What Went Wrong?

bvy · May 18, 2015

Another C-41/What Went Wrong thread -- but in this case, I'm 99% confident it wasn't a processing error. Have a look.

So this is expired Ektachrome, cross-processed in C-41 chemicals following the standard routine: 100F for 3:00 (pulled slightly on purpose), stop, rinse, bleach, rinse, fix, rinse, stabilizer. I developed a second roll of the same film at the same time, and it looks absolutely fine -- even development, good density, etc.

If I had to guess, this particular roll of film got wet or otherwise contaminated (what are the spots in frames 29, 31 and 34?). Any ideas? Thanks.

summicron1 · May 18, 2015

you cross processed to get weird results and you got weird results, and you're complaining?

Seriously, those are very cool. Figure out how to do it again and sell it to Lomography.

(My guess -- yeah, looks like moisture damage. Take it out of the freezer and open the package in a humid area before it thawed?)

Rudeofus · May 19, 2015

summicron, look at the weird patterns, which are especially visible in frames 25, 26, 32 and 33.

bvy: can you tell us which chemistry you used?

bvy · May 19, 2015

I used Kodak Flexicolor developer (mixed fresh last month), Kodak bleach, fix and final rinse.

I got the film from an APUG-er a while back, so I can't speak to its history. I can say this was the fifth of the five rolls I got and the other four came out fine. Here's a frame from one that I printed a while back:

Since these were expired when I got them (and I had planned to go through them more quickly than I did) I never refrigerated or froze them. They were stored in a cool, dry area -- or so I thought.

No great loss. It's a matter of curiosity more than anything. I agree some of them look cool, though it's not the kind of cool I was after. I might actually try to print frame 24.

Rudeofus · May 19, 2015

Is the whole roll like this, or just the final frames? Is there a chance that the roll wasn't completely wound up, and that the final dozen frames were just wrapped around the spindle?

bdial · May 19, 2015

Are these processed in a rotary processor like a Jobo, or in a conventional tank?
Were they processed ahead or behind the good roll?

mrred · May 19, 2015

My (not a guess) opinion is your film got wet. My two examples were of some 120 in my M645j during a heavy mist. I now only use it in "fair weather"....

bvy · May 19, 2015

These were processed in a Paterson two-reel tank with 600ml of solution. The bad film was on the bottom. The whole roll is like this, but the last third (shown) is where it's the worst.

I considered that the film might have been spooled incorrectly, but it went on and came off the reel smoothly (and these frames were on the outside, not near the spindle). Even so, if that were the case, I wouldn't expect to see the problem all the way to the edge of the film. For that, I would have had to have spooled two strips of film onto the same track; I think that would have caused some resistance that I would have noticed...

RobC · May 19, 2015

I'd "guess" over tightened film spool which has got in or out of camera but could also be moisture in film spool in camera.

bvy · May 21, 2015

I opened up and compared the two empty film cartridges. The one from the errant roll has the tiniest stain on the tape, and rust on the frayed metal edges (where I separated it). Nothing I would have ever seen had I not gone looking. So I'm going with moisture damage...

Rudeofus · May 21, 2015

That, and possible rust stains on the film. I once did some experiments where I developed short test clips which I kept in place with short pieces of copper wire - big mistake. Traces of oxidized copper were enough to render the developer inactive. I realize that the film cartridges are made from steel, not copper, but iron ions do nasty things to developers (and not only Ascorbate). Fe3+ is also a potent oxidizer which could bleach away latent image while film is still in the cartridge.

There's a range of reasons why you don't want moist, rusty film cartridges anywhere near your film ...

Xmas · May 21, 2015

Rudeofus said:
That, and possible rust stains on the film. I once did some experiments where I developed short test clips which I kept in place with short pieces of copper wire - big mistake. Traces of oxidized copper were enough to render the developer inactive. I realize that the film cartridges are made from steel, not copper, but iron ions do nasty things to developers (and not only Ascorbate). Fe3+ is also a potent oxidizer which could bleach away latent image while film is still in the cartridge.

There's a range of reasons why you don't want moist, rusty film cartridges anywhere near your film ...

Or camera...

bvy · Jun 10, 2015

Well, in spite of the mishap, I decided to prints some of these. Just because. There's one in the gallery now. I'm including it here in case your membership doesn't allow you to see the gallery.

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