Adding Color

[wartree]

So i've done a bit of bw film processing. And i've come to realise that i can get 35mm c-41 film for quite cheap in a nearby large retail store. I was wondering if with the addition of some steps i could get any color out of it ( i am not looking for accurate colors)
I have foma developer and fixer, for negatives, bw stuff i suppose , butt they dont specify, so i wonder what would be necessary to bring color out of the film.
I've been looking, but almost everywhere i look, the c-41 chemicals are only sold in kits.

 

[Halford]

Hi,

Colour chemistry differs significantly from B&W chemistry. Although, like B&W, it involves the redution of exposed silver salts, there are other critical components of colour processes which are missing from B&W chemistry:

* Colour developers interact with the dyes in the film in order to produce the little 'clouds' of dye around the exposed silver salt crystals which are what we see as colour images. Black & white developers don't do this.
* The silver metal, which forms the image in B&W materials, has to be bleached out in order to get a decent colour image.

In short, no, your black & white chemicals won't give you a colour image on C41 film. Your best bet is getting hold of a smallish C41 kit, like the Tetenal or Rollei Digibase kit (which I believe Freestyle have, but I'm not sure), and giving it a go.

Bear in mind that the really key thing for colour processing is temperature control, so you'll need to be able to keep all your chems and tank at a pretty even temp around 34C (not sure what that is in F), using a water bath or something like that. People come up with all sorts of improvisations around this

Good luck!
H

 

[markbarendt]

It is nice to start C-41 developing with a kit because it's different chemically.

The chemicals are available separately from minilab supply houses, the quantities are a bit larger.

I started with 55FP475 kit made by Trebla.

 

[AgX]

They are also sold in separate parts in batches of 1L or less under the Rollei brand.