claimed their kit can increase dynamic range
From my lab days, running Kodak E6 chems, adding sodium hydroxide (alkali) to the color developer was used to keep the blue/yellow axis in check.
Based on that, my suspicion is that the Cinestill "T6" color developer is quite acidic to obtain blue results.
Yeah you're 100% right, looking at the ingredients the T6 has Sodium hydroxide
Interesting because I think there is some good black on a lot of these slides (I have more just not posted, but I can post them if we wanna break em down). I guess I should ask what you feel makes good black as well? I will definitely test and compare the slides with a regular E6 kit (Bellini) and a gel/filter to cool the light. I prefer sticking to Mole Richardson type lights, just because it is easier and less expensive to get that type of power for Large Format. Also I am a fan of the color temperature so having the T6 kit act more as an artistic developer is definitely accurate, because I do still want some of that color in my image just not as strong as it would be, so it is going to suffer penalties hopefully I can test and compare so we can find them out exactly!That's not very surprising. In any high-pH buffered system that's sold in a concentrated package, sodium hydroxide is a likely candidate to be present. Its presence doesn't say much about how close to textbook-pH the working strength developer will be. Either way, the idea that this is achieved with pH drift (especially to the low side, although not actually acidic as the developer wouldn't work at all in such a state) is certainly not far-fetched.
The slides look like there's massive inhibition of yellow dye formation going on. If this were an RA4 paper process, it would be a sign that there is a very serious problem with developer activity. I understand the artistic potential of this approach, although I personally am not too fond of the penalty that has to be paid, which is the lack of a good black anywhere in the image. The psychological/aesthetic effect of shooting this with color gels or adjustable color temperature lights on properly developed film will be much stronger, as it will allow for a solid black reference that makes the cool tones pop out more, and overall contrast will be stronger.
To each their own, I guess.
I guess I should ask what you feel makes good black as well?
Black = neutral, high density. In a chrome, this means pretty darn high density, higher than log 2.7 or so. Both slides with the man in the hat look problematic in this sense, to me. But that's just personal; what counts is if the result is to your own liking!
In general, I'd say flexibility in lighting is easier than in chemistry. Chemistry is fickle and there's not much you can fix after the deed is done. When shooting LF chromes, I'd personally be tempted to use digital for test shots, dial everything in to my liking, and then shoot first time right on slides. Given the cost of the materials, I'd be hesitant to take a gamble. Again, a highly personal thing.
those ones that don’t is something I’m looking into because it has some consistency with hard direct light
First thing that comes to mind is flare. But...the edge of the film seems a similar blue instead of true black. So it's really a chemical/processing thing.
I've developed several rolls of Ektachrome with the Cinestill E6 kits and have struggled to get good results when following the included instructions.
All my film developed with the D9 developer came out looking about 2 stops underexposed. When developed with the D6 developer, the photos still looked about a stop underexposed. I followed the directions exactly in both cases.
I experimented with using Sprint Standard as a first developer and got better results, although with slightly thin and red-tinted blacks.
I finally decided to develop a roll of film using the D6 stock solution for 6 minutes at 100°F/38C. I made some test exposures at box speed as well as one stop under. The frames exposed at box speed were the best results I've gotten yet from slide film, with correct looking exposure, contrast and colors. The frame exposed at one stop under box speed was very dark. The blacks in this roll were very dense and close to neutral, maybe a bit blue but from what I gather that is normal for Ektachrome.
From my lab days, running Kodak E6 chems, adding sodium hydroxide (alkali) to the color developer was used to keep the blue/yellow axis in check.
Based on that, my suspicion is that the Cinestill "T6" color developer is quite acidic to obtain blue results.
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