Technical Notes

Color negative film

     Color negative film works well for anyone who wants color prints which can be made by less expensive, but more fugitive, conventional processes. With it the exposures need not be as accurate as those for color slides (with negatives, when in doubt, it is better to err on the side of overexposure). However, serious projects which involve hundreds of original images are more difficult with negatives. A negative must be printed well before it can be properly evaluated, and the purpose of sorting is to decide which images to print. Inexpensive, small prints are almost always cropped; they rarely show the entire image on the negative. With a color slide one can see all of the original and judge its potential. For publications a slide is usually better. Color negatives also are less stable and will usually fade more rapidly than slides. All films have their color quirks; most color negative film tends to have a little orange cast to the yellows. In the 1990's, however, there are high speed color negative films (ISO 1000) that have less grain than the fastest color slide films, It must also again be said that for making conventional prints (Type-C prints), color negatives are better than slides. It is more expensive and less satisfactory generally to make Type C prints from a color slide via an internegative. There are processes which make prints directly from slides (Type-R prints), but these rarely have the quality of C prints made from negatives.

     In The Afghan Folio  there are eight prints which were made from color negatives. Picture number six (Ruins at Farah ) is the only image where prints were made from a 35 mm Kodacolor negative. This film was purchased in Kabul. It made the overland journey through the north of Afghanistan, was exposed in the southern desert, and was taken to Pakistan just before a coup. It was subjected to high temperatures and humidities and several months of rigorous travel before it was processed. Technically this image has its problems, printing was an exercise in salvage.

     The other images from color negatives used in this set of pictures were taken on Kodak Vericolor Film with the 6x7 cm camera. For many years, Dye Transfer prints could be made directly from negatives onto Pan Matrix Film without color separations or masks, but this material was discontinued several years before the conventional Dye Transfer materials were discontinued. The color negatives used for The Afghan Folio  worked fairly well printed this way, but this method was difficult to control. Most professional dye transfer labs would have nothing to do with Pan Matrix film, and it was available only in 8x10" and 16x20" pre-cut sizes. Shortly after 1978 when the last of the pictures in The Afghan Folio  were taken, I ceased using color negative film for anything except a few family pictures. I might consider using it again someday, however, for a project in which the sky and clouds are important. Once digital technologies become more advanced, color negative film may become a desirable medium for many more applications. Much more development effort goes into negative film, because the amateur market is so large.