Photo Lab messed up my roll of slide film. Any chance of re-development saving this?

Paradoxyc · Dec 9, 2020

Hello - first time poster here. I was referred to this site from a Reddit post I made regarding this roll of slide film I had developed (Ektachrome 100). All of the scans I received were orange/purple tinted and had some sort of texturing/halation. I called the lab and they said it seemed like the batch used some sort of old/expired chemicals or something. I was told that there may be a chance to fix this by having the lab redevelop it somehow. I’m not very educated on the process of E-6 developing but I was told it may have been a fixer issue or lack of bleach? If anyone has any ideas of how I can salvage this roll I can pass it onto the lab and hope for the best. All suggestions appreciated, and thanks in advance!

Reddit thread for reference: https://www.reddit.com/r/AnalogComm...urce=share&utm_medium=ios_app&utm_name=iossmf

Sirius Glass · Dec 9, 2020

The lab really messed up your film. I hope that they can undo the damage. Others here are more knowledgeable than I so I will wait for the others to join in and comment.

Welcome to ~~APUG~~ Photrio!!

Paradoxyc · Dec 9, 2020

Sirius Glass said:
The lab really messed up your film. I hope that they can undo the damage. Others here are more knowledgeable than I so I will wait for the others to join in and comment.

Welcome to ~~APUG~~ Photrio!!

I’m eager to hear what thoughts people have.. it sucks seeing the roll this way, lol. Especially because it’s for a personal project

John Salim · Dec 10, 2020

Looks like exhausted Colour Developer to me and possibly lacking proper Bleaching too !
Re-processing the film might improve it slightly, but not to the extent of obtaining good results.

John S

Donald Qualls · Dec 10, 2020

Unfortunately, with the silver gone (via bleach and fixer), there's nothing that can be done to correct these. Even if they'd been bleach bypassed (or incompletely bleached), attempting to redevelop would result in no additional dye formation, because the first developer would develop all the (fully fogged) halide and nothing would be left for color developer to do. Going directly to color developer might produce additional density if there were a case of no/incomplete bleaching, but this would generally appear in a form like fog (dark, in this case, because it appears after the skipped first dev step). And there's no practical way to remove the dye formed by color developer, even if there were imagewise silver to redevelop, so anything that might be produced by reprocessing would simply be added (by absorptive addition) to the images you already have.

Bottom line: these slides are toast. Under their warranty, your lab owes you a roll of the same film, and reasonably ought to offer free processing for that roll as well (in an attempt to keep you using their services).

For myself, I'd recommend you consider doing your own E-6. The process has more steps than C-41 or B&W, but isn't really harder -- you just have to follow directions the same way you would for other film processing.

Chan Tran · Dec 10, 2020

The lab messed up your film they will give you a new roll of film and the development for it. That's the extend of their responsibility.

Chan Tran · Dec 10, 2020

Old / Expired chemicals that what I am afraid of in today film processing. If you don't have enough film to process daily, that what's happen to your chemicals.

138S · Dec 10, 2020

Paradoxyc said:
lab redevelop it somehow.

Perhaps the dark orange opaque stains can be removed, but the defective color has no solution IMO beyond what you would do in Photoshop.

IMO it is not clear that a "redeveloment" would do something, only in a few cases that has an effect, for example if processing was totally interrumped at some point. If an step partially or totally fails but next steps are performed then information is "cleared" and it cannot be recovered...

If you don't have very important images there then forget about that roll, personally I'd try with another lab...

Kino · Dec 10, 2020

Well, you can buy a Beret and call it art or shoot it again.

Sorry for your loss, but there is that element of chance in film that can come at you from unknown sources no matter how careful you prepare.

I don't, however, think you should be sending anymore film to this particular lab...

Chan Tran · Dec 10, 2020

Kino said:
Well, you can buy a Beret and call it art or shoot it again.

Sorry for your loss, but there is that element of chance in film that can come at you from unknown sources no matter how careful you prepare.

I don't, however, think you should be sending anymore film to this particular lab...

I think so! Ask the lab to give you new film and shoot again but don't send your film to the same lab again. If it's old chemicals problem obviously the lab doesn't have enough work and thus the problem will continue. Even if the next time it won't mess up that bad but the process may be out of control.

halfaman · Dec 10, 2020

Could be just a problem of just silver retained by an incomplete bleach, it decrease color saturation badly. The terrible look of the shadows could more related to a scanning with dust reduction activated, it works very bad if there are silver grains in the image.

Donald Qualls · Dec 10, 2020

Looking again, this could be silver retention due to failed bleach; if that's all that's wrong, repeating bleach and fix steps will solve it.

138S · Dec 10, 2020

halfaman said:
Could be just a problem of just silver retained by an incomplete bleach,

Donald Qualls said:
Looking again, this could be silver retention due to failed bleach; if that's all that's wrong, repeating bleach and fix steps will solve it.

