Redscale, anyone?

[jeeper]

Does anyone here like to redscale their film?

I've gotten some interesting redscale shots... The Lomo redscale 100 film is not too bad, but I've also redscaled regular film too. Fuji films seem to come out very red (even when exposed at half the box speed). (I've noticed that the film base on Fuji film is much more red than other films too, so that may be why.....?)


Fuji Pro 160S (@80):

01221118 by J E, on Flickr


Lomo Redscale 100 (@50):

06281116 by J E, on Flickr

Fuji Superia X-Tra 800 (@400):

08221104 by J E, on Flickr

[Colyn]

Never tried it but it does look interesting.

How would you go about doing it with a film camera such as the Minolta SRT?

[jeeper]

There are tutorials on YouTube, but it's a fairly simple process.

Basically, you need to get the film out of one canister and into another backwards.

If you don't have any reusable canisters laying around (I bulk load film, so I have a ton of them), you might have to waste a roll for the cause.

The way to do it without having an empty roll to load it into - take a roll of film (it will be scrapped, so use something you don't mind wasting - it doesn't even have to be color, you just need it for the last little bit of film to tape the redscale film to.), pull the film all the way out and cut off all but an inch or so.

Next, take the film you want to redscale, cut the leader off so you have a straight edge. Tape the two ends together so that when it goes into the empty canister the emulsion side is facing the wrong way.

In COMPLETE DARKNESS, wind the film from the full roll to the empty one. Cut it, then cut yourself a leader on it.

I've found that it's pretty much impossible to overexpose redscaled film (less exposure = darker reds, more exposure = yellow). A good starting point is half the box speed of the film, but with stuff like this - there's nothing wrong with a little experimentation.

After you have a roll of film with the film in the canister 'backwards', load it in the camera normally, shoot, then process normally. All of the frames will be 'backwards', as if shot in a mirror. Some people don't flip them in PP, I do.


If you take this film to a regular lab, they will likely think that something went wrong... (Could be fun to mess with them a little... ;) ). I scan and print myself, but if you have a lab do the prints, you might want to ask for no color correction - the redscale will probably mess with their machine a little...

[Colyn]

Thanks

I just watched a youtube video on it. Looks simple enough. I've got some Fuji negative film in the refer I've been wanting to do something with so I'll use it for this..

[jeeper]

I actually just developed a roll of expired Kodak Gold 400 that I redscaled (what else are you going to do with expired Kodak Gold...?). I'll scan the negs tomorrow... Shot it a 100, 200, and a couple frames at 25. I was mostly just messing around, but I think I might have a couple good shots on there.

[The Philos]

Would this work on expired 4x5 film the same way, just load it backwards into the holder?

[jeeper]

I don't see why it wouldn't... Shooting through the emulsion and the dye layers backwards is what makes it come out red. As long as the dye layers on the sheet film are in the same order as they are in roll film (I assume they would be, and probably even cut from the same stock) it should work the same.

[The Philos]

Now to see what red-scaled C-41 XPro'd in E-6 will look like; ponders...

[jeeper]

Only one way to find out! I look forward to seeing the results.

[jeeper]

Here's one from that roll of expired Gold 400:


09271103 by J E, on Flickr

That one was exposed at ISO 100.

I shot a few at 25 too, but they didn't turn out... The exposure was fine (a little less orange than this one), they just had a lot of camera shake, lol!