C41 Shock

outwest · Feb 28, 2008

Just did C41 for the first time and I wish someone had said that the negs are going to look like a disaster until they dry! I was checking chemicals and times and temps to see where I went wrong after I pulled them out of the stabilizer. I went back to the hanging negs for another look and, wait, they don't look so bad now. Of course, they were OK.

Ian Grant · Feb 28, 2008

See C41's easy really, no harder than B&W.

Ian

Akki14 · Feb 28, 2008

I forgot that. I remember developing a roll of 1970s kodacolor and it turned out bright blue on one side and bright yellow on the other until it dried then it was pretty normal looking.

zenrhino · Mar 3, 2008

Im looking really forward to developing my own c-41 when I get back in town from this trip. I love c-41 mono film and it'll be nice to save the money I spend getting it lab-processed.

IloveTLRs · Mar 3, 2008

I have a Naniwa Color Kit (home C-41 kit) but so far I haven't had the nuts to try it out yet

Snapshot · Mar 3, 2008

I keep meaing to try my hand at C-41. I'll definitely remember the fact that negatives will not look right until dry.

Akki14 · Mar 3, 2008

Specifically, the film will look like it's not been fixed enough usually - it'll be sort of a light haze covering the film until it dries. I kept having to convince myself I did it right because if it wasn't properly fixed (which is what I thought it was) i wouldn't be able to see through the film and see the images.

Photo Engineer · Mar 3, 2008

Just FYI, all chromogenic color films and papers produced today are hazy when wet. This is due to the fact that water has a different index of refraction than the coupler solvents used to incorporate the dyes. When they dry down, the indices approach each other and the material becomes transparent rather than cloudy.

PE

PhotoJim · Mar 3, 2008

The C41 kit I first used (Ilford XP1 if memory serves) warned that the negatives would look cloudy until they dried. I'm glad that they gave the warning because it would be disconcerting.

srs5694 · Mar 3, 2008

FWIW, fully processed and dried C-41 films, if dunked in water, take on the same appearance as freshly-processed and undried films. Since I'd washed some old C-41 films to remove some water stains from a flood before I'd ever processed C-41 film myself, I wasn't particularly shocked by the appearance of freshly-processed film; however, I did get a bit nervous when I dunked the first strip of lab-processed film in the water to clean off those water stains!

C41 Shock

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