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RoboRepublic · May 13, 2020

Hi folks, I'm interested in developing my color film at home. I've been working with black and white from for the last year.
Recently I picked up the Cinestill c41 chemical package but find myself too anxious to use any of the various YouTube videos as a starting point. Color developing is daunting to me! Would anyone be able to recommend a good resource to start my adventure that will start me off on a consistent path?
Thanks!

halfaman · May 13, 2020

I have this...

https://www.amazon.com/-/es/Henry-Horenstein/dp/0316373168

It is an "Ok" book, a good introducction to the essences of color photography processing materials and techniques. Nothing worth paying the crazy prices I see in Amazon.

mshchem · May 13, 2020

It's not difficult. I would follow the instructions from your kit. Try to be consistent. Use warm water bath to try to stay on temperature. Youtube isn't what I would follow. C-41 is easy make sure you try to keep your temps correct, developer is most critical time and temperature.
Relax and go ahead.

mshchem · May 13, 2020

This fellow has it down to a tee!

https://www.kabbottphoto.com/c-41-with-kodak-flexicolor-at-home/

koraks · May 13, 2020

mshchem said:
It's not difficult. I would follow the instructions from your kit. Try to be consistent. Use warm water bath to try to stay on temperature. Youtube isn't what I would follow. C-41 is easy make sure you try to keep your temps correct, developer is most critical time and temperature.
Relax and go ahead.

This is pretty much all of it, really. Time and temperature are critical for the developer. The other steps go to completion so timing is not critical there; err to the side of longer times for bleach/fix steps.

It really isn't fundamentally different from b&w in terms of processing. You just need to watch temperature stability a bit better during development, but that's not necessarily very difficult either.

RoboRepublic · Jun 2, 2020

Thanks everyone for your feedback and encouragement! I'm going to give this a try soon, i'm so very excited and nervous, I've built up a quite a collection ( eight different roles(yikes!))

Sirius Glass · Jun 2, 2020

Henry Horenstein Color Photography, A Working Manual Little, Brown 1995 ISBN 0-316-37317-6

grat · Jun 5, 2020

I based my process of this page: https://www.lomography.com/magazine/233836-the-ultimate-diy-c-41-developingtutorial-part-2

Which is based on the Unicolor kit. Her steps line up pretty solid with the Unicolor instructions, except she does a final rinse after the stabilizer. I tried it both ways, and have no opinion.

Ultimately, the best guide is in the instruction sheet in the box.

koraks · Jun 6, 2020

grat said:
a final rinse after the stabilizer

For the stabilizer to be effective it needs to be the very final wet stage. If a more thorough wash is desired (not a bad idea in my opinion), it should precede the stabilizer.

grat · Jun 6, 2020

koraks said:
For the stabilizer to be effective it needs to be the very final wet stage. If a more thorough wash is desired (not a bad idea in my opinion), it should precede the stabilizer.

So I've heard. It didn't seem to harm those negatives, but since then, I've dropped that step.

koraks · Jun 6, 2020

grat said:
It didn't seem to harm those negatives

That's understandable. Any difference will only become apparent in the long term.

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