Selecting the colours for tone or tint.

A series of colour tests are made by printing a piece of film base of the material used for the negative onto a colour print film [such as Eastman Colour Print] at various printer light settings on a rotary contact additive lamp house printer [such as a Bell and Howell Model C]. A good method of establishing a starting point for the range of colours is to put the test film base onto a video colour analyser and vary the exposure settings to see the effect of a flashing exposure.

It will be found that many of the best effects are achieved by setting one printer light valve to zero [i.e. using the zero close facility] and varying the other two relative to each other. Strong colours can be obtained and they are quite repeatable.

The colours selected can be selected for two different purposes:

• [a] To create a coloured image simulating a toned image, and
• [b] To create an overall tint that simulates the tint colours.