Residue from Stabilizer

nathanielkorb · Jun 27, 2015

Yesterday I developed color film for the first time with Tetenal's C-41 kit. I left it to hang dry in my bathroom, but later found occasional white spots on it that came off, but left marks. The instructions didn't call for a rinse after the stabilizer (which is hexamine, according to the ingredients), but I'm wondering whether even a short one would be helpful.
I do have photo-flo since I've done a lot of b&w hand processing and I've heard of people using it with color. I'm going to be processing 2 rolls tonight and was wondering whether I should rinse, use flo, or not even use the stabilizer at all.

nbagno · Jun 27, 2015

I no longer get any weird spots after I started using a stop bath then rinse right after the developer. Search the forum for that tip.

Sirius Glass · Jun 27, 2015

Do not use PhotoFlo, use the Stabilizer again, but filter the Stabilizer first.

Kevin Caulfield · Jun 27, 2015

You should not use stop or rinse after the stabiliser.

Sirius Glass · Jun 27, 2015

Kevin Caulfield said:
You should not use stop or rinse after the stabiliser.

That too. Kevin is correct.

peter k. · Jun 27, 2015

I had a problem with spots.. and found the cause was the wash cycle.. which calls for 3 minutes of running water.. but I use a daylight tank, and for some reason, did not change the wash water... the first several times I did color. Once I changed the wash water.. no longer had any spots.

sagai · Jun 28, 2015

You can filter the stabiliser to evidence your suspicion.
Lot of think can be though, this is a least probably for me.

nathanielkorb · Jun 28, 2015

Can the residue be washed off afterwards. If so, how? Because I really want to save these pictures and digital ICE isn't doing it.

Rhodes · Jun 28, 2015

Use distilled water when doing the stabilizer solution. I had the same thing when used tap water, here is very hard.

Lamar · Jun 28, 2015

I use disitilled water to mix the stabilizer. I also read here a while back to put 3ml of Photoflo in per liter of stabilizer. I do this but I'm not sure it if it helps or hurts. I may back down on the amount. I'm now using a powder free latex gloved hand to finger wipe the excess solution from my film before I hang to dry. Not wiping caused water spots (on my color film but not on b&w), squeegees caused scratches, and bare finger wipes left minute flecks of dead skin on the emulsion for lack of a better idea as to what it was. So far the gloved finger wipe has worked best for color.

mklw1954 · Jun 28, 2015

I use the Unicolor powder kits and use distilled water to make up all chemicals. I got drying marks on 135 film but solved the problem by adding 1/2 teaspoon of PhotoFlo concentrate to one liter of stabilizer, adding it again after every 8 rolls processed. Since then, no drying marks.

Sirius Glass · Jun 28, 2015

Lamar said:
I use disitilled water to mix the stabilizer. I also read here a while back to put 3ml of Photoflo in per liter of stabilizer. I do this but I'm not sure it if it helps or hurts.

Using PhotoFlo for color negatives or color slides is not a good idea, it interferes with the stabilizer and the archival processes.

Lamar said:
I'm now using a powder free latex gloved hand to finger wipe the excess solution from my film before I hang to dry. Not wiping caused water spots (on my color film but not on b&w), squeegees caused scratches, and bare finger wipes left minute flecks of dead skin on the emulsion for lack of a better idea as to what it was. So far the gloved finger wipe has worked best for color.

You will be better off not using squeegees, fingers or gloved fingers to wipe negatives. All of these can leave scratches.

sagai · Jun 29, 2015

I have this Tetenal C41 5 liter version and apart some of my brilliant new idea , nothing really could go wrong.
I have destilled water and I have never wiped my negs.

pdeeh · Jun 29, 2015

I have used the Tetenal kit and have seen this problem even using distilled or deionised water to make up the stab.
I have read online that the Tetenal instructions give the incorrect dilution for the stab - that it should in fact be diluted with double the volume of water.
I did try this and the problem went away immediately.

I still can't find any hard evidence apart from internet lore that the dilution as given is incorrect, however.

As said above, the stab must be the final stage - no extra rinses or washes afterwards or you risk undoing what stabiliser's work

Helios 1984 · Sep 29, 2018

I've started to develop colour films since about 2 weeks ago and I, too, get residue spots.

- I use distilled water with my stabilizer.
- I tried to filter my stabilizer.
- I re-washed the negative by leaving the tank 10 minutes under running water. Then I re-stabilized with the filtered juice.

Any suggestion?

Sirius Glass · Sep 29, 2018

Helios 1984 said:
I've started to develop colour films since about 2 weeks ago and I, too, get residue spots.

- I use distilled water with my stabilizer.
- I tried to filter my stabilizer.
- I re-washed the negative by leaving the tank 10 minutes under running water. Then I re-stabilized with the filtered juice.

