I have questions after developing first roll

[SafetyBob]

First, thank you to all who have encouraged myself and others to develop at home. IT ACTUALLY WORKED FOR ME!!!

I did have some dificulties, looking for advice and/or specifically your methods during C-41 developing. Wait, I need to mention I used the dry chemical Tetenal kit from B&H for my developing process. NO additional chemicals were added during the process.

Let's start from the beginning. Loading the film into the Patterson Sytem 4 plastic reel. Used my nifty film leader tool to pull out the leader, snip it, trim corners and loaded 1 inch of film into the reel then put that will all the other garbage into the changing bag. Half way through I got the idea I probably should have taken the cartidge appart to aid in loading film. It didn't want to load into the reel until I did that AND cut the end off the spool. What is the proper way to do this AND should I have white gloves on?

Had all chemicals warmed up and in the garage (mainly because of possible smell issues decided to do out there first (was basically zero smell issues)) and being over 100 by noon certainly helped in maintaining temps. Pre warmed the tank by basically throwing in 500ml or so warm water to preheat, dumped, added developer......does it matter if I put 500ml in the tank that called for 350ml for one 35mm roll? It just seemed easier to simply dump half the 1 liter bottle I made into the tank then to measure out exactly the correct amount. Do I hurt anything by doing that? Or should I measure everything properly?

After I dumped the developer, I filled the tank with clear water for maybe 20 seconds, dumped then added the Blix. I did not know if what was left of the developer would screw up the Blix or not. Is this step necessary or am I wasting time? This recommendation to kind of rinse was based on a recommendation to me (although that was mainly B&W the recommendation to develope-rinse-stop bath....). Again, is a water stop bath (sort of) worth it, will the developer kill the Blix?

Of course after Blix I rinsed as directed with clear water and my patterson faucet rinse hose, that was money well spent, made washing very simple and error proof.

Then as directions did the stabilzer for 1 minute, dumped, grabbed my film clamp and started taking everything apart to get at my roll of Kodak Gold 200 film. When I pulled the film out of the reel, yes there were a few water spots. I did NOT add any photoflow to the stabilizer. I believe I read both way.....add it and no you are not supposed to add it.

I was going to use a film sponge wetted in photoflow water to squeeze the water off the film, but I noticed I had ordered a film squeegee and not a sponge, so I was to affaid to screw up the film and use the squeegee. So for now and the dry kit (I will be getting liquid chemical C-41 soon) how do I prevent water spots? Or what techniques do you use to prevent water spots.

Overall, I thought it wasn't bad for my first time developing. After 15 minutes of trying to figure out how to use my film scanner, the only adjustment I made in Lightroom was two clicks of darkening the exposure. Then everything printed pretty much as I normally do. They actually had a classic 60's feel on some of them which were mainly out door, the indoor ones looked right at what my Nikon D60 gives me.

So if anything, I think my negatives might be a little lighter than if I went and had them commercially developed, however, I was able to correct for it so I am pretty happy. I absolutely need to get a better monitor AND I need to calibrate the stupid thing and probably get and get one of those targes for my scanners.

Thanks for any help, ideas and suggestions,

Bob E.

 

[SafetyBob]

Second roll complete this afternoon. This time I thought I would see what would happen with 120, so I got a roll of Porta 160NC. Took shots of the little one and they were on the close side around 3 to 4 feet away for that close in feeling.

Developing went well, and forground colors of the kid were OK, however, background were very muddy like. Yes, for what I was using, the background would have been almost completely out of focus, but it was like the blues, were off and muddy. Had alot of color issues trying to get the negatives scanned (which I need to post on DPUG for help there on the scanning issues)

But at least another good day of developing and today. NO water spots on the negatives (left the negative in the stabilizer for an extra 15 seconds to see what it would do. I hope that will take care of my problems.

Bob E.

