do-it-yourself E6 and C41

[sodarum]

Well I followed the instructions for the developer. It was a concentrate which I mixed with water as specified in the instructions. It was brand new, never used before. As for the reversal step, what would cause it to be incomplete? The timing was as specified (plus a little extra) for those chemicals.

 

[Photo Engineer]

The reversal chemistry goes bad very quickly after being mixed.

And, using a B&W developer as specified for B&W film is no assurance that it will work for color. There may not be enough of the right solvent or there may be too much.

PE

 

[sodarum]

Ok, so I guess I'll make a test standard E6 development (using regular FD) to see if all the chemistry is still good. Then if it is, it means that the problem is in the alternative FD, which I can then test in different concentrations.

What would be your best estimate for the best place to start when using something like rodinal (in terms of concentration in water, and development time at 100 degrees F) for E6?

 

[Photo Engineer]

I would not use Rodinal. I would start with something milder like DK50, then D76 (this spans solvents to some extent IIRC). I would try a motion picture FD.

PE

 

[sodarum]

Just developed another roll of the same film with regular E6 FD. Everything looks normal. I guess that rules out the reversal step going bad. The problem was obviously in the FD stage, which means I have to rethink my approach for the FD.

 

[Photo Engineer]

You are not alone in this!

 

[Rudeofus]

The color developer can't make your slides too dark: it takes all the silver halide it finds and converts it to silver while creating a dye. If you end up with too dark a slide, you gave the CD too much silver halide to work on, which means the FD didn't do enough. Likewise the reexposure step can only turn your slides brighter, not darker, regardless of what's wrong with it.