COLOR KEYS AND OTHER FILM

byTed Peterson
This is a copy of a report given to the PSA Convention on Sept 7th, 1993 and updates to this time.
This article is about some of the things you can do with film and other graphic arts items to make your pictures better. This is for the photographer that is not satisfied with the pictures that come back from the photo store or that you take out of the darkroom.
On all of the items that will be listed, you start with a photo and maybe when you are through with the picture you will have something altogether different. You will use litho film, Color Keys, Infrared film, Kalvar, etc.
The first thing we will talk about is litho films. Litho films are black and white films that have no gray tones or what we call midtones. You have only jet black or clear. It has some disadvantages and we will tell you a way to get around this latter in this article. Litho films are thick film that you can work with under a red safelight. You can make the sky look black, make derivations (that is, take the film and mount it a little off-center) and you will get a good picture. One disadvantage is that no matter how hard you try, you will have some spots that have to be retouched. You also have to work under a red safelignt.
There is a way to get around this, MMM has an item out called Color Keys that the graphic arts people use. It is very thin. You work under room lights and you develope or fix it under any room light. No spots (under normal times) will show up. You can also get it in any color or black. The black can be used the same way as litho films. If one thickness is not enough, try two.
I have made a Color Key (Black) of a picture, another copy of this Color Key and have both a positive and a negative. Then made copies of these two black and white pictures in color and mounted the two Color keys together without the original picture and entered the slide. So far it has not came in first, but has been accepted more then once. You can also take you picture and add a spot of color to it. Make a color Key of the roof and mount it with your slide and you will have a red roof on your barn, etc. You develop this film anywhere with the chemistry that comes with it. You do not need a darkroom. You will need a strong sunlamp.
There is another type of film that may be hard to get. It is called Kalver. Kalver is a copy film that was made for the US government for them to make copies of our S.S.A. records. You can find it around if you try. This film is used by placing your slide film and Kalver into your projector. Turn your projector on for a time. Then take the Kalver film out and develop it under steam. You then mount it with your slide and anywhere you have a bad highlight you will have some density.
On the infrared film the instructions say to use it with a red filter. You DO NOT need to. Try it under different filters and see what you come up with. Under certain conditions you can get a wonderful picture by taking an infrared picture working with some other color filter. The PSA experimental slide group that I was a member of worked on this for a year or two back in the 80th and early 90's. We had a lot of fun taking pictures of trees, flowers, etc., under different color filters.
One of the things you may want to try is develop EX film as a negative. It does work. Back a few years ago th Pacific Color Printers experimented with this for 4 or 5 years. By developing your EX film in negative develpers you come up with a clear base negative. This film then can be printed on any black and white paper, or by enclosing a color filter in your enlarger, you can make a good color picture. You will find out that the film has to be shot at two times the posted speed. That is, if you are using 100 speed film you must shoot it at 200. It will be a little more contrasty and you may have to try some of the contrast controls. This film will have less grain than most of the color negative film. More information can be had about this film in the article called "Exachome As A Negative" that can be found on this web.
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