Kodachrome with Rockland Polytoner colour couplers

[Photo Engineer]

Any developer will form a B&W negative image on Kodachrome film.

Reversal processing with Rockland Colloid polytoners will likelyform some sort of image if done in a reasonable manner.

PE

 

[twelvetone12]

Why don't you try it in steps? So you make sure that you get more or less an image for each development step. You could make four strips:

BW development + fix: so you can check if at least you get a BW image
BW, Red light exposure + blue dev + bleach: yellow image?
BW, Blue light exp. + yellow dev + bleach
BW, Fogging agent + magenta dev + bleach

Good luck! must be fun experimenting with such a process

 

[alexd101]

I had much more success today.., but by the looks of things I overdid the red re exposure and possibly the blue re exposure, leaving nothing for the magenta developer to actually develop. I can see the first hints of green in the grass, so maybe the yellow developer did work a little. I really have no clue haha. What does anyone think I should do to get more yellow and magenta in my image? Maybe reduce red and blue re exposure times and extend yellow and magenta times?

 

[Gerald C Koch]

Please people enough. Most of the posts on this and other Kodachrome threads are so much blather. I can say this since I am probably one of very few people who have actually seen the processing equipment and who once applied to supervise and maintain it. The complexity and size of the machine was impressive. We don't need speculation. We don't need proof of concept experiments. Everything that needs to be known is already documented in fine detail. The bitter truth which so many refuse to accept is that the processing machines no longer exist. Long ago sold for scrap. Due to the complexity of the process modern processors can't handle Kodachrome. Given the continually shrinking market for slide film no one, let me repeat NO ONE is going to invest to build a processor or make film.

 

[alexd101]

I appreciate what your saying and I agree that commercially it is dead but i'm doing this as part of my college photography project, nothing to do with money, and so what if people want to do this for fun?

 

[bvy]

Why "please people enough"? If someone wants to experiment, more power to them. The OP isn't looking to relaunch it.

 

[Prof_Pixel]

I appreciate what your saying and I agree that commercially it is dead but i'm doing this as part of my college photography project, nothing to do with money, and so what if people want to do this for fun?

Great
Mannes and Godowsky didn't use 'big, fancy machines'

 

[Photo Engineer]

Well, we know that the Kodachrome sensitizing dye is designed to stick around, and so a lot of the cyan could be the dye. IDK.

It might just be a blue-cyan cast of mixed off color dyes formed by the chemicals you used. You should use a color chart to differentiate the colors in the image so that you can tell what is going on.

PE

 

[Gerald C Koch]

The problem is that when you start a thread like this all the Kodachrome Krazies pile on. But if one wants to experiment then do so. You could also bring back the dodo. Personally I'd rather be out taking pictures.

 

[Theo Sulphate]

So what - just ignore the thread.

It's interesting to me to see these results even though I know Kodachrome will never be produced again and no commercial processing will ever exist again.

 

[Gerald C Koch]

There are other older photo techniques that could profit from some experimenting. For example during the last few decades the cyanotype process has been improved. Such work would certainly be more useful. Kodachrome is a dead-end.

 

[RPC]

There are other older photo techniques that could profit from some experimenting.

Another process many of us would benefit from further experimention with to improve would be RA-4 Reversal, or any good process to produce prints from slides. Much preferred over wasting time resurrecting Kodachrome.

 

[alexd101]

Funnily enough, part of the photography project that im doing that inspired this thread involved me doing some reversal RA4. I can show you what happened if anyone is interested??

 

[Wayne]

Please do.

 

[Stephen Frizza]

Well, we know that the Kodachrome sensitizing dye is designed to stick around, and so a lot of the cyan could be the dye. IDK.

It might just be a blue-cyan cast of mixed off color dyes formed by the chemicals you used. You should use a color chart to differentiate the colors in the image so that you can tell what is going on.

PE

This was one of the problems I encountered also its critical to get the re exposure filtration and times spot on. As Photo Engineer suggests these tests really need a color chart. This is what my image was of when working out the process.

 

[Stephen Frizza]

Another process many of us would benefit from further experimention with to improve would be RA-4 Reversal, or any good process to produce prints from slides. Much preferred over wasting time resurrecting Kodachrome.

Ra-4 Reversal is something I have done extensive testing on and dare say I can get a far more interesting print from slide film printed via ra-4 reversal than I can from printing the normal Ra-4 process. Anyone who invests the time in Ra-4 reversal can discover astonishing effects in contrast and colour manipulation that are truly unique.

