Now I'm sure this is a lame question but since I don't have access to a darkroom yet I'm willing to take the chance in asking it. Is it possible to turn color negatives into B&W prints by just doing the same process in the darkroom that you do with B&W negatives? What would the results be if I tried to develop a print using from color film on paper and in chemicals for B&W prints? Thanks for putting up with this but if you know what will happen please let me know. :)

-- Andrew Jones (mjones@ns.net), October 17, 1998

Answers

Yes, see http://www.greenspun.com/bboard/q-and-a-fetch- msg.tcl?msg_id=0000fh in this forum.

-- Alan Gibson (gibson.al@mail.dec.com), October 18, 1998.

I tried to access http://www.greenspun.com/bboard/q-and-a-fetch- msg.tcl?msg_id=0000fh but nothing is there except an error message. Could you post the information here or a new address to the site? Thanks!

-- Andrew Jones (mjones@ns.net), October 18, 1998.

Sorry for posting the above statement because I just found the information on this forum. What I was wondering is if I used Kodak Panalure do I really have to do it in complete darkness because one person said it's ok to handle it with a red light on?

-- Andrew Jones (mjones@ns.net), October 18, 1998.

Yes you can use a color safelight for panalure but the safe time is measured in seconds instead of minutes like most other black and white papers.

-- Jeff White (zonie@computer-concepts.com), October 18, 1998.

Yes, I've just tried it, and also get an error message, although that's the URL I get when I click on the question "making black and white prints from old color negs (oso)", which is towards the end of the forum.

Anyhow, you probably realise by now that fixed-grade B&W paper will give somewhat false tones, because it is insensitive to red light; multigrade is better; and Panalure is fine, because it is sensitive to all colours, but requires total darkness, or at least very brief exposure to a "colour" safelight, which is already very dim.

-- Alan Gibson (gibson.al@mail.dec.com), October 20, 1998.

Andrew,

The recommended safelight filter for use with the KODAK Panalure Select Paper would be a KODAK No. 13 Safelight filter. Panalure is sensitive to the entire visible spectrum--red, green and blue--and therefore would require a different safelight filter compared to standard blue and green sensitive enlarging papers. Is this the information that you were looking for?

Michael D. D'Avignon - KODAK Professional

-- Michael D. D'Avignon - KODAK Professional (l638708@mso.kodak.com), October 20, 1998.

That's one of the things I was looking for. Thanks for the information! One last thing about this... I have some left over B&W paper: ILFORD, glossy, brillant, multigrade FB; Kodak Professional Paper, polycontrast III RC; E Lustre. Would any of these paper produce good B&W prints from color negatives or should I just go and buy Panalure paper?

-- Andrew Jones (mjones@ns.net), October 20, 1998.

I was asking a question on my other topic "B&W plastic overhead prints." And I got one response from someone who suggested that:

"You might have done this with negative sheet film. Enlarge on to the sheet film, process it, dry it. The processing would be virtually identical to paper. If the film was ortho, you could see what you were doing with a safelight. In the UK, you can get Ilford Ortho in 10x12" at around #3 a sheet."

What I was wondering is if this plastic sheet film can be used to make prints from color negatives? If I had a colored negative of a photo of a landscape scene and wanted to make a B&W print of it on this type of 8.5 x 11 size "plastic paper"/Ortho "paper" like I did with B&W negatives could it be done?

-- Andrew Jones (mjones@ns.net), October 20, 1998.

>> Would any of these paper produce good B&W prints from color negatives or should I just go and buy Panalure paper?

It depends on what you call "good". I personally don't like B&W prints from colour negs, but it will work. Panalure will give you more correct tones.

Yes, you can use Ortho film pretty much like photo paper, although the safelight requirements are slightly different. The details should be on http://www.ilford.com/html/us_english/homeng.html. If you want "correct" tones, use a ordinary non-ortho film, such as Ilford Delta 100 or Kodak T-Max 100 and develop as a conventional B&W film. However, you need total darkness.

-- Alan Gibson (gibson.al@mil.dec.com), October 21, 1998.

I've gotten fairly good results making B&W prints from a color neg using normal multigrade paper with at least a #3 filter. The tonality of the print suffers, but at least it allows one to play with a negative that the drug store auto-processor can't handle, and from a distance, these prints look fine.

-- E Tully (tully@vcu.org), June 02, 1999.