Sunday, June 24, 2012

Does the bleach bath influence photos colors?

Yes, this is my conclusion after having used two different bleaching baths, one made of potassium dichromate and sulfuric acid (Franz Dietrichs) and the other the common ferric EDTA. The pictures direct scanned and without any corrections of the scanner gave these images:

Pic. 1 - Dichromate-sulfuric bleach

Pic 2 - Ferric EDTA bleach

Both are clouded the same way, must be the scanner default setting because every negative comes like this if you don't use color or level balance. As first approach to the final colors, I made for both of them level balance automatic at scanning:

Pic 3 - Level balance to pic 1
Pic 4 - Level balance to pic 2
Comparing the two pictures above, I concluded that the dichromate-sulfuric bleach gives in general pictures where the green prevails over blue and with the ferri EDTA bleach red is not much represented. So, I added more blue to the picture 3 and more red to the picture 4, obtaining the following:

Pic 5 - Color correction of pic 3 with more blueish hue

Pic 6 - Color correction to pic 4 with more redish hue
 Global appreciation: I found ferric EDTA better than dichromate-sulfuric because the colors look more natural, but both may be used because after correction they are acceptable and, on the other hand, you may have a more artistic view using dichromate-sulfuric.

But, neither Pic 5 nor 6 are at the final stage of the work you must undertake to make the best of these negatives. Both of them need more contrast and the second needs a little more color sturation, I think.

Pic 7 - My proposal for the first pic

Pic 8 - My proposal for the second pic



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