Beautiful colors. Share yours here!

[aparat]

Most of the threads on Photrio are pretty serious, often full of useful information and constructive debate. I was thinking, maybe we could have a fun thread, for a change. Here's an idea. I love seeing the various beautiful colors of spent developer I poured out of my Jobo tanks (while doing B&W processing). I find that Pyrocat HD makes gorgeous colors. Here are three examples to get the thread started. The colors look more vibrant than my phone camera can capture:

This one reminds me of light beer: Pyrocat HD 1+1+200, 14 minutes semi-stand Adox CMS 20 II in 35 mm size, no pre-wash

Pyrocat HD 1+1+200, 14 minutes semi-stand Adox CMS 20 II no pre-wash by Nick Mazur, on Flickr

This one looks like red wine: KODAK T-MAX 400 in 120 size in Pyrocat HD 1+1+200, 60 minutes semi-stand, no pre-wash

KODAK T-MAX 400 in Pyrocat HD 1+1+200, no pre-wash by Nick Mazur, on Flickr

And this one is a beautiful emerald green: Pyrocat HD 1+1+200, 40 minutes semi-stand, Fomapan 100 in 120 size, no pre-wash

Spent Pyrocat HD by Nick Mazur, on Flickr

Please, share your colors!

 

[Rudeofus]

These are most likely dyes washed out of the film, not dyes created by your developer ...

 

[Anon Ymous]

These are most likely dyes washed out of the film, not dyes created by your developer ...

Yes, the last one is the most obvious case, 120 Fomapan 100 gives this vivid green if you prewash it. The first time I used Agfa APX100 and developed it in Rodinal I got a very deep purple solution after use. Any other developer I tried poured out pretty much unchanged with this film.

 

[Andrew O'Neill]

That green one could also pass as CatLABS 80. That's one of only a few films that I prewash before development. I don't like my fixer turning green!

 

[Rudeofus]

The wildest color I ever got was a strong neon pink with Efke IR820. Some of these dyes are for fine tuning emulsion speed after coating, so they may actually differ between coating runs.

But yes, they are sometimes nice to look at.

 

[aparat]

@Andrew O'Neill Yeah, I also like to have my fixer clear. Speaking of CatLABS, here's pre-wash water from the new X FILM 320. It's got a bit of a cool, cyan cast to it, which didn't come through in this picture.

catlabsPro320prewashDye by Nick Mazur, on Flickr

@Rudeofus Wow. I'd love to see that neon pink! Yes, I know it's the dyes from the anti-halation and anti-light-piping layers, but the developers can sometimes change that color, as in the examples I posted. The Fomapan dye is, otherwise, kind of dirty green, but Pyrocat turns it into a gorgeous emerald green. It looks like a liquid gem stone in real life. The picture doesn't do it justice.

 

[koraks]

Shanghai GP3 pre-rinse in plain water:

Somewhat better:

It's interesting to see how my phone totally fails to accurately record this particular hue. Makes me wonder what the exact spectral distribution really is and how that meshes (or fails to) with the phone's CCD.

A bottle of parodinal (with KOH instead of NaOH) undergoing ripening. It's 4 days old or so by now. Note the darker clouds at the top where the developer is being oxidized by the air in the bottle.

 

[ic-racer]

Pretty brown...

 

[koraks]

Not B&W chemistry, and not really about the colors either, but this one came out pretty cool nonetheless:

Crystal formations in some FUJIFILM MP90 RA4 developer concentrate. A bit like those 'chemical garden' things that probably aren't allowed anymore in school

 

[Alan Edward Klein]

Looks like a sample I left at the doctors.

 

[koraks]

Must have been painful to pass!

 

[Nicholas Lindan]

Not B&W chemistry, and not really about the colors either, but this one came out pretty cool nonetheless:

I looked at it and thought "fishing flies in whiskey." OK. Maybe the odor of whiskey attracts the fish...?

 

[koraks]

I looked at it and thought "fishing flies in whiskey." OK. Maybe the odor of whiskey attracts the fish...?

It suggests certain preoccupations that hint at a good life

 

[Sirius Glass]

Looks like a sample I left at the doctors.

When I first moved to Los Angeles in 1969 I had to visit the doctor. The nurse took me to a room and pointed to a shelf of small bottles. The nurse said, "Fill one of those bottles on that shelf."
I answered, "Look lady, I am a good shot, but not from here."

 

[Anon Ymous]

Not B&W chemistry, and not really about the colors either, but this one came out pretty cool nonetheless:
View attachment 342289
Crystal formations in some FUJIFILM MP90 RA4 developer concentrate. A bit like those 'chemical garden' things that probably aren't allowed anymore in school

Colourless, but relevant and IMHO beautiful:

Trisodium phosphate recrystallisation. That's a way to purify iffy chemicals.