Printing Harman Phoenix 200 in the Darkroom | First Impressions
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 11 ก.ย. 2024
- In today's video, we're talking through my first impressions of some very basic experiments/prints from Harman's new film stock, Phoenix 200, printed at Intrepid Studios' darkroom in Brighton.
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These prints have such an interesting quality to them. I'd be interested to see how prints would turn out from Phoenix that has been pull processed a stop.
That would definitely be interesting! I actually haven’t even seen scans of pull/pushed Phoenix yet, might have to hunt for some references!
so cool 🙌🏽🙌🏽
Thank you!
the guys in harman told us that the film is a +-125 iso film and some observation of the results also pointed to this, so in case you want better shadow detail etc, I would recommend to use it as an iso 100 film. The green cast, especially in the more shadowy area can be the result of underexposing the film.
Yes! I trialled the film stock in the summer before it was released and was initially told by Harman that 400 would help to control halation, so I tested it mostly between 200 and 400, and haven’t had chance to test it at 100 as of yet. I’ve got a few videos documenting my experiments with the film stock if you’re interested.
Yes! I've been waiting for this video. Phoenix definitely struggles with High Dynamic range but printed it has a quality I really like.
I feel like darkroom printing Phoenix has kind of a film pioneer vibe, going somewhere only a few have gone lol
Haha agreed! I’d definitely like to experiment a bit more and spend some more time exploring the film, both in the darkroom and actually in the shooting process. It being such an experimental film, I think the results you could get could range vastly (but that’s the fun of new film like this coming onto the market!)
I've had a try with one of my better negs (shot at 200 it think), using my intrepid compact. It was *extremely* tricky. The lack of any kind of fine adjustment on the intrepid colour settings meant the colour casts shifted wildly, though I did manage to get a reasonably nicely balanced image. I too found the dynamic range the biggest problem, It seem like a bit of dodging and burning is inevitable on any image with any kind of shadow or highlight, very tricky! The only other colour films I've printed were a fujicolor and some ektar, both were a lot easier.
Still a fun film stock though, I have one more roll left.
I’m glad that you had a similar experience! It means I can’t have been going too far wrong 🤣 I definitely think it’s a fun film stock. I’m not expecting perfection from it, in either the shooting or printing process, so it’s been really enjoyable to just experiment with it!
Those prints are really good. The last time I chemically printed from a colour negative was over 40 years ago. The Kodak papers used to come with some suggestions for the CMY settings on the package. Do they still have them?
Thank you so much! And ooh interesting, I’ve not noticed that on the Fuji papers I just but that’s not to say it doesn’t still happen.
It is just a guess, but I think these days sensors could read the paper and set the CMY values automatically. I remember using filters under my Patterson color enlarger in the late 70s to do exactly the same, then I got the Durst with its dial in filters. Such a long time ago.@@SophiaCarey
Confused me. You shot different ISO the same film and deved it all for the same time?
Yes - so just overexposed it. I find this film fares better when shot at around 160 than it does at 200, but I’ve shot it at a load of different speeds (400/200/100) in the past (never adjusting development, just overexposing and underexposing to test the performance). Those videos are also on the channel.
I'm almost sure this film is actually E6. It looks like cross processed E6.
Yeah that wouldn’t surprise me at all!
No Virginia, there is no Santa Claus, and there is no Harmon E-6 process film. I assume that this idea sprang upon the poster because of the deep saturation of few colors, mainly the reds and the significant lack of dynamic range in exposures. Can you find an E-6 film which looks s horrible as Phoenix 200?
So, she wants tips on why Phoenix 200 prints so badly on RA-4 color printing paper. Okay, here's a few. C-41 films normally have the red-orange mask for a reason. it's not just make them harder to print. It's there to color correct the image dyes in the negative to match the requirements of the RA-4 processed color paper. Phoenix 200 omits that printing mask entirely, so it is clear that Harmon has never intended the film to be RA-4 printed. They intentionally limited its use to digital scanning/printing, which is still inhibited because film scanners are pre-programmed to deal with the C-41 color mask, and not finding the mask upsets the accuracy of the scan process to some degree. Another reason for the failure of Phoenix 200 as an RA-4 printing source is that the color palette is grossly uneven, in that some colors (reds) are very strong, while others are very weak. It's very hard, probably impossible, to color balance around these issues with the technology limitation of RA-4 printing. Therefore, you can get some saturated colors with RA-4 printing, but they just won't accurately reflect the real colors of the source. You will also find it impossible to print both highlight and shadow details, because of wildly excessive contrast. These technical problems are uncorrected in Phoenix, and you'd need digital post-processing to recover from them. While all of this may seem strange, the relative number of people making wet-darkroom RA-4 prints today is so small that Harmon's decision to ignore their needs when developing this produce, presumably to save money, is fairly understandable. Summary: As evidenced by the print results in the video, RA-4 printing of Phoenix is a waste of time and money.
Ironically, I’ve been in conversation with Harman throughout the process of them making this film, and they have considered how it prints, and done various tests on that themselves. This is merely an experimental video.
Please see my reply on your other comment for my thoughts on your wonderful feedback.