Premium Member Stephen Perera Posted April 25 Premium Member Share Posted April 25 (edited) Hi all, obviously, as a 'nobody' in this world my experience in motion picture film is simply that it's scanned once processed for me......in stills I shoot, process film and print myself in the darkroom if I want or else scan the negatives but I really dont know much about what the 'printer lights' system, can someone give us the definitive 'printer lights' for dummies guide in this thread complete with images or videos or whatever? Is it kind of like printing colour in the darkroom where you adjust the RGB 'filters' on the enlarger...for example, setting it at 70 yellow, 50 magenta and 0 cyan. Edited April 25 by Stephen Perera Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark Dunn Posted April 25 Share Posted April 25 19 minutes ago, Stephen Perera said: ? Is it kind of like printing colour in the darkroom where you adjust the RGB 'filters' on the enlarger...for example, setting it at 70 yellow, 50 magenta and 0 cyan. Yes. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Premium Member Stephen Perera Posted April 25 Author Premium Member Share Posted April 25 (edited) ...and this is when making the contact print to project right? so like colour grading before computers..... Edited April 25 by Stephen Perera Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Joerg Polzfusz Posted April 25 Share Posted April 25 Yes, it’s the same thing as the RGB-filters on your enlarger. But the device itself can a little bit more complex as the color correction/grading (via the filters) might have to be adapted scene by scene. (That is unless you choose „best light“ aka „one light“ aka „work print“.) 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark Dunn Posted April 25 Share Posted April 25 The first shot-to-shot grading cues were Debrie clips- metal staples attached to the film just before the cut, detected by contacts on the printer. Later, the edge of the film was notched to activate a microswitch. By the 70s, the grader created a punch tape with the printer commands and the cueing was by frame count. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Premium Member Stephen Perera Posted April 25 Author Premium Member Share Posted April 25 22 minutes ago, Mark Dunn said: The first shot-to-shot grading cues were Debrie clips- metal staples attached to the film just before the cut, detected by contacts on the printer. Later, the edge of the film was notched to activate a microswitch. By the 70s, the grader created a punch tape with the printer commands and the cueing was by frame count. I have no idea nor can imagine anything of what you have just said hahaha...but I am sure its accurate and correct and I thank you for your message Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gautam Valluri Posted April 25 Share Posted April 25 Stephen, here is a quick rundown of the how the Matipo at our lab works: https://www.l-abominable.org/en/tools/contact-printer/ 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dirk DeJonghe Posted April 25 Share Posted April 25 Printer lights are used in additive colour systems. The white light of a halogen lamp is split into red, green and blue channels, using mirrors and dichroic filters. In each channel there is a light valve, which is nothing more than a mechanically actuated diaphragm controlling the light output of each colour channel. here is a drawing by Brian Pritchard. The lights go from 0 to 50 with 0 being completely closed. During colour timing, the best value for each channel is determined. 25-25-25 is the middle setting, 31-31-31 would be printed one stop darker, 20-30-30 would be more red, etc. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Premium Member Stephen Perera Posted April 25 Author Premium Member Share Posted April 25 30 minutes ago, Gautam Valluri said: Stephen, here is a quick rundown of the how the Matipo at our lab works: https://www.l-abominable.org/en/tools/contact-printer/ now I see how its done physically thank you very much Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Premium Member Stephen Perera Posted April 25 Author Premium Member Share Posted April 25 would be great if anyone have any more photos or whatever to add to this thread of perhaps stuff they have done themselves...thanks to everyone for the message much obliged Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark Dunn Posted April 25 Share Posted April 25 (edited) If you search on "Bell & Howell Model C" a lot comes up. brianpritchard.com is also a good source. Brian is ex-Kodak. He may chip in here if he's still around. Edited April 25 by Mark Dunn Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Premium Member Simon Wyss Posted April 25 Premium Member Share Posted April 25 Memochrome is an additive RGB system for intermittent printers. It works with high-intensity LEDs, a control box, and an open Excel-based CSV data software. I have first used it in 2007. You have 50 points or steps for each light colour, freely programmable. One frame can get 25-25-25, the next 47-11-38, then 0-0-0, whatever. Limit is 32,000 sets. Maximum working speed is 25 frames per second. The system is available in three variants, variable intensity, variable duration, variable distance. Print and intermediate film stocks react differently to increasingly short exposure, so variable duration is perhaps not everyone’s favourite, densities diminish exponentially with shorter flashes. A glimpse at the innards of the prototype control box Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gautam Valluri Posted April 25 Share Posted April 25 (edited) 50 minutes ago, Stephen Perera said: would be great if anyone have any more photos or whatever to add to this thread of perhaps stuff they have done themselves...thanks to everyone for the message much obliged Our film lab network members have made some video tutorials for the Matipo: https://vimeo.com/showcase/7866728 There are a lot of resources on film printing on the filmlabs website as well (but mostly in french): https://www.filmlabs.org/technical-section/film-printing/ Edited April 25 by Gautam Valluri Link correction and new link addition 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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