you have to tilt it a bit to fill up and do it as quick as possible. First time I used it I didn't know it and it started leaking before rolling and developing. It was very funny. But afterwards I figured how to use it and never had a problem. I also like it more than Jobo, because it takes less chemistry.

[@user-dp1gd7vf3s]

Действительно. При преобладании cyan оттенка - уменьшают y+m. При преобладании blue - уменьшают yellow. Регулировать cyan в этом случае особого смысла нет

[@richard.l5563]

thanks.. first time i've seen this enlarger. seems odd to use all three colors, but then that is probably their design effort

[@AnalogueDiaries]

LED enlarger works differently than traditional ones. And it makes sense to use all 3 colors on the LED.

[@samuelajah8649]

Completely unrelated but I love your nails! Do you remember what the name of that polish is? Loved the video btw

[@AnalogueDiaries]

@@samuelajah8649 thanks 😁 Pretty sure it was some cheapo gel from Aliexpress 🫣

[@danallansarthou7]

Do simple as color darkroom developing picture for goodness memory?

[@carlofernandez9506]

What was the temperature and time for processing in chemicals? Awesome video

[@AnalogueDiaries]

Thanks! I don’t remember from the top of my head. But I follow the instructions from the chemistry I use.

[@justjerry1078]

I use the same enlarger kit. Do you reuse your chemicals, or just use it once

[@AnalogueDiaries]

Sometimes reuse and sometimes not. Depends on freshness of the chemistry.

[@KennethDAstonJr]

How long does it take to make a print

[@Thorpal]

Good job Marina. I need to go back to color printing so bad... So do you recommend Bellini ? I loved their C41 dev kit, and I was thinking to pick their RA4 kit instead of Adox's one.

[@AnalogueDiaries]

Yes, Bellini is decent. I can only compare it with Arista though. There is one working temperature recommended (35C) for Bellini in the instructions. While Arista gives different temperatures.

[@Thorpal]

@@AnalogueDiaries I'm not sure, because maybe I'm mixing Adox and Bellini, but I guess if you want to print at 20°C/68F you should double the indicated time.

[@randallstewart1224]

The reason Bellini recommends one temperature for its RA-4 process is that at lower temperatures, the color dye layers in the paper do not develop evenly, resulting in color crossovers between the color emulsions. These color errors cannot be corrected in printing. They cannot be corrected in digital processing without huge waste of time and effort. So, why does Arista provide data for lower process temperatures? Because many people these days want the convenience, so providing information encourages sales. They know that the results will be out of specification, but they figure that if you are so ignorant about the process to do this, you won't understand that you are getting shit results.

[@Klemenswichmann]

Wich copystand do you use?

[@AnalogueDiaries]

Link in the description.

[@mendezproductions]

Hello great video where did you bought the easel and holder for the enlarger ????

[@AnalogueDiaries]

Thank you! Please, open up the description under this video, all links are there 😌

[@GONZOFAM7]

Subbed

[@AnalogueDiaries]

Thank you 🙏🏻

[@randallstewart1224]

These are a number of technical errors and misstatements tossed out about RA-4 printing in this video. If you want to learn how to do it, you should look somewhere else for your education. One example: No one who knows what they are doing sets their printing filter pack or color head to include yellow, magenta and cyan filtration at the same time. A unit of each color together is "grey". It adds nothing to the adjustment of print color. It just dims the printing light source and makes the printing time longer. Given that fact, why would Intrepid say to start with equal amounts of the three colors, i.e., just grey without any actual effect? Who knows? Ask them if you care. Need I mention that the cost of a real enlarger with a dial-in colorhead filtration costs far less (used) than buying an Intrepid enlarger and the color enlarger conversion kit shown here. And, they aren't any bigger than the copystand she's using, so can the space savngs argument. And, you don't have to screw around with lost alignments and flimsy film carriers made of what looks like cardboard.

[@AnalogueDiaries]

Wow! Cool! Thanks for so much attention to my process! 🤘🏻

[@speralta1]

The individual LED outputs from the Intrepid head unit are non-linear. Intrepid recommends starting with a setting of 100Y, 100M, 100C. These numbers seem to be rather arbitrarily chosen from what I can tell (I own one) and are weakly correlated to a traditional color head where a dichroic process of color balance is used. Setting cyan to "zero" would give you a very hard cyan casted print. Using LEDs in this way to "filter" the complimentary primary colors is going to mean that it does not respond in the same way that you are used to working with legacy color heads. It's a good unit and I actually prefer it over my traditional dichroic color head enlarger.

[@AnalogueDiaries]

@speralta1 it's the best explanation. A lot of people do not understand that this is a new technology for darkroom and it doesn't work the same as old analog enlargers.

[@justjerry1078]

I don't know where you get your enlargers, but I purchased the system that you use with a 4x5 camera for a little over $300, an enlarger that takes 4x5 negatives is $4,000+. even if you factor in the price of the camera, that's only $400 more. You need to get your facts straight.