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EP0456684A1 - Traitement photographique. - Google Patents

Traitement photographique.

Info

Publication number
EP0456684A1
EP0456684A1 EP90902349A EP90902349A EP0456684A1 EP 0456684 A1 EP0456684 A1 EP 0456684A1 EP 90902349 A EP90902349 A EP 90902349A EP 90902349 A EP90902349 A EP 90902349A EP 0456684 A1 EP0456684 A1 EP 0456684A1
Authority
EP
European Patent Office
Prior art keywords
signal
processing apparatus
replenishment
photographic
photographic material
Prior art date
Legal status (The legal status is an assumption and is not a legal conclusion. Google has not performed a legal analysis and makes no representation as to the accuracy of the status listed.)
Granted
Application number
EP90902349A
Other languages
German (de)
English (en)
Other versions
EP0456684B1 (fr
Inventor
Christopher Barrie C O K Rider
Current Assignee (The listed assignees may be inaccurate. Google has not performed a legal analysis and makes no representation or warranty as to the accuracy of the list.)
Kodak Ltd
Eastman Kodak Co
Original Assignee
Kodak Ltd
Eastman Kodak Co
Priority date (The priority date is an assumption and is not a legal conclusion. Google has not performed a legal analysis and makes no representation as to the accuracy of the date listed.)
Filing date
Publication date
Application filed by Kodak Ltd, Eastman Kodak Co filed Critical Kodak Ltd
Publication of EP0456684A1 publication Critical patent/EP0456684A1/fr
Application granted granted Critical
Publication of EP0456684B1 publication Critical patent/EP0456684B1/fr
Anticipated expiration legal-status Critical
Expired - Lifetime legal-status Critical Current

Links

Classifications

    • G—PHYSICS
    • G03—PHOTOGRAPHY; CINEMATOGRAPHY; ANALOGOUS TECHNIQUES USING WAVES OTHER THAN OPTICAL WAVES; ELECTROGRAPHY; HOLOGRAPHY
    • G03C—PHOTOSENSITIVE MATERIALS FOR PHOTOGRAPHIC PURPOSES; PHOTOGRAPHIC PROCESSES, e.g. CINE, X-RAY, COLOUR, STEREO-PHOTOGRAPHIC PROCESSES; AUXILIARY PROCESSES IN PHOTOGRAPHY
    • G03C5/00—Photographic processes or agents therefor; Regeneration of such processing agents
    • G03C5/26—Processes using silver-salt-containing photosensitive materials or agents therefor
    • G03C5/29—Development processes or agents therefor
    • G03C5/31—Regeneration; Replenishers
    • G—PHYSICS
    • G03—PHOTOGRAPHY; CINEMATOGRAPHY; ANALOGOUS TECHNIQUES USING WAVES OTHER THAN OPTICAL WAVES; ELECTROGRAPHY; HOLOGRAPHY
    • G03C—PHOTOSENSITIVE MATERIALS FOR PHOTOGRAPHIC PURPOSES; PHOTOGRAPHIC PROCESSES, e.g. CINE, X-RAY, COLOUR, STEREO-PHOTOGRAPHIC PROCESSES; AUXILIARY PROCESSES IN PHOTOGRAPHY
    • G03C7/00—Multicolour photographic processes or agents therefor; Regeneration of such processing agents; Photosensitive materials for multicolour processes
    • G03C7/30—Colour processes using colour-coupling substances; Materials therefor; Preparing or processing such materials
    • G03C7/44—Regeneration; Replenishers
    • G—PHYSICS
    • G03—PHOTOGRAPHY; CINEMATOGRAPHY; ANALOGOUS TECHNIQUES USING WAVES OTHER THAN OPTICAL WAVES; ELECTROGRAPHY; HOLOGRAPHY
    • G03D—APPARATUS FOR PROCESSING EXPOSED PHOTOGRAPHIC MATERIALS; ACCESSORIES THEREFOR
    • G03D3/00—Liquid processing apparatus involving immersion; Washing apparatus involving immersion
    • G03D3/02—Details of liquid circulation
    • G03D3/06—Liquid supply; Liquid circulation outside tanks
    • G03D3/065—Liquid supply; Liquid circulation outside tanks replenishment or recovery apparatus

