Thomas,
Comments below.
> I remember from "way back" when Ilford had a product called
> "Cibachrome" for making color prints from slides. The
> advantages of that
> product being that it was extremely easy to get good results:
> I seem to
> remember that the temperature tolerance for the process was about 10
> degrees (Celcius) and that only a minimum of filtering was
> required to get
> the color balance "right". At least that is what I read in the Ilford
> marketing stuff "way back"......
Actually, the pre-Ilford product was Cibachrome. The Ilford product is
called Ilfochrome. The story as I heard it was that Ciba (-Geigy?) sold the
product to Ilford with the provision that the name be changed.
The "extremely easy to get good results" can be subjective -- more on that
later.
>
> Now, I haven't been making prints from slides myself - of for
> that matter
> shot more than one slide film myself (I am mainly shooting
> b/w, and only
> occationally processing a negative color film), but I thought that it
> might be interresting to take up (inspired by seeing some of
> Giles' nice
> shots). Thus I did check up on Ilford's www-site, only to find that
> Cibachrome was gone and replaced by something called
> "Ilfochrome Classic".
>
> For starters, I intend to have the slide films developed at
> the lab, but
> doing the printing myself (one step at the time...next comes
> processing of
> the slide film, but when learning something new I figure it is wise to
> minimize the possible screw-up factores....). I was wondering
> if any list
> members have experiences (and advices...) on making color prints from
> slides - preferably using Ilford Cobachrome / Ilfordchrome Classic?
Yes. Lots & lots.
Ilfochrome is sweet stuff once you get used to it. Stable paper that
doesn't vary much between emulsion batches, wide temperature tolerances, and
a three step process (plus wash).
Pros include saturation and detail that can match the transparency, archival
quality that sets the standard for photographic prints, easy processing.
Cons include very high contrast, nasty chemicals, and expensive/hard to find
paper and chemicals. Strangely, I can buy chemicals locally but have to
mail order the paper. Also, you might wish for a contrast mask to be made
from your tranny prior to printing -- Ilfochrome adds contrast and if the
image is coming from an already contrasty transparency, things can get out
of hand quickly.
Printing with it if you're used to neg paper is a bit strange -- where you
would add 2 magenta to the filtration for neg paper you'd remove 10+ magenta
for Ilfochrome. In other words, the paper is no where near as sensitive to
filtration or exposure changes as standard neg paper. Additionally, the
paper is very slow -- where I'll hit a 12 second exposure at f11 for neg
paper I can easily hit 70+ seconds for Ilfochrome.
Addressing the second half of your post, I kind of equate Ilfochrome with
Velvia -- a specific product for a specific look. Velvia is very high
contrast/high saturation, and so is Ilfochrome. Not my desired film or
paper for portraits or anything I'd like to maintain a close relationship to
reality with, but either can produce some spectacular results if the super
saturated look is what you're after. Combining Velvia and Ilfochrome can
knock your socks off!
I've found that neg prints and Ilfochrome prints are almost different
media -- akin to color vs b&w.
HTH --
Dave
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