Photographic Colour Printing Made Easy

by Fred Roberts ARPS 

This slim book has attractive and eye-catching front and back covers with a picture of scarlet poppies against a grassy background. It measures 6 by 8½ inches, and is half an inch thick. There are 92 pages in large type with several illustrations of enlargers and many types of equipment used in colour print processing. 

Setting up a darkroom, the assessment of colour negatives for suitability and the required equipment for exposing and processing are dealt with first before going onto the actual exposure and processing of a print. 

The first 25 pages might prove off-putting for someone just moving from slide processing onto colour printing, as the book gives the impression that one needs a Four Programme Process Timer, a Colour Analyser, Jobo Processor and a Print Dryer. This equipment is only necessary for the experienced worker who needs a high output of colour prints. I wish the book had specified the minimum equipment to get started, so that one could progress gradually into buying other expensive items that result in a greater convenience of working and a faster output. To start off one just needs an enlarger, (with filter drawer or colour head), a drum to take 8 x 10 inch prints, a supply of paper and a chemical kit.  Slide processors should already have a Timer, and a Masking Easel can easily be constructed for exposing only a section or all of the paper. (See CRC News of January 1996 page 13). 

The next section of the book is more useful, dealing first with the theory and procedure of making the first trial print and discussing filtration. There are good examples of sectioned colour prints to illustrate the effects of varying the exposure time and filtration, and the making of test prints for determination and correction of colour casts is clearly explained. There is a recommendation that a standard grey card should be photographed on one frame of the film as this will greatly help in the determination of the basic cast on that particular film. I was surprised that no mention was made of the use of colour print filters held over a viewed print to check the cast and the correction required. A Colour Circle on page 50, although incorrectly labelled, illustrated clearly the relationship between the Complementary (or Secondary) colours, Yellow, Magenta and Cyan to be found in the Colour Head or printing filters, and the Primary Colours, Blue Green and Red. 

A separate section deals with Prints from Slides. There is a choice of the Cibachrome process or that favoured by Agfa, Kodak and Fuji.  Much of the foregoing applies equally to prints from slides with two big exceptions. Exposure and filtration work the opposite way round. 

If a print from a colour negative is too light and has a green cast, then exposure time should be increased and yellow and cyan are added (or magenta is reduced). For printing from slides, a light but green test print needs a reduction in exposure time and an increase in magenta filtration (or reduction of both yellow and cyan filtration). 

Spotting and mounting are covered, and at the end of the book there are Fault Finding Charts for Colour Neg Prints, Colour Neg Film Processing, Prints from Colour Slides, and Colour Slide Processing. 

Overall I thought this book was good at putting over the basic concepts of colour printing and it is recommended for anyone thinking of starting colour printing. It costs £10 plus £1.95 for postage and packing from Ambleside Publishers, 2 Ambleside Avenue, Streatham, London SW16 6AD.