Definitions

  • PHOTOGRAPHIC PROCESSING The present invention relates to the replenishment of chemical solutions used in the processing of photographic materials.
  • a photo inishing laboratory one of the problems which must be overcome if quality standards are to be maintained concerns the drift in the sensitometry of processed photographic materials.
  • One cause of such drift is incorrect replenishment of chemicals.
  • replenishment chemicals must be added to the baths in order to keep the activities and concentrations of the chemicals constant.
  • Most modern paper processors use detectors at the input to measure the area of paper passing into them. Replenishment rates can then be derived assuming that, on average, the paper has been exposed to a mid—grey. This assumption is reasonable, considering that most printers use art "integrate-to- grey" system.
  • GB-A-2111726 describes a system for controlling the addition of replenisher to a bath in which light—sensitive media are being processed.
  • the signal controlling the rate of addition of replenisher chemicals is derived from the area of the light—sensitive media which has been scanned by a laser exposing device.
  • a method of controlling the rate of replenishment of chemical solutions used in photographic processing apparatus including photographic printing apparatus for copying an object on to photographic material, the method being characterized by the steps of deriving a signal which is related to the exposure given to the photographic material, and using the signal to control the replenishment rate of the processing solutions.
  • the derived signal produces a replenishment rate which is directly related to the amount of image-producing substances " formed on the photographic material after development of an image of the object.
  • the derived signal produces a replenishment rate which exactly balances the chemicals depleted in processing the photographic material.
  • Photographic processors are normally set up so that the replenishment rate exactly compensates for the chemicals used in processing paper which has been exposed to an predefined average grey level.
  • This grey level is intended to simulate the amount of dye produced on a print made from the average (population centre) customer negative. It is usual to calibrate the printer with such a population centre negative which is printed to produce a grey print at the average grey level. The printer is adjusted so that the correct density is produced on the grey print. Having calibrated the printer in this way, the factory calibration of the replenishment system of the processor will also be correct since the average of all prints will turn out to be the average grey level produced by the printer calibration.
  • a colour photographic material has three image forming layers: the cyan, magenta and yellow. Light is projected through the film on to the paper to form a latent image which is rendered visible by the processing solutions.
  • Dye is formed by the reaction of developer molecules which have been oxidised by the reduction of silver halide to silver metal and halogen gas, with coupler molecules in the paper.
  • the equivalence of a dye is the amount of oxidised developer molecules which is needed to form one molecule of the dye.
  • the dyes used are typically 2 and 4 equivalent. In practice, the measured equivalence of a dye may be more than this because not all oxidised developer molecules are converted to dye. Some molecules are lost due to other reactions and processes.
  • the amount of oxidised developer molecules that are lost may vary according to the amount of dye which has already been formed on the paper at any point in the development cycle. Let the amount of dye formed in the cyan layer of one square foot of paper be c, the amount in the magenta layer be m, and the amount in the yellow layer, y, all in grams.
  • a general expression for the weight of developer replenisher which must be added to the developer tank to replace the developer which has been used to process 1 square foot of colour paper, R, is
  • k is a constant of proportionality
  • e , e , and e are functions of the dye amounts c, m and y, respectively
  • j is a function of time, t, and represents the natural process of degradation of the developer by, for example, aerial oxidation, and is dependent on the design of the processor tank;
  • K is a constant representing the weight of developer carried out of the tank by the wet paper after development.
  • K 0 k[e c (c°)+e m (m°)+e y (y°)] (4)
  • K° is a known quantity and is a recommended figure by manufacturers of photographic products. For machines with large tank volumes, there will be as many prints with dye amounts less than the average than with dye amounts above the average. Developer efficiency is therefore unaffected by these fluctuations in print dye amount. Small volume machines, however, would benefit from being able to calculate ⁇ R and vary the replenisher rates accordingly. There are several ways of calculating ⁇ R, but none is perfectly accurate. It is the object of the present invention to describe the principles involved and techniques which could be used to determine ⁇ R, as opposed to the exact detail of formulae etc. It should also be borne in mind that the average replenishment rate assumption currently in use is extremely effective. This invention provides a small correction to this technique and absolute accuracy is therefore unnecessary, though accuracy becomes increasingly important as tank volume is reduced.