 

[bvy]

Ra-4 Reversal is something I have done extensive testing on and dare say I can get a far more interesting print from slide film printed via ra-4 reversal than I can from printing the normal Ra-4 process. Anyone who invests the time in Ra-4 reversal can discover astonishing effects in contrast and colour manipulation that are truly unique.

Interesting. I was disappointed to hear, however, that RA-4 reversal is not at all suited to printing Kodachrome slides.

 

[Stephen Frizza]

Interesting. I was disappointed to hear, however, that RA-4 reversal is not at all suited to printing Kodachrome slides.

I can confirm Kodachrome can be beautifully printed using ra-4 reversal. My favorite image using this process is from a kodachrome slide. There are problems inherent with the process that can deter beginners who don't dabble in the process long enough. What people need to do is experiment with every ra-4 paper type and a wide range of black and white developers.....test test test, and you are guaranteed to discover a solution to every problem you first found with this process. A big hint I will give is start on a material like Fuji Flex! My favorite material was Ilford Ilfoflex but sadly this is now no longer.

 

[Wayne]

I can get a far more interesting print from slide film printed via ra-4 reversal than I can from printing the normal Ra-4 process.

By interesting, do you mean creative or diverging from strict realism? or something else?

 

[Stephen Frizza]

By interesting, do you mean creative or diverging from strict realism? or something else?

It becomes possible to control the contrast in ways you cant with other positive to positive processes and you can control the color in ways that you cant with normal ra-4 printing. It opens up a world of analog color printing that actually becomes easier and more flexible than ilfochrome (cibachrome). Like any photographic process it simply requires individuals to work diligently with methodology to be mastered. I simply cant stress enough that there is a world in Ra-4 reversal that im surprised has not been explored by more people in greater depth.

Sorry forgot to mention that yes you can completely diverge from reality with the process into color and contrast ranges that you cant in any other colour process or can delicately very beautiful replicate reality.

 

[Photo Engineer]

You can work with Kodachrome when doing RA4 reversal. It is a lot harder as Steve has suggested, due to the high contrast and odd cyan dye. However, Kodachrome was even hard with Cibachrome/Ilfochrome.

PE

 

[Wayne]

I simply cant stress enough that there is a world in Ra-4 reversal that im surprised has not been explored by more people in greater depth.

I'm listening. Do you have any examples or further instruction? I have hundreds of 4x5 slides I've never printed thanks to the premature death of Ilfochrome, and while I've seen reasonably decent RA-reversal prints I've not seen any that really knocked my socks off and made me want to invest my own time in improving the process myself. I lack the expertise and disciple anyway, but if I knew it was already possible to get top-notch repeatable results I might follow in someone else's footsteps.

 

[Stephen Frizza]

I'm listening. Do you have any examples or further instruction? I have hundreds of 4x5 slides I've never printed thanks to the premature death of Ilfochrome, and while I've seen reasonably decent RA-reversal prints I've not seen any that really knocked my socks off and made me want to invest my own time in improving the process myself. I lack the expertise and disciple anyway, but if I knew it was already possible to get top-notch repeatable results I might follow in someone else's footsteps.

My instruction would be to buy Fujiflex Ra-4 material (because its currently the easiest to reverse and get a good result) and a range of black and white paper developers (start with Ilford 2000RT) , make a Shirley style transparency and lock yourself away in your darkroom and test test test. make strict notes on what you do and make sure your chemistry is stringently monitored (specific gravity, Ph, temperature, processing time, agitation ...etc) when you immerse yourself in the process its behavior will become very intuitive. The greatest bit of advice I can share on the process is this....... Mix up your working solution of black and white first development chemistry and only pour a working ammount needed into the tray to develop your print once development is done throw away the chemistry and use new chemicals for the next print from the working solution you have made. You get far more print control when you use the black and white developer as a one shot solution.

 

[bvy]

Mix up your working solution of black and white first development chemistry and only pour a working ammount needed into the tray to develop your print once development is done throw away the chemistry and use new chemicals for the next print from the working solution you have made. You get far more print control when you use the black and white developer as a one shot solution.

I can vouch for this from my own experimentation with RA-4 reversal. I would get one good print and then my results would degrade. It took me a while to figure out that it was the black and white developer. Once I started using it one shot, I got results that were repeatable.

An added bonus for those developing in trays is that the color steps can be done in room light.

 

[Wayne]

test test test

You lost me right there. I'm just not motivated to do the testing. I want someone else to perfect it so I can use it.