Strange E6 processing result

[Joe O'Hara]

This past weekend I modified the meter circuit in my old Spotmatic to work with a silver oxide battery. After checking the meter in the camera against my Pentax spotmeter, I went out to shoot a test roll of Velvia 50. I had the film processed my local Moto Photo (I know...). The appearance of the processed film was quite strange. The images seemed to have a dark red-orange cast to them (similar to the color of the old safelight filters we used to use with VC paper). The borders of the film, and the leader, were also dark orange rather than black. I would say the density of this red cast was about .9 or 1.2. Inasmuch as you could see the images, they appeared to be exposed correctly, and there were some other colors visible. The guys at the lab said the chemistry was new. Have any of you seen anything like this before? I don't know whether the E6 process requires the film to be exposed to white light after the first development, but I am guessing that a failure during this step could account for the borders not being black like they should be. I don't think it could be x-ray damage during shipment because I would think that would tend to lighten the images rather than darken them. Any ideas?

 

[PHOTOTONE]

The E-6 process has a chemical reversal step. No light is required. You can process E-6 in total darkness, or (if doing it yourself) you can turn the light on after the reversal step, and do the remainder of the process in room light. I am wondering if they processed the film in C-41 instead of E-6. Are your images negatives or positives. Velvia is a positive (slide) film. Very weak borders/blacks could be a developer issue.

 

[tim_walls]

I've managed to produce a deep red cast, along with overall darkness of image, by inadequately bleaching*. It definitely sounds like a chemistry or process problem, in any event.

This Kodak document on troubleshooting E6 might help: Kodak Manual Z119-12


* more precisely: If all your E6 working solution is in 1litre bottles, except bleach in 500ml for reasons lost in the mists of time, it is helpful to remember that just because you have enough working solution of everything else to hand you might need to make up some more bleach. In particular, it is helpful if you remember this *before* you start developing the film.

After you have finished kicking yourself, you will buy some more bottles.

 

[tim_walls]

Oh, a simple hybrid way of diagnosing inadequate bleaching or fixing is to stick the slide in your film scanner, and scan it with 'dust correction' mode on (assuming your scanner has the infra-red 'ICE' dust correction feature.) If there's still silver in the slide - i.e. bad bleach/fix - it'll make a mess of the scan (mass blur & posterise effect,) as the silver will block the IR and be interpreted as dust.

 

[nickandre]

If it's not completely black this sounds like bad color developer, or incomplete/inproper re-exposure. I would guess they botched the process somehow. It couldn't be your fault if the leader is red. I would bleach fix it. If it works, it was their fault with the bleach exhausted. If it doesn't, it was their fault because the botched the development/re-exposure somehow. It's harder to diagnose with slide films as it could be a combination of about 6 factors, but my money is on bad developer. If the images were dark red and the film was black, that sounds more like a bleach issue.

Find a lab that runs film a lot. If they run a roll every other day it's a crap shoot. I do just do it myself for the 95% cost savings I get. The E6 process specifications/process includes a chemical fogging step, but when I'm developing sheet film I will frequently skip that and just expose it to the light. It doesn't matter, but with roll film you have to take it off the reel, which is a pain, or at least make sure that you get all the film which is difficult with anti-halation layers. They most definitely used the chemical version, but that could have been exhausted.