  • the corrections are usually defined in terms of "density button” units where each button adds a fixed increment to the exposure time, typically 19%.
  • a '-t-3 button' correction increments the time by 1.19 x 1.19 x 1.19 or 1.68.
  • a '—4 button' change decreases the time by 1.19 x 1.19 x 1.19 x 1.19 or 2 (a halving of the time).
  • the exact increment is usually variable and can be set up by the user.
  • More sophisticated printer algorithms may permit much smaller increments in density and colour balance. In these cases, it may be possible to perform a calculation to get values for ⁇ R rather than having to perform many experimental determinations. Again, the exact details of the calculation will vary from machine to machine so the general outline will be explained below, where -the assumption is made that an average measurement of the negative transmittance has been made (rather than discrete measurements at many places on the negative).
  • the next step is to convert from reflection density to transmission density using another well known relation (see Williams and Klapper, Journal of the Optical Society of America, 1953, volume 43, page 595). It is now possible to obtain relative dye amounts on the print to a good approximation by taking the ratio of the transmission densities of the print in question, T n ., to the transmission density of the calibration print, T° n .. We may therefore write for the magenta layer for example,
  • E i the exposure given to the print.
  • the functional relationship between 1-.. and E. is found from a knowledge of the paper's R D — log(E) curve, and the R jj T jj curve as is described in detail by Williams and Klapper mentioned above. It is preferable to combine these two curves into a single function, which may be a table of pairs of values relating E. and T n ⁇ - Intermediate points may, of course, be found by nterpolation.
  • the ⁇ R. term will normally be a small correction to R. and therefore a high degree of accuracy is not required to establish the relationship between E. and
  • Photo inishing printers work in one of three ways. Some expose one print at a time and immediately send each exposed print to a processing machine. Others expose small batches of prints (typically between five and thirty prints) which are sent in one long length to the processing machine. These first two types of printer are normally found in minilabs where the printer is directly connected to a processor. There are still other types of printer which expose very large batches of prints, typically many hundreds, on to long rolls of paper before being taken uncut to a separate processing machine. These types of printers are normally found in high volume photofinishing establishments.
  • the replenishment data would need to be recorded on a magnetic storage medium, such as a floppy disc.
  • a magnetic storage medium such as a floppy disc.
  • the floppy disc would then be loaded into the paper processor's own floppy disc drive.
  • the paper processor equipped with a microprocessor controlled replenishment system, would access the replenishment data via its microprocessor as the roll of photographic paper i s being processed in a developer. After a fixed number of prints have entered the developer, for example ten, an amount of replenisher would be added to the developer bath and an equal amount of developer drained off. The amount added would correspond to the sum of the replenisher amounts for the particular ten prints in the developer.
  • a scanning device for example a charge—coupled device having a 30 by 20 array, would yield 600 measurements of the transmittance of the negative. Areas of low density on the negative which would give an area of D *mav on the Print could be recognised as such-, by using the paper's R ⁇ — log(E) curve. The dye amounts formed at each of the 600 areas could be added together to give an accurate calculation of the total dye amount formed on the print.
  • the present invention has the advantage that it overcomes the problem of incorrect chemical replenishment, thus reducing sensitometric drift, maintaining quality and therefore saving money.
  • the present invention would be particularly suited to a small photofinishing operation such as a mini—lab where small chemical volumes in the processing tanks increase the susceptibility of the photographic processor to the effects of incorrect replenishment. Furthermore, for the small photofinishing operation, the relatively low hardware cost required to incorporate the present invention in a printer—processor pair is an added advantage. In addition, the need for a storage medium on which to retain the dye amounts calculated for the prints from a given roll of negatives during printing would be eliminated as the microprocessors in both the printer and the processor would be able to transfer the data between them.
  • the invention is particularly suited to the replenishment of photographic developers, but could be used with any apparatus where the replenishment rate is a function of the image density.

