I want to make some B & W prints using old color negatives from family snapshots. Briefly, what is the procedure?

-- oso (learn@harbornet.com), August 25, 1997

Answers

I have done this many times and the process is no different from when you make a bw print from a bw negative.

-- Albert Hasselsjo (ai312@freenet.hamilton.on.ca), August 26, 1997.

making black and white prints from color negs

Ok, an old question with an old answer.... It depends upon what kind of results you desire. If you only want to obtain viewable BW prints, suitable for family meetings or similar events, you can simply print the color neg upon NORMAL BW paper and that's all. BUT, if you want to correctly transfer the original's colors in gray tones, you should use BW panchromatic paper, like KODAK EKTALURE. This kind of paper is sensitive to any visible light wavelength (it MUST be handled in complete darkness, like color printing paper), and thus can be impressed by any color in the original neg. If you use normal BW paper with color negs, the reddish areas of the negative will be rendered almost white on the paper, because the paper itself is not sensitive to those wavelength; the result will be a contrasty print, with not easily predictabe tonal shifts in respect to the original color print.

Regards

Carlo

-- Carlo Rogialli (carlo.rogialli@recsando.mi.it), August 28, 1997.

making black and white prints from color negs

You change your paper from EKTALURE to PANALURE. Regards Mauricio

-- mauricio mayrinck falcao (mmfalcao@convoy.com.br), September 04, 1997.

Sorry !

OK folks,

I INTENTIONALLY reported EKTALURE instead of PANALURE, just to see if you all were attentive.....

I was joking, obviously. Kodak's custom to use the same four or five names (in a moltitude of variations) to indicate different products often leads me in error.

I apologize. Thanks to Mauricio for the specification.

Regards

Carlo

-- Carlo Rogialli (carlo.rogialli@recsando.mi.it), September 05, 1997.

making B&W prints from old negs

Try to use also normal B&W paper but a more strong (more contrast) print developer. Try Polymax-T at 1:7 instead of normal 1:9 dilution. Have fun. Mauricio M. Falcao

-- Mauricio M. Falcao (mmfalcao@convoy.com.br), September 05, 1997.

I've made some excellent B/W prints from color negs using the Kodak Panalure and regular B/W chemicals. As has been reported,it has to be worked in complete darkness or with a special red light. For complete in-the-dark processing, just make sure you have everything laid out in advance and know where to put your hands on them in the dark.

-- Lee Freedman (leef@localnet.com), January 27, 1998.

Colour negs

I developed a few colour negs on normal b&w paper with standard chemicals recently.

aside from problems with red, i found that contrast was the biggest problem, i used a level 6 filter, which was not quite contrasty enough, but level 7 made the print far too grainy. The results are acceptable though, definately worth trying on normal paper before buying the special stuff.

-- Tim Coleman (timcoleman_@hotmail.com), November 11, 2001.