Color film processed as BW?

[kminov]

I have a bunch of 120 roll films, Kodak e100SW and Portra 160VC. I was wondering, what would happen if I processed them as B&W negatives? I have a Kodak TMax developer. Anyone tried that?

 

[Rick A]

You will get B&W negatives. There are several threads on the subject.

 

[Xuco Martin]

https://flic.kr/p/jGNeas
https://flic.kr/p/jGJXuz
https://flic.kr/p/jGDo3K
https://flic.kr/p/jFjf1s

here are some examples of kodak 160 Vericolor developed with Rodinal stand development 1:100- ISO 100
there is no mystery to scan them the problem would be to enlarge print
Xuco Martin

 

[RowanBloemhof]

It certainly is possible. Ive tried it a couple of times with Agfa vista(very cheap stuff) stand developed in Rodinal for about an hour. Contrast is poor and the filmbase doesnt allow enlargement on photopaper due to its color. But if you wanna scan you negs this can be fairly well compensated for.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/rowanbloemhof/sets/72157641182513234/
This is a small album from pictures i made this way. The first two were obviously heavily editted. The last one gives a better impression of the native contrast, alot of greyness^^ Although in that particular image i quite like this effect.

Edit: on a sidenote the enlargements i tried were on MG paper, it might be possible to enlarge on fixed grade papers though.

 

[Thomas Bertilsson]

You'll be able to scan them. Printing them is a different story.

 

[summicron1]

why can't you print them? I've made b/w prints from color negatives before, why are these different? If you can see the image, yu can print it, would be my thinking, anyway. May have to try this and see...i have a grundle of dead color film to play with.

 

[Thomas Bertilsson]

why can't you print them? I've made b/w prints from color negatives before, why are these different? If you can see the image, yu can print it, would be my thinking, anyway. May have to try this and see...i have a grundle of dead color film to play with.

The orange base of C41 films make it very different to print compared to normal negatives. There used to be a paper called Kodak Panalure for that very purpose, but as you know Kodak does not make black and white papers anymore.

The difference is that while you CAN make silver gelatin prints from negatives with an orange mask, it is much more difficult, and nearly impossible to make really good prints from them. Variable contrast papers are sensitive to green and blue light. Orange is the opposite color of blue on the color wheel, which makes contrast a very difficult thing to manage. You're welcome to try, of course, and you may even like the results. All I know is I don't.

 

[BetterSense]

I have developed color negatives in bw developer and printed them in the darkroom. I recall having to use grade 5 filtration. The results were pleasant but extremely grainy. I can imagine doing it again as a special effect.

 

[RPC]

Orange is the opposite color of blue on the color wheel, which makes contrast a very difficult thing to manage.

Actually, yellow is the opposite of blue.

Whereas the orange color of the negative may have some effect on the contrast with variable contrast paper, the silver image itself is of very low contrast.

 

[Thomas Bertilsson]

Actually, yellow is the opposite of blue.

Whereas the orange color of the negative may have some effect on the contrast with variable contrast paper, the silver image itself is of very low contrast.

Orange is close enough. It falls right in between yellow and red (which is the opposite color of green, the other contrast agent of the VC paper).

Yes, the silver image is weak, which is why you'd be wise to push process the film.

If it were me I'd probably use b&w negative film if I could, and if that was ruled out I'd scan the C41 color / b-w processed film and make digital negatives. It would be far more consistent with other black and white prints than printing them directly.

 

[Ricardo Miranda]

See here for Agfaphoto Vista+ 200 in Rodinal: https://www.flickr.com/groups/2165089@N24/discuss/72157644281225403/

 

[Rick A]

(there was a url link here which no longer exists)

 

[drmoss_ca]

I stupidly made a mistake when putting two films into two tanks in one changing bag. The Ektar 100 ended up being developed in TMax developer. It came out like this:

Kind of a consolation prize, having it be respectable as a black and white photo.

Chris

 

[zehner21]

I stupidly made a mistake when putting two films into two tanks in one changing bag. The Ektar 100 ended up being developed in TMax developer. It came out like this:

Kind of a consolation prize, having it be respectable as a black and white photo.

Chris

You can always redevelop the Ektar and obtain colors..

 

[Thomas Bertilsson]

I stupidly made a mistake when putting two films into two tanks in one changing bag. The Ektar 100 ended up being developed in TMax developer. It came out like this:

Kind of a consolation prize, having it be respectable as a black and white photo.

Chris

Scanned negative? Or printed on silver paper?

 

[pentaxuser]

Good question and you've just beaten me to it, Thomas.

pentaxuser

 

[removed account4]

I have a bunch of 120 roll films, Kodak e100SW and Portra 160VC. I was wondering, what would happen if I processed them as B&W negatives? I have a Kodak TMax developer. Anyone tried that?

not that particular film and i haven't used tmax developer since about 1991
but i regularly process color film in b/w chemistry and make wet prints from them
( or scan them ) i don't have examples or enlargements
from the process though ( color>>b/w chem >> enlarged on b/w paper )
... i also have no troubles making prints from actual color negatives
( c41 + e6 chemistry ) printed on b/w paper ...

while there are oodles of people who say film is useless unless
it is processed in its native chemistry and enlarged on xyz paper it really as isn't hard to do
as people claim ..

good luck !

 

[kminov]

thanks guys, you are most helpful! another question then, and pardon my ignorance. i've yet to start using a darkroom, so far i've only developed my films and scanned them, so here's the probably stupid question. if i print a color negative on BW paper, won't I get a BW print? I mean, the BW paper can produce only 1 color after all?

 

[RPC]

Ordinary b&w paper is not panchromatic so it will not reproduce all colors in their proper tones and contrast may be off but yes, you will get a b&w print.

 

[pentaxuser]

In my experience you will certainly get a reasonable B&W print and depending on the range of tones as represented by the colours in the neg you might well get as good a print or almost as you'd have got from a B&W neg

Of course you will almost certainly need a higher grade of filter such as a grade 4. When you are in a position to try this, do so and then show several of these B&W prints from colour negs interspersed with prints from B&W negs and see if any viewers mention that the prints from the colour negs somehow look (a) different and (b) inferior.

Unless they are printers themselves you might be surprised how few members of Joe Public can distinguish between them

pentaxuser

 

[frank]

Just to add though: "different" is objective, "inferior" is subjective.

 

[kminov]

Just to add though: "different" is objective, "inferior" is subjective.

Well said!