Swing and a miss

[Anthony Martinez]

My C-41 chemicals came in right before my trip to Boston over the weekend. Tonight I decided to give it a shot, and I'm glad I didn't try it on either of the rolls from Boston. Pretty sure I did something wrong. Not sure what, but if the negatives ever get dry enough to scan I'll share the results.

Looks like the two rolls of color film I shot in Boston are destined for AZ Photo so I don't ruin them.

[Anthony Martinez]

Guess not as much of a miss as I thought. I clearly have no idea what a color negative ought to look like.

[venchka]

Looks good. We were both up way too late scanning.

[chris00nj]

Wow. From never shooting film to develop color film, you've jumped in head first.

I haven't tried any color processing yet. Where did you get your C-41 chemicals and what system do you use?

[Anthony Martinez]

Head first is pretty much the only way I ever do anything. It...uhh.. gets expensive that way sometimes.

I bought this kit and followed the instructions on the included paperwork. Rollei/Compard Digibase C-41 Mini Color Processing Kit - 10 roll capacity | Freestyle Photographic Supplies

[venchka]

Somewhere on the internet there is an illustrated tutorial for color processing. A small lunch size Igloo cooler and warm water was usd to keep the chemicals at an even temperature. Given the summer temps. in Houston, we should all be developing color in the summer and B&W in the so called "winter."

[Anthony Martinez]

Yeah I filled my sink with an appropriate temperature of water and held my chemical containers in there while I developed. I think next time I'll probably go downstairs and do this in the kitchen. The sink is much larger there.

[venchka]

Sinks work except they tend to lower the water temp. below the ambient room temp. Enter the small insulated cooler.

[Anthony Martinez]

It's ceramic lined. The sink retains heat pretttty well. I had less than a degree temperature drop from the time I got the water filled and at the temp I wanted to the time I finally drained it more than an hour later.

[venchka]

There you go. If it ain't broke, don't fix it. I wish my apartment would do the same in the summer. I get about +3 degrees rise in my Jobo tank in 3 minutes when I'm doing B&W.

[chris00nj]

How many baths is it, and how long did it take.

Has anyone every tried E-6 at home? After my Kodachrome is all used up, I'm going to have to try other film.

35mm C-41 is still easy for me to get developed, but getting 120 C-41 or E-6 can be logistically difficult.

[venchka]

I could see doing E-6 at home. In the summer.

[Anthony Martinez]

Originally Posted by chris00nj

How many baths is it, and how long did it take.

Has anyone every tried E-6 at home? After my Kodachrome is all used up, I'm going to have to try other film.

35mm C-41 is still easy for me to get developed, but getting 120 C-41 or E-6 can be logistically difficult.

There are three bottles, parts A through C, of developer plus a bottle of starter. All of that gets mixed together for step one (3.25min). Then there's a bottle of bleacher, step two (~4min). Bottle of fixer, step three (~5min). Bottle of stabilizer, step four (1.25min). It's all sized, in that kit anyway, for a 500mL working solution. Perfect for a roll of 120 film.

[KJ Smith]

Originally Posted by chris00nj

Has anyone every tried E-6 at home?

Yes. Used to do it all the time with excellent results.

You can even push the film if you want.

Besseler (I think) used to make a great 4 step kit. Have not seen it in a long time.

Freestyle has a kit, can't recall how many steps, but less than the Kodak kit that was 7 or 11 steps. ( I can't remember much tonight).

I did the same thing Anthony suggest. Get yourself several brown glass bottles.
( Valerie will be along to suggest which beer bottles are best ).

Then fill your sink with hot water. I think it needs to be around 105f.

The developer temperature can effect the color cast. This can be used to your advantage.

Put your chemical bottles in the sink and give everything time to stabilize. Adjust temps as needed.

The development time is fairly short.

I probably did 100 rolls or more with this process.

You will need to get slide mounts or just sleeve them like negatives.

Its much easier than you think.

If you can do B&W, you can do E6.


As Anthony found out, it looks real dark..... until it dries.

[lucian]

I remember the negatives looking cloudy until after they dried.

I tried doing color by hand and got too frustrated with it. So one day I saw a good deal on an Image-Pro automatic processor and my wife said OK. I first used it for E-6 processing of Christmas at Ft. Concho. We must have run about 50 rolls through it that weekend. It sure beat the by hand, in the sink.