Purple XP2 negatives

BetterSense · Feb 19, 2009

I just got a roll of XP2 back from a Target minilab, and the negatives are purple. I don't suppose this is normal but I'm not sure because I've been working through my stash of BW400CN which is orange by design. The prints they made appear fine, other than some strange contrasts due to the missing orange mask, but are they supposed to be purple? I had been anticipating, oh, clear. Any idea what caused this and how much it's going to effect multigrade printing?

Mark Antony · Feb 19, 2009

Well XP2 looks 'purple' compared to CN400. looking at your negs you just scanned through the neg sleeve right? that is the reason for the odd wavy markings and the flat grey look?
Normally the fogged area made when loading (top right hand side) looks darker and should have a density between 1.8 and 2.2 on a densitometer, does it look darker than these poor scans? -I hope so.
If not these look flat, like they have had no agitation or some developer problem, other than that the purple look is normal and these should print on multigrade OK

BetterSense · Feb 19, 2009

Yes, I scanned them on a cheap flatbed through the negative sleeves, so the look is a bit washed out. The minilab prints are very nice so there doesn't seem to be overwhelming technical issues, it's just I didn't expect them to be so colorful.

Sirius Glass · Feb 19, 2009

Th negatives appear to not be fixed long enough or the hypo that they used has expired. Take them back before they fade and have them fix them in hypo properly.

Steve

BetterSense · Feb 19, 2009

Th negatives appear to not be fixed long enough or the hypo that they used has expired. Take them back before they fade and have them fix them in hypo properly.

Do you say that because of the purple color or because they appear washed out-looking?

I took the film out of the negative sleeve and made a proper scan. I only intended to show the purple color.

fschifano · Feb 19, 2009

That's perfectly normal for XP-2 negatives. The film is optimized for printing onto standard B&W papers, and it does so very well. The color cast presents no problems whatsoever. The Kodak stuff, which isn't so good for printing onto standard B&W paper, has the orange mask optimizing for printing onto RA-4 papers.

Aurum · Feb 19, 2009

Looks like every XP2 neg I've got. They all have that blueish purple cast.

Nothing to worry about

BobNewYork · Feb 19, 2009

The purple is exactly the way XP-2 should look. They're fine. Don't get them fixed - there's no silver left now anyway - it's taken out in the bleach bath. Your image is made of dyes - like other C-41 negs.

Alex Bishop-Thorpe · Feb 19, 2009

Perfectly normal, nothing to worry about. The purple mask makes them easier to print onto black and white papers in the darkroom, where as the orange mask of the Kodak equivalent is a real pain. The purple will have no ill-effect on MG printing.

BetterSense · Feb 19, 2009

Radical.

I've tried printing BW400CN straight onto Ilford Multigrade and couldn't get usable prints; it was as if the contrast way too low. Any tips on printing it? I've heard you can use color filters to compensate somewhat for the orange mask. I've stopped buying it but I have some nice shots on it.

fschifano · Feb 19, 2009

Unfortunately no, there is no way to make what I'd call a good print from Kodak's BW400CN onto standard variable contrast or fixed grade papers. The orange mask acts like a safelight filter, albeit not a very good one, and the contrast is very low. You can try using #4 or #5 filters to add a little punch to the print, but then you're still not getting a nice full range of tones. Exposure times will be very long in any case.

Purple XP2 negatives

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