Issues with the E6 development

ujjwal · Jun 9, 2025

hi,
I am not an eXpert in the development process at all. In fact am doing it now after over a decade and trying out the colour process for the first time at home. So quite a novice really. One of the things that attracted me to come back to it was the daylight tank that tomography has introduced and the kits that are available now a days.

So I tried doing the E6 development with the AdoX C Tec E6 process. The first roll went out smooth.
In the second roll I have some green patches appearing on the edges of the frame and sometimes spilling onto the image.
But this is not the case for the entire roll and is there only in the (maybe first half of the roll).

Any advice? or any ideas of how/what might have gone wrong?

(Just another detail - I prepared 350 ml s of the chemicals because that s the lomo tank's capability and maybe that was not the smart thing to do? )
(Also am using a hand rolled Ektachrome 100 D film)

Any suggestions would be highly appreciated.

(it is somehow not allowing me to upload images even when I have reduced them to less than 2 MBs)

thanks
ujjwal

koraks · Jun 9, 2025

Welcome to Photrio! It'd help if you could post some pictures to illustrate the problem you're running into.

ujjwal · Jun 9, 2025

Sorry but since it was not letting me upload jpegs even after reducing their size, I made a pdf.

Rudeofus · Jun 9, 2025

To me this looks more like a light leak in your camera than a chemistry defect. Chemistry typically acts uniformly, and the center of these affected slides looks good. One other option would be pieces of your film roll touching during development, which happens if the film spooling goes wrong..

ujjwal · Jun 9, 2025

Thanks a lot for your reply.

ah okay, that s what I was thinking as to how has the chemical fucked up only a portion of the roll. from my previous forgotten old eXperience this seemed odd.
And I did used to have that spooling issue and hence thought this daylight tank might be a good solution.

Do you think it's at all possible to be an issue of hand rolling the cartridge?

thanks
u.

ujjwal · Jun 9, 2025

And light leak in camera for me seems quite improbable. I have been using this FM2 since quite some time without a problem. Maybe I need to clean/dry the spool better.

koraks · Jun 9, 2025

I'd expect this to be a failure of the bleach or fogging steps. Possible causes could be exhausted chemistry or insufficient volume of chemistry for this tank and agitation method.

ujjwal · Jun 9, 2025

Ah okay, ironically the bleach is the one chemistry i made fresh.

koraks · Jun 9, 2025

I've had another closer look and in retrospect, I think @Rudeofus must at least be partly (probably entirely) correct:

This is a 100% definitive sign of a light leak. Since this is apparently self-rolled film from a bulk roll, by guess is that something went wrong in that process. Might as simple as a failing felt light trap on the cassette used.

miha · Jun 9, 2025

ujjwal said:
Do you think it's at all possible to be an issue of hand rolling the cartridge?

thanks
u.

Quite possible. Who did the confectioning?

ujjwal · Jun 9, 2025

Not me. This person I know.
But I was partly sceptical of it, that s why I mentioned it.

The ghost sprockets is what is an indication that it might be leakage?

miha · Jun 9, 2025

ujjwal said:
The ghost sprockets is what is an indication that it might be leakage?

Correct. Light leakage to the film could occur during the confection or rolling stage, due to faulty cassettes, inside the camera, or while loading the film onto the reels.

koraks · Jun 9, 2025

ujjwal said:
The ghost sprockets is what is an indication that it might be leakage?

Yes, that shows light leaks as the film was tightly rolled, as it would be on the bulk roll and inside a 35mm cassette. I cannot tell from the defect whether the inadvertent exposure happened on the bulk roll or within the cassette, but I would expect the latter.

MattKing · Jun 9, 2025

ujjwal said:
Sorry but since it was not letting me upload jpegs even after reducing their size, I made a pdf.

Resize your colour images to 1000 pixels on the long dimension, and then save the result as a jpeg with 80 quality.
You can succeed with slightly larger files - particularly monochrome ones - but this approach works quickly and easily.
And 1000 pixels results in an image that fits the viewer embedded in Photrio and most screens quite well.

koraks · Jun 9, 2025

MattKing said:
Resize your colour images to 1000 pixels on the long dimension, and then save the result as a jpeg with 80 quality.

Yes, although 90-95 will also work. Btw, here's some more hints that may be of use to you @ujjwal : https://www.photrio.com/forum/threads/how-to-post-pictures-and-avoid-size-limit-problems.211668

Rudeofus · Jun 9, 2025

The thing which makes me hesitant about that light leak theory: why green? I've seen green color negative film hit by red dark room "safelight", but color slide film? Why green??

lamerko · Jun 9, 2025

Maybe because of the light penetrating from the back of the film.

ujjwal · Jun 9, 2025

thanks a lot for looking through the photos and telling me what could have gone wrong.
Its such a relief that I didn’t fuck up the developing process.

