Difference between amber and red safelights

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Hey everyone,

I replaced one of the safelights in the darkroom I work in with a red safelight, replacing a much older deep amber unit. I can see a huge difference in color between another amber safelight (at the other end of the darkroom) and the new red one, and I was wondering if this would affect my prints in any way (I work with Oriental Seagull and Ilford Mulitgrade IV fiber papers, FYI).

Thanks for the help!

-- Badris (badris@mac.com), February 07, 2002

Answers

And the Leica connection is...? You should have no problem with your safelights. But you should test them.

-- Phil Stiles (Stiles@metrocast.net), February 07, 2002.

Phil,

I print from negatives shot on my Leica M2 in this darkroom. Figure it won't hurt since many users in this forum also do their own printing.

Thanks for the help and the link. - Badris.

-- Badris (badris@mac.com), February 07, 2002.


I've worked under both kinds of lights and I think they're all about the same----just keep them at least four feet away from you materials.

-- Tom Nutter (tmnphotos@erols.com), February 07, 2002.

Originally darkroom lights were red - because red could be used with 'orthochromatic" camera or litho film as well as printing paper.

Once film became "panchromatic" and needed complete darkness anyway, the red lights became more or less obsolete since amber was just as safe for paper and gave a whole lot more light to work under.

Basically, unless you are using "ortho' film for some special purpose, you don't need red light.

Variable contrast (including Multigrade) papers are more green- sensitive than regular papers, and so I think there are special amber filters designed for use with them - check the data sheet that came in the paper box/envelope.

The classic "safelight" test is leave a sheet out in 'safe' light for 5 minutes with a coin on the surface and then develop it - the coin will leave a white image on a pale gray background if there is any fogging going on.

-- Andy Piper (apidens@denver.infi.net), February 08, 2002.


Badris;

It is important to do the test every year or so as the dyes in the safelight do change, just like film dyes. A safelight that was OK new may "leak" light after a year or two.

Also, a good test is to expose the paper to the safelight AFTER and exposure has been made, as the threshold of sensitivity changes after exposure. If you expose a sheet of paper to an image, then cover half of it with black plastic, then let it sit in the safelight for 5 minutes, you should notice no differnce between then area covered and the area not covered. Thic covers the time between exposure and complete development in an open tray.

I read a thread a few days ago somewhere that said that chronically dull highlights were due to low level exposure by a safelight that no longer was.

Cheers

-- RICHARD ILOMAKI (richard.ilomaki@hotmail.com), February 08, 2002.



What Andy said. Also, red is a more conservative safelight than amber, since it includes less of the spectrum. It's not needed with the papers you mentioned. Amber is best, because it's the most visible color to the human eye, yet still not visible to the paper.

-- Bob Fleischman (RFXMAIL@prodigy.net), February 08, 2002.

I always use a yellow safelight, consisting simply of a partly blacked out coloured lightbulb. It's much much easier to see tones, but the bulb should be dim and kept closer to the trays than the enlarger and paper stock. And absolutely, test it's safe before you do any serious printing!

-- David Killick (dalex@inet.net.nz), February 09, 2002.

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