 

[Chris Douglas]

Taking the Plunge

SafetyBob,

Congrats on developing c-41. I have been using the Unicolor dry kit with good results, which does not use a wash between the developer and blix. I think you can go either way, just be consistant so you get repeatable results. As far as quantity of liquid, the quantity will have some effect on degree of agitation, so, again be consistant. I mix up a liter at a time, and use about 450 ml. At the end of developing I pour the soup back into the bottle. I have been arbitrarily adding 5 seconds developing time for each successive roll. I easily get twice the number of rolls the directions suggest. Good luck. Oh yes, I forgot! I add a little photoflo to the stabilizer to avoid spots.

 

[wharris]

First of all congrats on developing your own photos, ive been doing it for about 1 year and let me tell you my first couple of rolls were a mess haha… but don’t worry it gets easier…as far as your questions I think I can answer a few, but keep in mind everything I’ve learned on my own and from youtube so im no pro =)

1. It didn't want to load into the reel until I did that AND cut the end off the spool. What is the proper way to do this AND should I have white gloves on?

I usually get a bottle opener and pop off the end of the canister and just roll my film into the reel from there, and no I don’t use gloves, I do wash my hands before though due to the oil your hands have naturally.

2. does it matter if I put 500ml in the tank that called for 350ml for one 35mm roll? It just seemed easier to simply dump half the 1 liter bottle I made into the tank then to measure out exactly the correct amount. Do I hurt anything by doing that? Or should I measure everything properly?

You don’t have to use the whole 500 ml if your only developing one roll of 35mm, I tend only to use 230ml for a roll of 35mm, as long as your ratios are correct then you will be fine, but that’s mostly for BW chems =) something you might want to play around with later. Also you do you know can reuse your c41 chems? You can do about double of the recommended rolls on 1 liter =)

3. I filled the tank with clear water for maybe 20 seconds, dumped then added the Blix. I did not know if what was left of the developer would screw up the Blix or not. Is this step necessary or am I wasting time?

With the Tetenal kit you don’t have to use a stop, just pour in your Blix, stops are more for BW chems, right before you pour your fixer in, you wash out your dev to stop development. =) just pour your c41 dev into a bottle to reuse for later rolls, and then pour your blix in your tank, the only thing you need to make sure is that your dev does not get contaminated with your blix, but your blix can handle the dev mixture still in the tank. So no wash is needed.

4. Stabilizer…water spots…

As far as this step goes, after your blix its ok to open your tank, wash your film for the recommended time which is 3 mins I think, then pour your stabilizer in. leave your film in the stabilizer for about 1 min, then without washing off the stabilizer hand your film to dry, I have heard you can add a few drops of photoflow into the stabilizer but I have not tried that yet, being deployed its kind of hard to get liquid chems out here. As for water spots this might be not traditional, but I use a lens cloth to wipe the spots off with a tiny tiny bit of water, but only on the base side of the negative, not on the side that holds the emissions. You will also notice that when you dry your 120mm film you almost never get water spots, I do not know why this is but it just is. My 35mm negs always have water spots while my 120 rolls almost never do.

I just developed a few photos 2 days ago, hope you enjoy them. You should post yours up =) I apologize for any grammatical errors lol im on shift right now and its late here. =) if you have any questions feel free to ask me, my email is w.harris@me.com, you can also send me an email at william.harris24@us.army.mil =)

 

[SafetyBob]

Thank you both for replying. Chris, since I got a couple more plastic measuring things it really would be no trouble to dump the chemicals out into the container and get this thing down better. Also, great practice of adding 5 seconds to each developing time.....I think I heard this before awhile back.

William, be safe over there serving, we go later this year around "there". Glad your documenting the whole thing. Been there on the over night shifts and crap!!

As said above, I will start measuring my fluid quantities and will forget the water "stop" and simply dump the developer back into the bottle and simply add the blix. I was just to afraid to screw things up. Will try and develop another roll of 35mm tomorrow or so. I have to go to the nieghbors pool and "stalk" my little subject. Will try and post a couple of photos when I figure out how.

Again, be careful over there......we're all thinking of you!!

Bob E.