Landscapes

  • Physics & Mathematics (AREA)
  • General Physics & Mathematics (AREA)
  • Photographic Processing Devices Using Wet Methods (AREA)
  • Silver Salt Photography Or Processing Solution Therefor (AREA)
  • Nitrogen Condensed Heterocyclic Rings (AREA)
  • Photographic Developing Apparatuses (AREA)
  • Control Of Exposure In Printing And Copying (AREA)
  • Color Image Communication Systems (AREA)
  • Photosensitive Polymer And Photoresist Processing (AREA)

Abstract

Dans les appareils de traitement photographique connus, la qualité des photographies obtenue peut être affectée par une dérive de l'organe de traitement du papier de l'appareil. Une des causes de cette dérive est une régénération incorrecte des agents chimiques utilisés dans l'organe de traitement du papier. Dans les appareils de traitement qui n'utilisent que des agents chimiques en petits volumes, la dérive peut être causée par des vitesses de régénération non adaptées au colorant se formant sur les épreuves photographiques traitées et il faudra que l'opérateur prenne des mesures pour régler l'organe de traitement du papier. La présente invention décrit un procédé amélioré de régulation de la vitesse de régénération des agents chimiques dans les appareils de traitement photographique. Ce procédé consiste à déduire un signal de régulation de l'image à exposer sur la substance photographique et à utiliser le signal ainsi obtenu pour réguler la vitesse de régénération des agents chimiques.
EP90902349A 1989-02-01 1990-02-01 Traitement photographique Expired - Lifetime EP0456684B1 (fr)

Applications Claiming Priority (3)

Application Number Priority Date Filing Date Title
GB898902186A GB8902186D0 (en) 1989-02-01 1989-02-01 Photographic processing
GB8902186 1989-02-01
PCT/GB1990/000162 WO1990008979A1 (fr) 1989-02-01 1990-02-01 Traitement photographique

Publications (2)

Publication Number Publication Date
EP0456684A1 true EP0456684A1 (fr) 1991-11-21
EP0456684B1 EP0456684B1 (fr) 1994-06-08

Family

ID=10650943

Family Applications (2)

Application Number Title Priority Date Filing Date
EP90301062A Pending EP0381502A1 (fr) 1989-02-01 1990-02-01 Traitement photographique
EP90902349A Expired - Lifetime EP0456684B1 (fr) 1989-02-01 1990-02-01 Traitement photographique

Family Applications Before (1)

Application Number Title Priority Date Filing Date
EP90301062A Pending EP0381502A1 (fr) 1989-02-01 1990-02-01 Traitement photographique

Country Status (12)

Country Link
EP (2) EP0381502A1 (fr)
JP (1) JP2930407B2 (fr)
KR (1) KR920701866A (fr)
AT (1) ATE107050T1 (fr)
AU (1) AU627551B2 (fr)
CA (1) CA2046626A1 (fr)
DE (1) DE69009741T2 (fr)
DK (1) DK0456684T3 (fr)
ES (1) ES2054339T3 (fr)
GB (1) GB8902186D0 (fr)
MY (1) MY104823A (fr)
WO (1) WO1990008979A1 (fr)

Cited By (3)

