Blue Streaks

[bvy]

I recently got a 35mm color negative back from Target with blue streaks starting at around the 20th frame through the end of the roll (five or so more frames). Never had a problem there before, and honestly, I wouldn't be surprised if the error is mine. This is a cheap point-and-shoot camera (Vivitar Ultra Wide & Slim) and the streaking just happens to appear on the first beach shot of the roll. Sea air or water? Lab error? The streaking also appears over the sprockets. This frame is the worst. This is Fujifilm Superia 400. Thanks for looking.

 

[Jenni]

Looks like processing error to me.

 

[foc]

It looks to me like dirt/sludge from the C41 processor had become attached to your neg. This can happen if the processor is not maintained correctly, the cross over racks washed at the end of the shift/evening, the wash tanks and filters cleaned regularly etc.

As you said it was near the end of the film, frame 20 or so on a 24exp film, it sounds to me that it's the wash tanks are dirty, they have scum on the walls of the tank. Your film usually is leader card fed in most minilab processors. After the film end has been cut in the processor the film is pulled through the different processing tanks (sounds worst than it is, the film only touched the processing rack guides at the outer edge of the film). Beacuse the wash tanks are small, when the end of the film is exiting the rack it can spring out a little and brush against the tank wall gently. If the tank wall is clean then no harm is done but if it has a build up of slime then this can cause the problem.

I would bring them back to the mini lab and ask that they rewash your negs and redo your prints/scans (they can do this very easly compared to you trying it at home).

 

[BMbikerider]

To get closer to the problem it looks like contamination from Bleach fix. To confirm this if the streaks on the negatives are yellow(ish but print blue then it is BF contamination. The same occurred with Slides where the final slide has Blue marks. The processor needs a little bit of talking to.

 

[bvy]

I would bring them back to the mini lab and ask that they rewash your negs and redo your prints/scans (they can do this very easly compared to you trying it at home).

I did make a half-hearted effort to clean the negative with "high octane" isopropyl alcohol. I say half-hearted because I'm not in the habit of cleaning color negatives (not processing C41 yet) and I didn't want to to do further damage. When it didn't yield, I stopped. But am I hearing that this crud can be cleaned from the negatives? That would be good news.

 

[bvy]

Can anyone help? Like I said, alcohol did nothing to remove the crud. Should I purchase a final rinse solution and try again?

 

[foc]

If you wish to clean the negs yourself then I suggest the following. In a luke warm dish of water (don't be too fussy about temp) add your rinse solution and submerge the strip of negs. Leave for about a minute. Make sure your fingers are clean before the next stage.

Take hold of the neg strip in the water and gently rub with your fingers the area with the crud. You should feel it begin to loosen and remove. Better to do this is slow gentle steps and repeat until the crud is removed. NB: because you are using gentle rubbing with your fingers you shouln't do any damage to the film, remember gentle and slow!!!. ( I have wash loads of negs this way over the years and I never scratched one).

To dry the negs next. Using a paper clip, hook it through the sprocket hole nearest one end of the neg strip. Put another paper clip through the sprocket hole at the other end but on the opposite side. Then hang your neg with a cloths peg, if it begins to curl at the bottom then put another cloths peg at that end and leave to dry in a dust free area.

Let me know how you get on.