RA-4 Color Reversal Process, a Big Update! - Large Format "Friday" 

This hurts my brain, utterly incredible to see this

That giant Brownie camera may be the coolest thing I have seen in a very long time.

at last, was anxiously awaiting your next installment on Friday, FEW!!!, good to know the channel is still active :-)))

We had a colour RA-4 machine in college to do our colour printing😊- brought back happy memories.

To do this, need to “go big or go home”… or go to the event Mat is hosting! Very cool and thank you for always sharing this art and innovation!

I find this incredibly interesting! Thanks so much for sharing your process. It's an amazing time we live in where I can watch as people develop, pun intended, a new type of instant photography. Thanks again.

Nice, I can have a tungsten and daylight ra4. I'm really glad yall have been sharing information on it, thanks!

Awesome stuff! Been meaning to try reversal RA4 for a while. Just figure I’ll do it with slides in an enlarger instead of exposing the paper in-camera. That adds a lot of convenience to the “you need tons of light” and “filtration is tricky” problems :) Also +10000 for kallitypes! They’re such a cool alt process.

Super excited for more Kallitype vids! I have my kit and supplies all ready to go this winter!

Love your enthusiasm.

Wow, this is totally next level!!

Cool stuff. I'm hopeful that Ethan eventually gets his film holder/developing tray unit put together for 8x10. I think that's the point where I might try the process out. As always, thanks for the great information for when I do give it a try!

love the shot at 15:34, makes me want to ask the cops to do my mug shot in RA-4 🙂 [I am only making a funny here!!, as it is such a good close up shot]. Also Mat, because of the copious amount of light, a great 'test' for vampires!, they'd have no chance!!

Thanks Mat. Really enjoy doing things that just about no other photographer artist does. We must swim in the same lake!

That was a lot to take in. Thank you.

very enjoying process

Great video! I’ve got a lot to work on if I too want to shot r4 photos

Great video and informative thanks, full respect to Ethan for 20x24 with huge lighting

This is so cool!!! I so want to give it a shot ... just need to get some cash for the material!!!

Great video. We need another update :)

Thanks Matt. It would be great to see those tests in your Flickr account. I´m a bit curious about how sharp pics you can get with this paper. BTW, certainly the low key portrait looks like a film still from a Wim Wenders movie. Regards.

Thank you Mat for telling us how deeeeeeeep THIS rabbit hole is... I have some RA4 developers laying around since I stopped shooting Vision 3, but maybe this is way too deep for me at this moment hahaha cheers and stay safe

adding an absurd amount of light helps out.. thanks for the info..

So hard and yet so tempting...

Yes, did a lot of RA-4 over the last 60 years but always wanted to apply it to prints, still may as I'm only 80 and lots of time to go.

Really great video! I've been trying this process on and off for a year now, and like you say, it's about filtration and light. It's fun when you get a good shot, and so frustrating when you mess up. My current ratio is about 1 good to 10 mess up's. So, I'm still learning the process. I got 5x7 Fuji Crystal sheets for my 5x7 camera that are quite cheap.

I'm looking forward to seeing what you do with my freezer "leftovers", no yours :)

beautiful process ;)

Beautiful hair as always Matt. Is there a step by step that I can follow? What I've gathered from this video is 1. Black and white developer in total darkness 2. Stop bath 3. Expose to light while rinsing with water 4. Ra4 developer 5. Stop/rinse 6. Blix 7. Stop/rinse

I’d love to see a few alt processes! Also interested in gum bichromate

Great work Matt. Do you use developer starter in your RA4 developer? I'm starting to play with the process and finding uneven development is my biggest problem. Particularly caused by stop bath causing orange mottling in the image.

Wow Matt ; I need a real darkroom.

The gossen digi pro f2 will meter multiple flashes -- it tells you how many flash bursts you'll need for a desired exposure. Obviously only good for still life unless there's a high speed flash unit out there I don't know about?

