Could I make a homemade color film?

So I was looking up how color film works and I was looking specifically at the technicolor three strip process. I was wondering if it’d be possible to make a three color process but instead of tinting the three bw positives (rgb) I could put three color filters (cyan Magenta and yellow) blue=yellow red=Cyan and green= magenta, I’ll be using 100iso bw panchromatic positive film maybe fomapan r-100 would work? Has Anyone Tried this?

I think maybe a guy called James Clerk Maxwell might have tried it a while ago.

This has been done with film. It's also the way that projection TVs used to work (close). It's the that dye sublimation prints and color offset prints are made (close).

 

Yes, you can do it.

Start with a still life like a basket full of colorful items. Procure a strong red, strong green and strong blue filter. Take three pictures of the still fife subject. One picture filtered red, one green and one blue. Now process the film using a reversal process. This makes film develop up with positive images suitable for projection via slide projector; You next procure three slide projectors. Now project each of the three images on a screen and adjust the projected images so they superimpose. Now impose the filter used to make the film image. If you can do as I describe, you will observe a full color picture. Note only red, green and blue filters will do this trick. The cyan, magenta, and yellow are used when printing images on paper.

I used to do this in my high school science class in the early 1960s. After a little experimentation I was able to get acceptable color projection results using only a green and red filter.

@SCL -- Dr. Edwin Land of Polaroid fame, experimented using only two primary colors and was able to produce satisfactory results; however his two-color method was not commercially feasible..

@ TimDelans

 

The 20th century was only just getting started. Going and seeing a movie was in vogue. In that era movies were silent and a few were in color using a two-color process that yielded poor results. Two musicians were friends and amateur photographers living in New York. They experimented in a basement lab trying to make an improved color film. They showed some samples to employees at Kodak.

 

George Eastman had recently purchased the English firm of Wratten and Wainwright, master filter makers. They moved one engineer, C Kenneth Mees to Rochester. Mees was assigned to help the boys, Leopold Mannes and Leopold Godowsky at Kodak Laboratories. In 1935, the now- perfected film and process was marketed. This film became, and remains, the standard of comparison for reversal color films.

 

I believe a little before three color Kodachrome, there was a two color version.

Maybe practice for the real thing.

 

One interesting think about Kodachrome. The red reexposure is done from the back,

and the blue from the front. That way, there is no silver from a different layer causing

a shadow. Green is chemically fogged, along with any not yet developed parts of

other layers, one cause for the Kodachrome look. The whole process would not

have worked for more than three.

 

I presume other optically exposed films use enough light to get through any silver

in the way.

@ Glen H

 

Outline of steps / times / temperatures K-14

 

1. Removable Jet Black Backing (Rem-Jet) Removal 10 seconds ambient temp subsequently buff-off

 

2. Rinse 15 seconds @ 85° -2 +15

 

3. First Developer MQ formula 2 minutes 0 seconds 99°F ± 0.05

 

4. Wash 45 seconds 85° ± 2

 

5. Red light fogging Corning 2403 filter 2.5 millimeters distance 1000 micro-watt second per sq cm

 

6. Cyan developer 2 minutes 0 seconds 100°F± 0.1

 

7. Wash 2 minutes 100°F± 0.1

 

8. Blue light fogging Fish-Schuman LB3 2.2 millimeters distance 230micro-watt second per sq cm

 

9. Yellow Developer 4 minutes 0 seconds 100°F± 0.1

 

10. Wash 2 minutes 100°F± 0.1

 

11. Magenta developer + chemical foggient 100°F± 0.1

 

12. Wash 2 minutes 100°F± 0.1

 

13. Conditioner 1 minute 0 seconds ambient temperature

 

14. Bleach 5 minutes 0 seconds 100°F± 0.1

 

15. Fixer 3 minutes 0 seconds 100°F± 0.1

 

16. Wash 2 minutes 100°F± 0.1

 

17. Rinse 1 minute 0 seconds ambient temperature

 

18. Dry 105°F ± 5

 

 

Initially Ektachrome and Agfrachrome required a reversal exposure to white light. We used a photoflood lamp at 12 inches for 1 or 2 minutes. We did this while the film was on stainless steel spiral reels. We are taking E-2 -- E--3 E-4 process E-6 was chemically fogged. Back when --- I went to Kodak School (MEC) for training on Kodachrome and was granted permission to use their patents for still and motion picture films of that era.

Yes, E2 needs a lot of light compared to K14.

 

When I was young, my father had the book:

"Anscochrome and Ektachrome home processing"

which was from E2 days.

 

Though even to E6 days, there was Ektachrome 1993 paper,

and Unicolor PFS chemistry, for making prints from slides.

