An eye for a good print

[Ko.Fe.]

I'm about to begin printing with expired paper, some of it 8x10 Kodabrome RC. Any tips?

Expired RC? How old it is?
I only have luck with expired, but not too from the past Ilford RC paper.
Old RC is usually bad. I'm avoiding it. Most of my old darkroom paper is FB and single contrast. If it is busted for regular prints, it is still good for lith.
You could try RC in lith as well. It works, but differently from FB.

 

[Horatio]

Expired RC? How old it is?
I only have luck with expired, but not too from the past Ilford RC paper.
Old RC is usually bad. I'm avoiding it. Most of my old darkroom paper is FB and single contrast. If it is busted for regular prints, it is still good for lith.
You could try RC in lith as well. It works, but differently from FB.

No expiration date on the box, but I'm sure it's pretty old. I have some Ilford paper as well that should be better. I don't plan to make any salon prints (lol), just hoping it will be good for practice. I'll process some strips first to see how bad the fogging is.

 

[Bob Michaels]

..... Not only I have nothing calibrated on my PC, but I'm using no name inks and cheapest paper I could get .....

I am a devout believer in total color managed workflows. Consistency is the key. Once dialed in, you know what you are going to get. Much better than trial and error every time. Now you can eventually figure this out for your monitor, your video card, your printer, your ink, and your specific paper. But change any one of those and you restart from scratch figuring everything out again. If you have a total color managed workflow and change any one of these, you simply recalibrate the new item to the ANSI standard and you are right back to where you were originally.

I believe you can make very good prints from just about any printer, ink, and paper given enough time. Modern printers just make it quicker and easier. I used have sample prints from various printers, inks, and papers; some very unknown and/or cheap but all having their own merit.

We did print exchanges 15 years ago on the old ContaxG website so got to see everything. For those print exchanges, you sent 20 identical prints and a postage paid return envelope to the organizer. Some were digital prints, some were wet darkroom prints. On the due date, the organizer sorted 20 piles of identical prints into 20 piles containing one of each print and remailed them back. If you were late submitting your prints, the exchange proceeded without you and you just got back your 20 original prints. It was good to see so many prints from so many people done so many different ways.

 

[jsrockit]

I am a devout believer in total color managed workflows. Consistency is the key. Once dialed in, you know what you are going to get.

Yes, and it isn't that hard to do, so why not do it? I agree with you Bob.

 

[mike rosenlof]

I'm about to begin printing with expired paper, some of it 8x10 Kodabrome RC. Any tips?

Buy new paper. Really. You'll be better off.

 

[bullterrier]

I have an inner conflict:bang:the raw files slows down my camera, jpegs are more consistent 😱😀

edit: an eye for a good print? swapping?? 🙂

 

[Freakscene]

Expired RC? How old it is?

Kodak stopped making black-and-white photo paper in 2005, so the youngest it can be is 15.

In my experience out-of-date RC paper gets spots where infectious development occurs in the developer - these spots go black when you try to print on them irrespective of the image tone in that area. I couldn’t find a way to control it with potassium bromide or benzotriazole.

Just give it a try and let us know how you go. Kodabromide was very, very nice.

Marty

 

[Michael Markey]

I haven`t got the eye or the talent to produce a good print.
To produce a good print is a remarkable skill so when i want things printed I`m happy to hand over that responsibility to those who know how.

In my case that is Ilford apart from the only two shots of mine which are actually hanging on a wall and they were printed by a lab in Yorkshire and the process supervised by Stewart (sparrow) .