Does anyone print Cross processed E-6 in C-41 on RA4? I'm after examples.

If you look at your xprocessed negs they will often be purple, green or blue, add to that the lack of a red rebate and your initial color pack when printing will be pretty extreme. By adding filtration when shooting you allow the other layers to catch-up. Creating a neg that will be a bit closer to what the paper expects and what an enlarger is built for. Without filtration you can expect there to be magenta bleeding in from the shadows or an impossible neg to color balance to your taste -- it will never be perfect, but all green photos or magenta bleeding in from all the shadow areas can get old.

bvy said:

First, welcome back. I'm not sure we've seen you in a while...

Second, you hit on something that I've questioned or suspected for a while -- that cross-processing to achieve "that look" is a managed process from start (shooting) to finish (darkroom). In other words, it's not just send your E-6 to the C-41 lab and scan or print it in the usual way (though that's what I do, and I like my results for different reasons).

Was shooting with a magenta filter in front of the lens a common strategy for cross-processing in the days before digital? Your results are the closest I've seen to what these hipster "Xpro" and "Process" filters try to simulate.

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Bvy,
I have no idea what others do. I like high contrast saturated colors. One way to avoid filtration is to avoid high contrast situations, overexpose by as much as a stop and under develop by as much as 2 stops. The neg will lack fidelity (who cares you threw that out the window when deciding to xprocess), but it will be printable and scannable. The idea in this scenario is to keep the film or any of its layers from getting enough development to start blocking up, but enough light to make all the layers happy. I prefer the on camera filtration it requires less thinking and the fact that e6 materials do block up by design is why you get the intense colors.

I'm not fan of the 'hipster shots' that tend to strive for a color cast for, as far as I can tell, the sake of the color cast. I've always tried to get a print that, if it has an affectation (like a color cast), it is more inline with the subject and not the process (e.g. letting subways shots go green).

jd callow said:

I'm not fan of the 'hipster shots' that tend to strive for a color cast for, as far as I can tell, the sake of the color cast.

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I certainly agree with that.

jd callow said:

I prefer the on camera filtration it requires less thinking...

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Do you do any color balancing in the darkroom then? Or does everything get (more or less) the same filter pack?

In my experience, every neg requires its own filter pack. Sometimes you get lucky and the color balance of one frame will be the same for all other frames on a roll, but for me that is the exception. The filter pack for one frame at a given enlargement will change when the enlargement changes and when you switch papers or paper batches. Some will say they always use x-filter pack for x film, but I have never seen this to happen in my experience.

My workflow was to do a contact sheet with the enlarger set for about a 12x12 print using my paper of choice. On the back of the contact I would record the time and filter pack. This was generally a good starting point for future prints.


one last bit of information. I have never used unexposed, but developed c41 film base as an aid to enlarging. It may work wonders, but i've always thought if a layer hasn't received enough exposure relative to other layers than you haven't solved your problem. I used drilled out neg holders that allowed for a verification border and or glass holders with a mask created with tape.

on one neg holder I drilled it out and filled it back in w/ clear epoxy. Being relatively neutral you can see the color of the filter pack bleeding through on the edges:
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ept ei 100; 50mm @f/8, Mamiya 6, no filters, 8 second exposure. The neg looks a lot like a c41 neg and prints normally.

e100sw; 75mm f/5.6, 40cc mag filter, mamiya 6, the neg has no base color and is very difficult to print -- notice the bloom of magenta and it still has a green cast. without the mag filter on camera it would have been worse.