Tell me about the Tetenal c-41 press-kit chemistry

[Helinophoto]

Hi
(no idea if this is supposed to be in the alternative processes or not, as it is vanilla color-development, with a twist and not a different process all together).

Been fascinated with the tonality in films like Saving private Ryan and others that use color-film, which has been processed using bleach-bypass and ENR(?) (redeveloped in B&W).

Ok, so I'm thinking about fuzzing about with the Tetenal c-41 press kit, 1 liter.

This kit comes with 3 bottles for the dev, 2 bottles for the blix and 1 bottle for the stabilizer.

Now, for my processing, regarding bleach-bypass, I am going to split the blix into two separate bottles, so that I can:
- Use the proper color-fixer for the film and not a B&W fixer, as it seems (from searching the net) that color-fix and b&w-fix isn't the same.
- Control the amount of bleach to apply to the photo. From various forums, it seems that I can re-bleach my negatives after the fix and stab.

I cannot get hold of separate chemicals for this where I live.

Couple of questions:
- Does anyone know if the two bottles for the blix, is actually bleach and fix, respectably (fixer sure smells like fixer).
- Can you actually process color-negatives in this sequence: Dev - fix - stab - bleach ?
- Is there any adverse effects of bleaching with the lights on? (should not, if the former question holds true, the film should be light safe already).

Regarding ENR:
I've seen people doing it in old flickr-threads (dead groups), where they develop the color, skipping bleach, fix, then wash and then redevelop with a b&w developer and then use stabilizer in the end.
- But, how can that work, seeing you've already fixed the film during the color-stage, would the B&W developer be useless at that stage?

Reason for doing:
I already know how to create pretty nice bleach-bypass results with *D*, now I want to make it the "proper" way, for experimentation, fun, knowledge etc.

 

[Photo Engineer]

Any time you rebleach, you must eventually fix the film to remove the silver halide. If you blix, you do not have to fix.

So, the sequence is Dev-fix-stab-bleach-fix-stab with washes after every step except the final stab. But this process gains you nothing. You really should dev-fix-bleach-dev-bleach-fix-stab to get the changes you seem to want. Using a B&W developer gains you nothing unless you use this sequence - dev-fix-wash-bleach-b&w dev-bleach-fix-wash-stab. This gives a slightly enhanced bleach bypass which is simply dev-fix-wash-stab.

PE

 

[Helinophoto]

Ha, amazing ^^
Very cool and thanks PE, yes, it's the last bleach-bypass (or a reduced bleach variant) and the B&W-dev part that can be extra interesting.
- Important to get the steps just right indeed, I can see it's easy to make mistakes here.

From what I've seen, there is also differences between what film is used, some said Porta 160VC lended itself quite well to this process, while other films, like Ektar-100 did not, what will happen with the "4th cyan layer" films like Fuji color pro 160ns, remains to be seen (that's the one I am experimenting with now, but I also have Porta and other films to play around with).

Going to be a lot of washing, my sink is small, so I'll need to change into a smaller tank.

Thanks again PE =)

 

[Rudeofus]

I don't know the press kit, but would assume that in terms of BLIX it is mostly similar to their regular Colortec C-41 kit. The main difference between a color fixer vs. a B&W fixer is pH: color fixers (or BLIX) must have pH 6.5 for optimal color hues, whereas B&W rapid fixers frequently operate at lower pH. If you use only Tetenal's BX2 component to make your fixer, or use only a fraction of the required BX1, pH will be way too low, so this won't work well as color fixer.

A very fast and effective fixer that you can use for color work would be Formulary's TF-5 (but not TF-3 and TF-4!! ), which you should be able to get shipped to Norway. With this fixer you should be able to do proper bleach bypass with the following steps: CD, stop, wash, TF-5, wash, STAB. If you insist on partial bleach bypass, you could try the following sequence: CD, stop, wash, BX1&BX2 in whatever ratio, wash, TF-5, wash, STAB.

PS: you can increase negative contrast by going this route: CD, stop, wash, fix, wash, rehal bleach, wash, CD, wash, bleach, wash, fix, wash, STAB. That's essentially what PhotoEngineer recommended. I would suspect that these flickr posters forgot to mention the bleach step before second CD.

 

[Arctic amateur]

If you haven't already bought the Tetenal kit you could get the Digibase C-41 kit, from several EU webshops. It has separate bleach and fix.