Ok, what happened here?

pbromaghin · Dec 29, 2017

Laostyle17 shot this 2 years ago, Portra 400 in 35mm. He had it processed in a rural small town, low-volume lab. From past submissions I believe it to be old chemicals, but I don't know for sure which one. Anybody want to give us some guidance?

Rudeofus · Dec 30, 2017

Old chems would have led to severe underdevelopment, i.e. poor contrast and film speed, and I can detect neither in your sample pics. The white spots in your pic (dark spots on your neg) is probably some dust particles getting onto your film right before development, that dust either being highly alkaline or some other form of development accelerator. It would not surprise me to see such dust in or near a poorly maintained dev tank. Definitely not good, but looks at least fixable in digital post processing.

pentaxuser · Dec 30, 2017

My first thoughts were: I am no expert at reading colour negatives but this looks OK. Then I saw the print and realised that I was right. It is or certainly looks OK to me.

pbromaghin, what do you believe to be the problem that old chemicals, if that is what they are, are giving? Thanks

pentaxuser

pbromaghin · Dec 30, 2017

See the sppots in the top right corner sky, on Gramma's leg and to the left of Mom's face. I seem to remember people in the past saying this happened due to contaminated developer or fixer.

Rudeofus · Dec 30, 2017

Contaminated fixer is a very unlikely source of these problems. I would strongly point at either color developer, or at dust contamination of the film feeding mechanism.

Shelf life of modern color film after exposure is excellent these days, therefore I'd rather wait a few months for a proper lab than take the risks with some unprofessional outfit. I would avoid that lab like the plague until they verifiably clean up their act.

WilmarcoImaging · Dec 31, 2017

I don't see chemical or film problems. I see processing problems which could be chemical splashes/spatter as the film is introduced into the machine/bath/tank, and also dust which can come the machine at the start of processing, or in the drying, or scanning procedures.

What kind of machine was used for processing? One thought is a roller transport machine - the marks in the sky to the upper right could be dirty rollers leaving marks on the film.

Ok, what happened here?

pbromaghin

Rudeofus

pentaxuser

pbromaghin

Rudeofus

WilmarcoImaging

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