Problem with colour negative

Berri · Feb 7, 2017

Hello everybody, first post on this forum (although I've always followed it!) so I present myself: My real name is Lorenzo, I come from Tuscany, Italy I mostly shot colour negative film in 135 120 and 4x5 formats. I do my own process usually with C41 made by tetenal.

I searched the forum before posting and I found something but I would like to ask if my case fits with the others.

It happens sometime that my negatives (135, never 120) have an orang/yellow streak at the edge of the frame, with other "leaks" by the sprocket holes. I noticed this either with new chemicals or nearly exhausted ones as well as films processed by the lab. I obviusly exclude a camera fault because I noticed this problem with films shot with other cameras.
I use Tetenal rapid kit with blix, but I found this problem on this website http://www.jamescockroft.com/20161229/photography/skip-bleach-pull-test/ too, where the user performed a bleach-bypass. So I excluded the blix.

On APUG I found someone suggesting using a stop bath, do you think it can fix this issue?

bvy · Feb 7, 2017

Welcome to APUG. I see two things going on. First, the orange marks at the top of the frame look like a camera light leak. Second, the errant light around the sprocket holes and along the bottom edge looks like a scanning artifact. Can you post a photograph of the film negative itself (not scanned)? Or look at the film with a loupe against strong backlight. Do you see that same pattern around the sprocket holes? Is the bottom edge of this frame where the film is cut?

In any case, if you also see it on films processed by a professional lab, then you can exclude a lot of things related to your development.

Berri · Feb 7, 2017

thank you,
I doubt is a light leak because it should be visible on the entire film surface towards the margin. Yes The streak is there on the negative I can see it with a loupe. Yes it is where the negative is cut.

Berri · Feb 7, 2017

yes, sorry, I see what you mean. Those are light leaks but I'm not concerned about those (It's not my camera )

Berri · Feb 7, 2017

bvy said:
Welcome to APUG. I see two things going on. First, the orange marks at the top of the frame look like a camera light leak. Second, the errant light around the sprocket holes and along the bottom edge looks like a scanning artifact. Can you post a photograph of the film negative itself (not scanned)? Or look at the film with a loupe against strong backlight. Do you see that same pattern around the sprocket holes? Is the bottom edge of this frame where the film is cut?

In any case, if you also see it on films processed by a professional lab, then you can exclude a lot of things related to your development.

You are totally right. I thought I could see it on the negative, but I can't and if I take a picture with the dslr of the negative and invert it in Photoshop the streaks aren't there, so it must be some scanning issue. Do you know how to overcome it? You made me notice that it appear on the negative near the cut, is that the reason?

bvy · Feb 7, 2017

Berri said:
You are totally right. I thought I could see it on the negative, but I can't and if I take a picture with the dslr of the negative and invert it in Photoshop the streaks aren't there, so it must be some scanning issue. Do you know how to overcome it? You made me notice that it appear on the negative near the cut, is that the reason?

It seems to happen around edges (holes and cuts). I notice it if I scan very dense negatives and try to include the sprocket holes.

Scanning questions are off topic for APUG, but for starters, I would try masking around the frames (covering the sprocket holes and edges) with black paper. Are you using the film holder that came with your scanner? It should be doing this already.

Berri · Feb 7, 2017

bvy said:
It seems to happen around edges (holes and cuts). I notice it if I scan very dense negatives and try to include the sprocket holes.

Scanning questions are off topic for APUG, but for starters, I would try masking around the frames (covering the sprocket holes and edges) with black paper. Are you using the film holder that came with your scanner? It should be doing this already.

Sorry for going off topic. Yes I use the film holder

bvy · Feb 7, 2017

Berri said:
Sorry for going off topic. Yes I use the film holder

Don't be sorry. It was a legitimate question for this forum. I actually don't use the holders when I scan my film. Rather I have a piece of ANR glass (non-glare picture frame glass is really all it is). I lay the film emulsion side down on the scanner glass, lay the glass on top of the film, and a black paper mask that I made on top of the glass. Improvised, but it works great. This assumes you are using a flatbed scanner. Mine is an Epson V500. I found the film holders to be flimsy and not very good at keeping the film flat, which can let in stray light resulting in the problem you're having. This is especially true is the film is stubbornly curled along the short edge.

Sirius Glass · Feb 7, 2017

Welcome to APUG

Rudeofus · Feb 12, 2017

Whenever such artifacts happen, there are basically two options:

Incomplete bleaching/BLIXing: this can be trivially checked for and mended by simple rerunning the BLIX/wash/STAB cycle on already processed negatives. If the weird color effect disappears after reBLIXing, then you need to increase BLIX times in future process runs, and make sure that you follow the other mixing and process instructions to the letter.
If reBLIXing doesn't save your negs, then it's in the dyes, in which case you can't really do much to save these negs. Try the following: take an unexposed test roll, and in complete darkness spool a short test clip into your film tank. One part of that test clip has been exposed to strong light (the part which dangled out of your film roll before), while the other half should have never been exposed to light. If this clip, after a complete process cycle, looks good in the scanner, then it's likely that your camera has some defect. Otherwise you could check whether a quick stop bath between CD and BLIX solves your problem for future process runs.

Problem with colour negative

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