Film acceleration

[George Papantoniou]

So, I found some samples made for the Film Acceleration technique testing. The films used were Kodak EPP (said to give the most interesting results), Kodak E100S (did not show much colour shift) and Kodak GPT (a negative film, so no cross process involved).

The films were heavily underexposed (-2 or -3 stops), at first developed in D-76 stock solution (8-10 min, 20 deg celcius) and then in a normal two bath C-41 kit in order to activate the colour dyes and bleach the silver. The result was negatives (as it was a cross-process) that gave strange colour and contrast effects.

Then tried to use the D-76 at 38 degrees too, but it made part of the image to get solarized (you can see a couple of samples) and the result to be part positive, part negative. It was quite dark and unprintable too.

I guess that using the Rodinal instead of D-76 might cause problems because of its developing agent, but I'm not sure...

Nick Knight must have used this technique for his widely known fashion shots.

 

[George Papantoniou]

The pictures:

 

[Claire Senft]

I have no experience in film acceleration techniques. For contrast modification the combination of the Anderson Method for increasing contrast and the use of latent image bleaching allows for very wide control of contrast for C41 films and the latent image bleaching should work well in reducing contrast of transparencies.

 

[David A. Goldfarb]

Interesting stuff. I think the second and fourth shots work well.

 

[George Papantoniou]

Interesting stuff. I think the second and fourth shots work well.

Right, David. These are the ones where I used the more "restrained" developing with the D-76, using it at 20 deg. celcius. The result is an "enhanced" cross-process effect and push-processing of a couple of stops (the EPP was shot at E.I. 400). Some fill in lighting with studio flash (and a power generator that was fun to work with) helped too...

 

[eatfrog]

I am SO trying this next week. As I work at a minilab i can develop C41 as much as i want. And I have lots of Kodak Gold 200 home to experiment with. Thanks a bunch.
I was thinking something like 3-4 minutes in D76 1+1 @ 20C. So evidently i need more time.

Now, the tricky part will be how to get the developed film into the C41 machine.. Hmm.. Maybe let it dry overnight in the tank and take it out in the bag at work and put it in the can we use to develop APS.
I'll try it out!

 

[George Papantoniou]

I am SO trying this next week. As I work at a minilab i can develop C41 as much as i want. And I have lots of Kodak Gold 200 home to experiment with. Thanks a bunch.
I was thinking something like 3-4 minutes in D76 1+1 @ 20C. So evidently i need more time.

Now, the tricky part will be how to get the developed film into the C41 machine.. Hmm.. Maybe let it dry overnight in the tank and take it out in the bag at work and put it in the can we use to develop APS.
I'll try it out!

If the intermittent time between first development and the C-41 is so big, you might experience fogging. Try it, but be prepared... Try to wash out the D-76 developer completely before drying... There are cheap C-41 kits available that can be used in a tank, provided that you keep the temperature around 38 degrees. The precision demanded is not so great, given that the silver on the film will already be developed by the D-76. I used the Tetenal kit, there are many more, I think.

 

[Claire Senft]

You know George I just wrote an article on Dignan NCF 41. This is a divided developer that is designed for C41 processing. You can not over develop film in it normally. However, I would postulate that if after the bath B it was rinsed in water..to prevent the contamination of bath A with alkalai.. and run thru bath A and bath B a second time a substantial push would occur and maybe even more with a third cycle.

 

[George Papantoniou]

Well Claire, you seem to be an expert in exotic colour processes. I am afraid I have never heard of any of the methods you refer to (Anderson, Dignan etc) and so cannot imagine how they would work. My only experience with colour has to do with E-6, C-41, RA-4 and Cibachrome.

What you should do is to organize a workshop for all the APUG members in order to initiate them to all those methods of colour processing. (If it's held near Athens, I'll be happy to attend).

The divided colour developer sounds promising. Is your article somewhere on the net ?

 

[eatfrog]

Argh.
This was not worth it. The film wouldn´t dry while still in the tank. Had it there over night, and it was still wet when i got to work.
Huge problems getting it into the film can because of that, but now it is developing in the machine.

Looks dense, really dense.
We'll see.

 

[Claire Senft]

Yes George it is on a website that is devoted to analog photography. The name of the site is APUG...do a google on it and I bet that you will find it in a jiffy. I have no interest in any workshops as either an instructor or as an attendee.
The article is posted in the articles section.

I consider myself to be expert at nothing.

 

[George Papantoniou]

I am sorry Claire, if my posting sounded sarcastic, this wasn't my intention (this particular once). I didn't mean to hurt you, I hope you'll forgive me.

I am also not accustomed to this habit of APUGgers, of posting articles (an article is usually something printed in a magazine) on the site. So, it wasn't evident for me that your article was on APUG... I am sorry about that, too.

And when I said you were an expert, I really meant it. Seriously.

 

[George Papantoniou]

Argh.
This was not worth it. The film wouldn´t dry while still in the tank. Had it there over night, and it was still wet when i got to work.
Huge problems getting it into the film can because of that, but now it is developing in the machine.

Looks dense, really dense.
We'll see.

Did you wash it good enough after the D-76 ? Did you care to underexpose it 2-3 stops ? Keeping it wet for 12 hours might be a cause for trouble, but the other two mistakes (if done) must be more important.

 

[eatfrog]

It was washed really well. Hmm, it wasnt that dense though. Heh, actually it was on the thin side!
I underexposed it 2 stops. I think that was too much.
I developed for 10 minutes in D76 stock but didn't agitate more than once every two minutes.

I will have to try again, but first I have to figure out a way to dry the film undernight.
Any suggestions?

 

[Claire Senft]

George, not to worry. It never entered my mind that you were being sarcastic.

I strongly believe for those that are into C41 developer formulation that they try this formulation. Mr. Dignan, now deceased, had an outstanding reputation in the community of photographers who were into color chemistry experimentation and home compounding of color chemistry.

Claire