I wish I could make it to the RA-4 reversal session -- just to watch or assist (and learn, of course). But I do get to gloat a little -- my LomoGraflok came in the day before Thanksgiving, and the fresh film I ordered came the day after. Due to limited play time I've only shot about 3/4 of the first pack, and I'm having issues with the Graflok conversion back I mounted on my Anniversary Speed Graphic, but I'm completely confident everything will be right when I can get my Graphic View II out with its original Graflok back (and I'm considering how to put a set of its clips on my Speed Graphic to use that clip-on reversing back with the more portable, rangefinder-equipped camera). FWIW, the production LomoGraflok is very professional looking, cleanly designed and fairly robust -- mine slipped out of my hand and fell a couple feet onto my kitchen floor and doesn't even show a mark. I'm still getting used to the extremely narrow exposure latitude of the Instax material, but when it's right, it's *spectacular*. I know the reason why all they make is the 2(ish) inch high in three widths -- so they only need one coating and pod filling/attaching machine, and then cut and seal to the various lengths -- but I really, really wish they'd make this stuff in larger print sizes. Even 4(ish) inch high, to give 4x4 and 4x6 prints would blow away any integral instant Polaroid ever offered (and, at least for color, I think it would compete with FP-100C). They'd still be able to sell their own camera (plastic lens, auto exposure and manual focus like the existing Mini cameras) for around $100, and that would give the hackers of the world a start for putting those bigger prints behind a 4x5 camera...

Nice to see Stephen using a "green monster" (the Calumet C1) for the 8 x 10 portraits. Do you remember what lens he had on? Not sure I would ever try RA-4 but ... callotypes, that's a different matter. Thanks, Mat.

Nobody: Mat: The camera we use is so big, you have to get INSIDE OF IT to take a photo.

Mat, is this simmilar to the Slide film process?, or more akin to "cross processing", that of doing B&W film in colour chemistry, as these are what you are doing, and also what about the Ilford positive paper, does working with this make the process easier, as opposed to the RA-4, if this is the output you are after.

Is there a place where we can get more "how it's made" info on that big Brownie? I'm really wondering about the passive infrared sensor that's inside and what appears to be a servo driven aperture...

Thank you for all the insights. Love it. I gave it a good try and had poor results and am not sure where the problem is. First I metered the scene (at ISO6) and got an EV of 13, Went to 12 to have ISO3, subtracted 3 stops/EV to compensate the filterpack giving EV9 (a 1sec exposure at f5,6). The result U had using a fresh B/W developer (90seconds), stop and rinse and exposing it for +60seconds was very very light (tests with longer and shorter exposure gave similar results). Developing it in RA-4 dev resulted in a black paper :-(. The light I used to expose the scene were LED lights. I'm not sure where to start looking for better results.

what would happen if you used lets say a film base which has been developed as a filter? i’m thinking taking a 4x5 colour negative sheet of film and developing it blank and then using it as a filter. The paper is calibrated for colour negative film so maybe it would work in a pinch

T H A N K Y O U

Have you tried to pre-flash the paper?

14:45 fallen angels

Amazing stuff Mat! I’m interested in the RA-4 reversal process for printing slides. Have you tried this? I’m wondering if the processing would be the same?

I've done this process so many times.. But today I've fall in an error that I cannot resolve my blacks aren't so black... Why? I'm becoming crazy.. All chemical are new

That feeling when you realize he took portraits of himself that are technically macro shots…

And for those with a lot of patience: RA-4 reversal in a pinhole camera 😁

High five for the Dedication to RA4 😃🤚 Certainly would not have the patience to Refine that process!, film look a piece of cake By comparison 😂

Very close to collodion process 😀

I'm not trying to be critical but why not just use color negative film and paper? It's designed to do this. What's the advantage to making photo paper do things it was never designed to do?

What, you mean you can't just drive to the photo shop and pick up a pack of Cibachrome to print your Kodachrome anymore? Poor kids.