Could I also ask…. how many times would you advise to use the C Tec E6 kit.
They advise 3 times. But with using the lomo day light tank - one roll at a time, I was wondering if I could stretch it?
Also, since I made 350 ml chemistry. The third time I do would be a bit less chemistry left. It is a 1 litre kit.
Would you advise to dilute it a bit in the third round to make 350 ml chemistry and then maybe develop for a bit longer?

thanks again
ujjwal.

mshchem · Jun 9, 2025

Oh Boy

koraks · Jun 10, 2025

ujjwal said:
Could I also ask…. how many times would you advise to use the C Tec E6 kit.

I can't comment really, other than that there will be shifts in density and color balance and at some point these shifts become a problem. It's kind of personal/subjective when the results start to become unacceptable. Given the cost of reversal film and the effort that generally goes into making the slides, I'd rather not risk it, but to each their own.

Rudeofus said:
The thing which makes me hesitant about that light leak theory: why green? I've seen green color negative film hit by red dark room "safelight", but color slide film? Why green??

I wondered about the same and it may be related to the fogging involving some kind of semi-transparent material that favors this wavelength, but I also feel something for @lamerko's explanation - maybe the fact that the cyan dye forming layer is at the base of the film has something to do with it?

Samu · Jun 10, 2025

Almost certainly a light leak of some kind. I've never seen a chemistry problem in E6 making this kind of green cast, although I am no expert in the Tetenal type 3 bath process. The cast near the sprocket holes makes the light leak theory the most viable. Another possibility would be a really hard grilling with a CT scanner at an airport or customs.

koraks · Jun 10, 2025

Samu said:
Another possibility would be a really hard grilling with a CT scanner at an airport or customs.

It would have affected the entire roll and the fogging would be even, not in spots. So that one's out.

ChrisGalway · Jun 11, 2025

ujjwal said:
thanks a lot for looking through the photos and telling me what could have gone wrong.
Its such a relief that I didn’t fuck up the developing process.

Could I also ask…. how many times would you advise to use the C Tec E6 kit.
They advise 3 times. But with using the lomo day light tank - one roll at a time, I was wondering if I could stretch it?
Also, since I made 350 ml chemistry. The third time I do would be a bit less chemistry left. It is a 1 litre kit.
Would you advise to dilute it a bit in the third round to make 350 ml chemistry and then maybe develop for a bit longer?

thanks again
ujjwal.

I've used 1.5 Adox C-Tec kits so far, the first one for 9 120 films (same area as a 36 exposure 35mm film) and half (500ml) of the second one for 5 films, in all case in a Paterson tank holding 500ml and the films processed one by one.

I've concluded that you can definitely process 5 films in 500ml of solution without any obviously visible degradation of the colours of the processed film (there has got to be some degradation, but I can't see it!). So 3 films in 350ml should be OK.

The only caveat is that I process all my films in a batch of solution over 2-3 days (i.e. 5 films, one by one, in 500ml in 2-3 days) ... I don't let the working solutions stand around for more than 3 days.

Samu · Jun 11, 2025

koraks said:
I can't comment really, other than that there will be shifts in density and color balance and at some point these shifts become a problem. It's kind of personal/subjective when the results start to become unacceptable. Given the cost of reversal film and the effort that generally goes into making the slides, I'd rather not risk it, but to each their own.

The main issue with reusing E6 chemistry is FD dying out. All the other steps go until completion, and there seems to be quite lot of margin for error in these. I am no specialist with the 3-bath though, but as far as I know, this ADOX kit is identical to Tetenal's last press kit, Colortec. At least years ago, the FD in these kits was pretty standard.

My advice, based on standard E6 is that for acceptable results, the FD can be used twice. Using it more will show in results. Also, if reusing the solution, it should be done quite quickly after using the FD for the first time - within a week or so. Unused, it will keep for a few months in full bottles, but will degrade fast after the first use. For PERFECT results, it is one shot only.

First thing you will notice, when the first developer degrades, are too dark highlights. You can see this easily if you compare the fully exposed leaders of the films developed in fresh and reused developer. When the FD will exhaust more, there will be problems with color balance. In blix kits, the bleach fix will also degrade quickly. This is not an issue in the standard process, where the problems are unlikely with anything except the FD, and possibly with oxidized REV, but in most cases, the FD will be long dead before there will be any issues with other chemicals. AND DO NOT LET ANY STABILIZER OR FINAL RINSE GET IN THE FIRST DEVELOPER! It will destroy it.

lamerko · Jun 11, 2025

As far as I know, Fuji puts a little Surfactant in the first developer. If I'm not mistaken, ORWO had a similar practice 30 years ago.
I wonder if there's some quick and easy imitation of a regenerator that can be made. A little hydroquinone/phenidone and maybe something to slightly adjust the pH?

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