IMO color development failed before bleach happened, color "destruction" happened at color development stage or earlier...

"Variation in color developer pH causes color shifts on the green-magenta axis with Kodak E100G & E100GX and Fujichrome films and on the yellow-blue axis with older Ektachrome films."

Probably several chem baths were destroyed, the color problem had to be originated before bleach, while the orange opacities are from the next baths. Probably the processor had total crap chem inside, this is not an slight color shift... not easy to perform such a botched job, an explanation is that they reused chem dumped time ago, it is diffcult to have such a crap of chem inside a processor. Another possibility would be a big mistake in the mixing, but as Lab speaked about expired chem...

Paradoxyc · Dec 10, 2020

Thanks for all the input guys, I will keep monitoring this thread throughout the day and when I talk to the lab I will bring up some of these points. Much appreciated!

138S · Dec 10, 2020

Paradoxyc said:
Thanks for all the input guys, I will keep monitoring this thread throughout the day and when I talk to the lab I will bring up some of these points. Much appreciated!

Beyond money back, you may kindly ask for a 1 to 3 free rolls compensation, this is a minimum for the material destruction and your time, one thing is an slight color shift, but your case is of another level...

Paradoxyc · Dec 10, 2020

138S said:
Beyond money back, kindly ask for a 3 free rolls compensation, this is a minimum for the material destruction and your time, one thing is an slight color shift, but your case is of another level deserving 3 rolls, I would use those words...

They are refunding for sure and offering another roll, but I’d like them to at least process and develop the next one free since I will just be reshooting the same things. I don’t want to ask for too much but just want to at least get my shots

railwayman3 · Dec 10, 2020

138S said:
Beyond money back, you may kindly ask for a 1 to 3 free rolls compensation, this is a minimum for the material destruction and your time, one thing is an slight color shift, but your case is of another level...

Agreed. This is shockingly bad service, either some error in processing or totally bad chemicals. Unless your film was the only one that day (!), surely you would not be the only complainant, but, in any event, a reputable lab ought to be running test-strips of film on a regular basis.

Labs often do restrict their liability to the cost of film plus processing, but some do offer insurance at a small extra charge for valuable or important work....worth bearing in mind for any special pictures.

Alan Edward Klein · Dec 10, 2020

Don't use them again. Who were they so we know where not to go.

For E6 work, I would recommend CRC Vista Film Processing in NYC. I've also used North Shore Photo Services in Carlsbad CA. Both use dip and dunk development measures. They both will ship film in plastic protective sheets cutting the 35mm in 6 strips of 6. Both are excellent.

If you're doing BW or color negative, both will handle that too and I've used LTI for that as well. LTI is located in NYC. LTI doesn't; do E6 work anymore. They also dip and dunk and are a pro shop as well.

StepheKoontz · Dec 10, 2020

The fact those scans would even make it back to you like that shows they have ZERO QC.

Alan Edward Klein · Dec 10, 2020

That's North Coast Photo Services, not North Shore.

foc · Dec 12, 2020

I am probably too late this the discussion but can you post a photo of your transparencies?
If not mounted then something like this.

focus_on_infinity · Dec 14, 2020

Donald Qualls said:
For myself, I'd recommend you consider doing your own E-6. The process has more steps than C-41 or B&W, but isn't really harder -- you just have to follow directions the same way you would for other film processing.

FYI, I recently finished my first E-6 FPP/Unicolor kit, and I'm thrilled the results I ended up with, even on some very old film. Once you get your workflow down, it's just like doing C-41. I highly encourage people to get into developing color films of all types.

eli griggs · Dec 14, 2020

Chan Tran said:
Old / Expired chemicals that what I am afraid of in today film processing. If you don't have enough film to process daily, that what's happen to your chemicals.

Another good reason to put together the equivalent of a photographers 'Cell' or 'study group' of analog shooters in your immediate area.

Even if a subdivision of a PhotoClub, such a small group of steady shooters, over, say every two weeks or month, might be able to better afford and use full kits in a timely fashion, so waste and cost are at a minimum.

It would also be hand for road trips, etc, on a whim or in longer planing.

IMO.

mshchem · Dec 14, 2020

I would ask them for valid in control, E6 control strips. Fuji still sells E6 control strips. Clearly these folks aren't doing the job. I would really consider processing your own film. Tetenal makes a very easy to use kit. It probably won't save you money, but it's a joy to see the film as it comes off the reel. The most critical time/ temperature control is the 1st Developer, and Color developer. Accumulate 4 or 5 rolls, then mix up your chemistry and go.

Wallendo · Dec 14, 2020

You have nothing to lose by having the lab try to fix these images.

Photo Lab messed up my roll of slide film. Any chance of re-development saving this?

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