That still had a reversal exposure. You had to take it out

of the Unidrum while wet, expose it to the floodlight, then

get it back in again for the rest of the processing.

 

My first film tank, the Yankee II, had a clear reel end to

allow for reversal exposure still on the reel. That was

close to E4 time.

The first Technicolor movie cameras only used a two colour system.

 

However, I'm not sure what the OP is proposing. Using CMY as the taking filter set?

Or what?

 

As a side note: I suspect that nowadays the red and blue Kodachrome fogging could be done with powerful LED lamps. Should anyone be crazy enough to attempt to revive the process.

RGB filters and result

RGB filters and result

[ATTACH=full]1350506[/ATTACH]

Gee JDM, with all that brown dirt, wouldn't a sepia toner on the print have been easier? :p

I have seen companies online selling BARRELS of film emulsion, is that something that can be used to make your own film or printing paper?

@ Glen H

 

Outline of steps / times / temperatures K-14

 

1. Removable Jet Black Backing (Rem-Jet) Removal 10 seconds ambient temp subsequently buff-off

 

2. Rinse 15 seconds @ 85° -2 +15

 

3. First Developer MQ formula 2 minutes 0 seconds 99°F ± 0.05

 

4. Wash 45 seconds 85° ± 2

 

5. Red light fogging Corning 2403 filter 2.5 millimeters distance 1000 micro-watt second per sq cm

 

6. Cyan developer 2 minutes 0 seconds 100°F± 0.1

 

7. Wash 2 minutes 100°F± 0.1

 

8. Blue light fogging Fish-Schuman LB3 2.2 millimeters distance 230micro-watt second per sq cm

 

9. Yellow Developer 4 minutes 0 seconds 100°F± 0.1

 

10. Wash 2 minutes 100°F± 0.1

 

11. Magenta developer + chemical foggient 100°F± 0.1

 

12. Wash 2 minutes 100°F± 0.1

 

13. Conditioner 1 minute 0 seconds ambient temperature

 

14. Bleach 5 minutes 0 seconds 100°F± 0.1

 

15. Fixer 3 minutes 0 seconds 100°F± 0.1

 

16. Wash 2 minutes 100°F± 0.1

 

17. Rinse 1 minute 0 seconds ambient temperature

 

18. Dry 105°F ± 5

 

 

Initially Ektachrome and Agfrachrome required a reversal exposure to white light. We used a photoflood lamp at 12 inches for 1 or 2 minutes. We did this while the film was on stainless steel spiral reels. We are taking E-2 -- E--3 E-4 process E-6 was chemically fogged. Back when --- I went to Kodak School (MEC) for training on Kodachrome and was granted permission to use their patents for still and motion picture films of that era.

 

was the k-12 process different? Maybe some day I can try processing Kodachrome II as I have some rolls from my grandfathers house that expired in 1973, (reasonably stored at 63 degrees F)

I heard the chemistry was insanely expensive and hard to acquire. What chemistry is required? Can I substitute chemicals?

@ Tim Delans

 

The K-11, K-12, and K-14 version of Kodachrome had a backing made from lamp black (carbon) imbedded in an acid plastic. This binder was softened by a bath in a mild alkaline solution and then buffed off. Then the film was developed in a black & white developer called an MQ. This is a common b&w developer made using two developing agents METOL and HYDROQUINONE. Next the blue sensitive emulsion was exposed to a bright blue light and re-developed in a non-staining b&W developer laced with a yellow dye coupler Y-54 (Alpha-benzoyl-o-methoxy acetanilide). Then fogged to bright red light and re-developed in a b&w developer laced with cyan dye coupler C-16 (N-[o-acetamido phenethyl]-1-hydroxy-2-napthamide). Next the film was chemically fogged and re-developed in a b&w developer laced with M-32, (1-phenyl-3-[3,4-dichlorobenamido]-5-pyrazolone).

 

 

The bleach step is the same bleach used in the C-41 negative film process i.e. iron EDTA. The fix step is common rapid fix.

You can’t afford even a gram or two of the three color couplers.

Forget trying to develop Kodachrome as a color film.

Easy to develop Kodachrome as a black & white negative.

 

 

In the dark, pre-wash with 20% solution of sodium sulfite, buff off the removabel jet black backing (REMJET). Develop and fix in ordinary b&w chemicals.

In the dark, pre-wash with 20% solution of sodium sulfite

Does that step matter Alan?

If you use a one-shot developer, and don't care what colour it ends up; does it matter if you don't remove the remjet first?

The pre-wash REMJET solution is a pre-hardener that enables machine processing. Small tank processing likely OK on pre-soak.