6.4. Can I print color negatives on black-and-white paper?
Description
This article is from the Darkroom
Work FAQ, by Cees de Groot
6.4. Can I print color negatives on black-and-white paper?
Yes, you can. Normal B&W paper, however, is not panchromatic - it only responds to a narrow band of wavelengths of light. Graded paper just responds to blue light, and variable contrast paper responds to blue and green light (but the amounts of blue and green light influence the gradation of the paper). Generally speaking, printing color negs on B&W paper won't give natural-looking results.
Kodak has a panchromatic paper, Panalure, available in 3 grades. If you want to get good results printing from color negatives, you should use this paper.
Of course, using normal B&W paper can give interesting effects, comparable with using orthochromatic film - experiment!
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