Determining colour balance with RA4

[John_K]

I have tried a new technique and it appears to work, but needs a bit of preparation. I first make a small, but colour accurate inkjet print of the negative(s) that I am going to enlarge. These I take to the darkroom and set the filtration to the approximate standard for the particular box of paper I am using.
If the colour matches the inkjet print it will be right. If the balance is 'off', I redo the print altering the appropriate filter until I get it correct.

With experience there is very little alteration to be done but the test print serves as a useful baseline to get it correct.

OK it is cheating slightly, but RA4 prints look better and have to likely-hood to last longer as well.

[Matt5791]

Interesting idea - sometimes I have a sneeky look at a scanned file on the PC.

Of course, there can be many interpretations of colour balance, even when there are skin tones involved. When there are no skin tones then the range of possible filter packs is huge.

Have you tried Kodak viewing filters?

Something else to be mentioned: RA4 represents astonishingly good value for unquestionable quality and archival stability second only to Ilfochrome and Dye Transfer. I just processed over 100 8x10" prints on about £8 of chemistry, and paper at 0.18p / sheet (Kodak Endura)