I've never tried it but am thinking about giving it a go. Is it possible? What could I expect results-wise?
Printing C41 negs on B&W paper
- Thread starter jonmanjiro
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JoeV
Thin Air, Bright Sun
Due to the color tone of the negatives, they can play havoc with trying to get the correct tonal expression and contrast when printing to multi-grade paper. Instead, try graded printing paper, whose contrast is not color-sensitive. But you would be wise to stock up on grades 2, 3 and 4, to give yourself some flexibility with negative of varying contrast.
~Joe
~Joe
benji77
@R.F.F
I have not personally done it, but a buddy of mine had done some with pretty decent prints on Ilford's RC. Development times take much, much longer, at approximately 90 secs or longer at F4.
jbrubaker
Established
Kodak used to make a special paper just for this purpose. I'm not sure if it is available these days. You will get better results by scanning, converting to bw, and printing digitally. ---john.
View Range
Well-known
Kodak Panalure was discontinued 11 years ago. It is a panchromatic paper whereas usual papers are orthochromatic. I used Panalure back in the day; it required near total darkness in handling.
pschauss
Well-known
I tried this on a few C-41 negatives several years ago and managed to get decent results, at least with the images that I was working with. I do not recall having any problems with tonality, but I did have to use very long exposure times. I think that I was using Adorama's rebranded Ilford variable contast, resin coated paper at the time. Most likely I was using a #2 Ilford contrast filter in my enlarger.
paapoopa
Established
i do get some decent result printing c41 negative onto ilford RC paper.
exposure time definatly gets longer and need to do a few test to get the optimal contrast.
exposure time definatly gets longer and need to do a few test to get the optimal contrast.
Ko.Fe.
Lenses 35/21 Gears 46/20
I recently purchased old stock of it. Thanks for the light info!
sepiareverb
genius and moron
Small prints, long exposures in my experience. Film base is nearly an OC safelight filter. Had many students shoot color film by mistake over the years. I'll agree on graded paper being helpful for getting better contrast, filters will draw out exposure time even more.
I wonder if some blue filter could negate the film base, but again then times would go through the roof...
I wonder if some blue filter could negate the film base, but again then times would go through the roof...
Dwig
Well-known
Yes, the base tint is one of the evil issues here, but not the only one.
A blue filter can't be of any help because it one removes light, it doesn't add blue. Replacing the light source with one that produces more light on the blue can help with exposure times, but if it is too dominantly blue it will aggravate the other issue.
This other issue is that the negative's image is constructed of different colored dyes that span the whole visible spectrum and ordinary B&W paper is color blind. No matter what you do the fix the exposure time and the contrast problems you will be left with an odd subset of the tonal values in the image. Some relatively monochromatic subjects can reproduce adequately, but other images, particularly very colorful ones, can yield odd results.
This is the primary reason Kodak offered their Panalure papers for years. These were altered panochromatic papers which mimiced the total spectral sensitivity curve of the typical Type-C color papers and require either total darkness or the extremely dim safelight that was recommended for Type-C papers. You'll fog Panalure if you use it under the usual B&W safelights.
