That was my biggest problem in using a minilab to print my studio work:
subjects photographed in front of the red background would go to cyan,
subjects photographed on the hi-key (white) background would go dark,
and on the lo-key (black) background, subjects would go light.
When I got rid of the minilab, I went to an Eseco enlarger that has a
probe. I set the probe on a flesh tone, and it calculates color and
density. Of course, I first have to get out "Shirley" to tell the
enlarger what flesh tone is!
Ken Hart
kwhart1@xxxxxxxxxxxx
On 03/18/2016 01:11 PM, darkroommike wrote:
You don't "eyeball" color balance when setting up a printer, you use a setup strip with normal over and underexposed negatives shot on the film you are setting up. Then you make corrections using a reflection densitometer. Color correcting prints at the end of the dryer, that's a different story. The biggest thing you fix is "subject failure" when the color balance of the subject is not normal. The worst for consumer printing is pictures with Santa, that big red coat gets "corrected" back towards neutral which drives the flesh tones towards cyan and "little Billy" looks like he's choking.
------ Original Message ------
From: "bobkiss caribsurf.com" <bobkiss@xxxxxxxxxxxxx <mailto:bobkiss@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>>
To: "pure-silver@xxxxxxxxxxxxx" <pure-silver@xxxxxxxxxxxxx <mailto:pure-silver@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>>
Sent: 3/18/2016 6:38:41 AM
Subject: [pure-silver] Re: "Drugstore" BW Prints
A friend of mine from RIT who will remain unnamed worked at Kodak in quality control of their color printing service. He was partially color blind!!! This should explain a lot when it comes to how many of those prints looked!!! All seriousness aside, he worked out a system to accommodate his problem and actually was pretty good at insuring decent color balance.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
*From: *"darkroommike" <darkroommike@xxxxxxxxx <mailto:darkroommike@xxxxxxxxx>>
*To: *"pure-silver@xxxxxxxxxxxxx <mailto:pure-silver@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>" <pure-silver@xxxxxxxxxxxxx <mailto:pure-silver@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>>
*Sent: *Thursday, March 17, 2016 11:48:29 PM
*Subject: *[pure-silver] Re: "Drugstore" BW Prints
When I ran a one hour lab I was told that most "operators" were women because they were statistically much less prone to color blindness. My color acuity is very good but some of the guys I knew in the bix were very color blind. Blame it on the "Y" chromosome.
------ Original Message ------
From: "Richard Lahrson" <gtripspud@xxxxxxxxx <mailto:gtripspud@xxxxxxxxx>>
To: pure-silver@xxxxxxxxxxxxx <mailto:pure-silver@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: 3/17/2016 10:45:58 PM
Subject: [pure-silver] Re: "Drugstore" BW Prints
Hi,
I worked one summer in a hugh print factory in 1965. I did
pick up work, helped mix the hypo in a vat the size of large
hot tub. At that time it was mostly color prints and the operators
were all women.
Rich
On Thu, Mar 17, 2016 at 7:43 PM, Harlan Chapman
<hchapman@xxxxxxxxxxxxx <mailto:hchapman@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>> wrote:
Do any of you know how "drugstore" black and white snapshot
prints were made?
I'm curious about how the framing, focus, exposure time, and
contrast control (if any) was handled?
All automated, or was an operator involved?
Thank you,
-Harlan
