What am I doing wrong?

[mike donahue]

I've been developing my own color (C-41) for a while now and have never had this problem until recently. I use a Jobo machine with flexicolor developer and champion blix. My negatives (Portra 400) compared to when I got it developed recently at the lab look very different; the lab's have an obvious orange mask whereas mine almost seem to be missing it completely. Only when held up to the light can I see some orange in my negatives. Whenever I try to scan the negatives that I've developed, this is what I get:

Film from the lab scans fine.

All of the chemistry I'm using is fresh and I haven't changed what I've been doing in my process at all. What could be the problem?

 

[zsas]

What time, temp, agitation, do you dev at?

 

[mike donahue]

38 degrees Celcius with constant rotation (Jobo machine is set to P). Developer for 3:15, Blix for 4:00 and six 30 second washes. Then I unload the film into stabilizer for about a minutes while I clean the tank, reel, etc.

 

[zsas]

Do you wash between dev and blix? I believe dev in blix contamination turns the negative too cyan

 

[mike donahue]

No I don't but I never have. I don't understand why that would start affecting it after all this time. Also, the picture I posted is of when I try to scan it using the negative setting in Epson Scan just to clarify. The actual negative is not cyan.

 

[Photo Engineer]

Try this:

Develop as normal.
Rinse 30" or use a 30" stop of 1% acetic acid
Fix in the C41 fixer
Wash as recommended for post fixation
Stabilize or Final Rinse

Now, examine the negatives in the light. If the mask is orange like your "good" negatives, then the bleach is at fault. If not, then the developer is at fault. And, BTW, if it is the bleach, the negatives are not spoiled, just prewet, bleach and then fix as normal. But, remember my warnings that some blixes are not film friendly or effective enough.

PE