* Cited by examiner, † Cited by third party
Publication number Priority date Publication date Assignee Title
US5669029A (en) * 1995-05-04 1997-09-16 Eastman Kodak Company Photographic processing
US5683839A (en) * 1995-05-04 1997-11-04 Eastman Kodak Company Method of processing black and white photographic silver halide materials
US5701545A (en) * 1995-05-04 1997-12-23 Eastman Kodak Company Photographic processing

Families Citing this family (7)

* Cited by examiner, † Cited by third party
Publication number Priority date Publication date Assignee Title
JP3034644B2 (ja) * 1990-10-24 2000-04-17 富士写真フイルム株式会社 撮影用写真カラーネガフィルム処理方法
GB9116625D0 (en) * 1991-08-01 1991-09-18 Kodak Ltd Improvements in or relating to photographic processing
US5780189A (en) * 1991-08-01 1998-07-14 Eastman Kodak Company Apparatus and method for controlling the chemical activity of processing solution in a photographic processing apparatus
GB9116624D0 (en) * 1991-08-01 1991-09-18 Kodak Ltd Improvements in or relating to photographic processing
DE69327079T2 (de) * 1992-09-04 2000-09-07 Agfa-Gevaert N.V., Mortsel Verfahren zur Rückführung eines gebrauchten photographischen Entwicklers und photographischer wiederverwendeter Entwickler
US5436118A (en) * 1994-03-31 1995-07-25 Eastman Kodak Company Method of processing silver halide photographic elements using a low volume thin tank processing system
GB9509111D0 (en) * 1995-05-04 1995-06-28 Kodak Ltd Method of processing photographic silver halide materials

Family Cites Families (4)

* Cited by examiner, † Cited by third party
Publication number Priority date Publication date Assignee Title
DE1522884A1 (de) * 1966-05-17 1969-10-16 Klimsch & Co Verfahren und Einrichtung zur Steuerung des Regenerierungsvorgangs bei automatischen Entwicklungsmaschinen fuer die Reproduktionstechnik
USRE30123E (en) * 1972-09-11 1979-10-23 E. I. Du Pont De Nemours And Company Apparatus for controlling addition of replenishment solution to a photographic processor
EP0082628A3 (fr) 1981-12-17 1985-04-10 Vickers Plc Traitement de milieux sensibles à la lumière, par exemple plaques d'impression lithographiques
WO1989004508A1 (fr) * 1987-11-04 1989-05-18 Fuji Photo Film Co., Ltd. Procede et dispositif de reapprovisionnement en fluide de traitement

Non-Patent Citations (1)

* Cited by examiner, † Cited by third party
Title
See references of WO9008979A1 *

Cited By (3)

* Cited by examiner, † Cited by third party
Publication number Priority date Publication date Assignee Title
US5669029A (en) * 1995-05-04 1997-09-16 Eastman Kodak Company Photographic processing
US5683839A (en) * 1995-05-04 1997-11-04 Eastman Kodak Company Method of processing black and white photographic silver halide materials
US5701545A (en) * 1995-05-04 1997-12-23 Eastman Kodak Company Photographic processing

Also Published As

Publication number Publication date
MY104823A (en) 1994-06-30
CA2046626A1 (fr) 1990-08-02
DE69009741D1 (de) 1994-07-14
AU5021890A (en) 1990-08-24
GB8902186D0 (en) 1989-03-22
ATE107050T1 (de) 1994-06-15
JPH04503121A (ja) 1992-06-04
ES2054339T3 (es) 1994-08-01
AU627551B2 (en) 1992-08-27
EP0456684B1 (fr) 1994-06-08
DK0456684T3 (da) 1994-07-11
JP2930407B2 (ja) 1999-08-03
EP0381502A1 (fr) 1990-08-08
WO1990008979A1 (fr) 1990-08-09
DE69009741T2 (de) 1995-01-12
KR920701866A (ko) 1992-08-12

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