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domroberts



Reged: 13/07/2000
Posts: 64
Loc: Kent
Re: C41 film in B&W chemistry.
      25/05/2007 09:31

Processing C-41 in B/W is not generally recommended as it is fairly pointless, but also quite fun!

As regular B/W processing does not have a bleaching step, the Yellow Filter layer remains in the film, causing the dark yellow 'stain'. Also, the coloured dye couplers are not destroyed in processing as they might be in C-41 (depending on what was exposed and what dyes needed to be formed). As far as I know the dye anti-halation layer is still removed as all this needs is the alkalinity of the developer.

So, what you have is a silver image with lots of other components all adding to the density, this adds markedly to the grain of the film. Furthermore, the yellow/orange base (with the filter layer) will act as a safelight to B/W paper, so bear this in mind if trying to print the negatives on conventional mono material. Scanning should be simple enough, providing the Dmax of the scanner is adequate for the density of the negative. Just treat the film as a colour negative and desaturate in Photoshop.

I've used the citric acid 'bleach' myself, this is a gentle formula designed to remove the yellow filter (and also handily removes some of the silver in the highlights) but have little effect on the image. I found the bleach far too slow - 30 minutes or so - for the effect it had.

One possible way forward (for experimentation!) is to process C-41 film in B/W chemistry (dev, stop, fix, wash) as normal, then bleach everything using a Ferricyanide bleach, give the film a really good long wash, then redevelop it in the same B/W chemistry. This will remove the filter layer and dye couplers, and should give you a nice contrasty neg. The orange base of the colour negative material is not removable.

If you've got lots of spare rolls of cheap C-41 film, I'd say you'd be better to have a go at cross processing them in E-6, which is much more fun and gives far more interesting results. Truprint is 3M or Agfa neg film I think, try overexposing one stop and pushing +3 in E-6.

Dom

--------------------
Dom Roberts

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Entire topic
Subject Posted by Posted on
* C41 film in B&W chemistry. Mojo_66 22/05/2007 11:13
. * * Re: C41 film in B&W chemistry. taxor   22/05/2007 23:19
. * * Re: C41 film in B&W chemistry. The Circle Of Confusion   22/05/2007 12:35
. * * Re: C41 film in B&W chemistry. Mojo_66   22/05/2007 13:17
. * * Re: C41 film in B&W chemistry. The Circle Of Confusion   23/05/2007 09:03
. * * Re: C41 film in B&W chemistry. Mojo_66   23/05/2007 19:05
. * * Re: C41 film in B&W chemistry. mpt600   24/05/2007 21:03
. * * Re: C41 film in B&W chemistry. domroberts   25/05/2007 09:31
. * * Re: C41 film in B&W chemistry. Mojo_66   25/05/2007 11:26
. * * Re: C41 film in B&W chemistry. domroberts   25/05/2007 19:41
. * * Re: C41 film in B&W chemistry. nickc   25/05/2007 20:26
. * * Re: C41 film in B&W chemistry. domroberts   26/05/2007 11:55
. * * Re: C41 film in B&W chemistry. nickc   03/06/2007 10:05

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