Any suggestion?

When using PhotoFlo on black & white film, Jobo recommends removing the film from the reels and submerging the film in a bowl of PhotoFlo. That is what I do. Therefore I would suggest that you too remove the color film from the reels and submerge the film in the stabilizer to avoid the build up of stabilizer residue.

Helios 1984 · Sep 29, 2018

Sirius Glass said:
When using PhotoFlo on black & white film, Jobo recommends removing the film from the reels and submerging the film in a bowl of PhotoFlo. That is what I do. Therefore I would suggest that you too remove the color film from the reels and submerge the film in the stabilizer to avoid the build up of stabilizer residue.

I just re-washed the film for a 3rd time, about 15 minutes ago. This time I tried a pre-final wash with distilled water and Photoflo, than re-stabilized.
If it doesn't work, I'll try what you've suggested.

Sirius Glass · Sep 29, 2018

Helios 1984 said:
I just re-washed the film for a 3rd time, about 15 minutes ago. This time I tried a pre-final wash with distilled water and Photoflo, than re-stabilized.
If it doesn't work, I'll try what you've suggested.

On the reel or off? Scrub the reels with hot water, soap and a soft brush before using again. Every time wash with hot water.

Helios 1984 · Sep 29, 2018

Sirius Glass said:
On the reel or off? Scrub the reels with hot water, soap and a soft brush before using again. Every time wash with hot water.

I used my Rondinax to re-wash the negative, it's practical as you can load a negative even if the reel is wet. It didn't work...*sigh. I rinsed the neg with plain distilled water, for now, so I'll be able to scan the negs.
I'll attempt another stabilization later.

Young He · Sep 29, 2018

I put photoflo in my hexamine stabilizer and still got spots, even with distilled water and whatnot. However, once I started wiping my negatives with a pec-pad lightly to remove large droplets, I have had no problems other than the occasional spot. I think I have scratched my negatives once, and I’m not even sure it was the cloth.

I have recently bought some proper Kodak c41 final rinse and dev, so I should get less spots.

Helios 1984 · Sep 29, 2018

Young He said:
I put photoflo in my hexamine stabilizer and still got spots, even with distilled water and whatnot. However, once I started wiping my negatives with a pec-pad lightly to remove large droplets, I have had no problems other than the occasional spot. I think I have scratched my negatives once, and I’m not even sure it was the cloth.

I have recently bought some proper Kodak c41 final rinse and dev, so I should get less spots.

I've processed 4 rolls since last week, each negative was covered with crusty opaque spots. I've mixed the stabilizer according to the instruction sheet, there's no reason that my results should be different than others... unless Unicolor stabilizer is crap? I might end up buying a bottle of Kodak Final Rinse, like you, or cooking Photo Engineer's stabilizer.

Young He · Sep 29, 2018

Helios 1984 said:
I've processed 4 rolls since last week, each negative was covered with crusty opaque spots. I've mixed the stabilizer according to the instruction sheet, there's no reason that my results should be different than others... unless Unicolor stabilizer is crap? I might end up buying a bottle of Kodak Final Rinse, like you, or cooking Photo Engineer's stabilizer.

----------------------------------------------------------------------
Make up 1 L of Photo Flo 200 as per instructions.

To this add 10 ml of 37% formalin.

That is the original C41 Stabilizer (and C-22 as well)!

Source: Photo Engineer
----------------------------------------------------------------------

I have heard that hexamine tends to leave spots, but I have never tested this.

Wiping the negatives works too.

Helios 1984 · Sep 30, 2018

I re-stabilizer the negs after scanning them, those pesky spots are back but at least the negs are protected against germs for the time being.
I'll have to put my hands on a small bottle of Formaldehyde 37% to make my own stabilizer.

Young He · Sep 30, 2018

Just tested out the 5l kodak c41 final rinse from unique photo-negatives were the cleanest I've ever seen. No spots whatsoever. I am definitely using it from now on. Even though it is quite foamy and there were still copious amounts of bubbles on the negatives when I hung them to dry, there is absolutely no residue (other than what looks like a tiny bit at the bottom of the roll where everything dripped to).

Helios 1984 · Sep 30, 2018

Young He said:
Just tested out the 5l kodak c41 final rinse from unique photo-negatives were the cleanest I've ever seen. No spots whatsoever. I am definitely using it from now on. Even though it is quite foamy and there were still copious amounts of bubbles on the negatives when I hung them to dry, there is absolutely no residue (other than what looks like a tiny bit at the bottom of the roll where everything dripped to).

May I ask from whom did you purchased it?

Residue from Stabilizer

Privacy & Transparency

Privacy & Transparency