C41 Developpement Unknown Issue

Hi everyone!! I've been experiencing this problem today and i have no idea what happened.

 

I' used to develop negative color films at home but here is something i don't understand.

 

Sorry about the dusty scans, but these were test shots.

 

So, the following scans are from 2 different films which were processed in the same tank. Same C41 Tetenal Process (3min15, 4min, 3min, 1min).

 

But as you can see, Picture 1 (Portra 160) show some white diffuse grain everywhere, all pictures from this roll show the same problem.

 

Picture 2 (Fuji Pro 400H) doesn't have this problem, only normal dust and spots from quick manipulation after processing.

 

Nothing special happened here, only thing i noticed was a little bit of chunk inside Developper and Bleach bottles which were gone after a little bit of shaking. Nothing serious it seemed.

 

Does anybody know what might have happened here?

 

 

only 4 minutes for blix? I thought with that kit, at 102F that should be 6.5 minutes....

Something is dried on the Portra. How did/didn't you squeegee the film after the final bath? What was the final bath? I use Flexicolor and not familiar with the kits.

Given that 2 months has passed before the first response, I'm not sure the OP is interested anymore.

 

The spots look like undissolved chemicals were deposited on the film during development. -

"only thing i noticed was a little bit of chunk inside Developper and Bleach bottles which were gone after a little bit of shaking."

 

The "little bit of chunk" most propably got shook up into a cloud of dispersed particles that stuck to the film emulsion and prevented the developer fully doing its work.

 

In future, let sleeping "chunks" lie, or filter the developer, or better yet, throw it away and mix up fresh. The film looks irretrievably ruined now. Although you could try re-washing and squeegeeing (Uuuuuurgh!) it afterwards.

 

How the second film escaped I don't know. Maybe it was at the top of the tank while the sediment stuck to the bottom film?

This is good. I have had similar problems since I started DIY developing. I chalked it up to poor photo technique and baggage that comes from DIY processing. Just too embarrassed to ask. I was going to start going to a lab. Everything said is plausible. My kit says 6 minutes for blix (maybe 6.5) I thought of squeegee but was afraid that physical wiping when wet might cause smearing. How do I squeegee and what is flexcolor?

Seems to me that when the OP said white spots, that is on the scans, not the negative, so black on tShe negatives.

 

My first thought is fogging due to old, or improperly stored, film, though mostly because I sometimes use old black and white film.

 

As someone mentioned blix, it could also be residual metallic silver, from under bleaching.

 

It could also be undissolved powder stuck to one or both sides. In this case, it is usually visible in a reflection off the surface.

I squeegee film with my fingers, for 35mm, 120 and 4x5 formats in color and black and white. Flexicolor is the brand name Kodak uses for C-41 chemistry. Edited June 23, 2017 by Wilmarco Imaging

Thanx

Donald, I'd suggest using bought distilled water for making up the developer and blix.

 

There could be a number of things going on with tap water: Hardness, suspended particles or "purifying" additives.

 

Both hardness and chemical additives might react with the developer or blix to throw a precipitate into those solutions.

 

Obviously, suspended particles are already a bad thing, but may be agglomerated by some chemical reaction to become more visible.

 

Particulate contamination of your water supply needs to be filtered out, since using distilled water throughout the process gets expensive and impractical. Small inline filters aren't too expensive. You need something that filters down to around 5 microns or less to be of much use.

 

Charcoal+resin filtering, or simply boiling or treating the tap water for hardness may also work, but buying distilled water is probably the quickest way to eliminate contaminants in the water used to make up your processing solutions.

 

I strongly advise against squeegeeing, except as a last resort. A photo-squeegee consists of two (or more) rubber blades set in the jaws of a plastic tongs. You clamp it gently round the film and draw it down to remove excess water. While the squeegee is clean and new, this is OK to do, but one little bit of grit and the film is pretty much ruined.

 

No matter how careful you are, sooner or later that little bit of grit will come calling. So better to just use a detergent bath and allow the film to dry naturally without streaks.

Edited June 24, 2017 by rodeo_joe|1

I was having the same problem and in another thread on something like this there were a few things that I tightened up in. Use distilled water. With time you can get some precipitate that will not redissolve with shaking. Filter it once in while filter it witheven a coffee filter on paper towel. I now wash my tank in dish washer to remove any contamination. The cover to the tank can harbor all kinds of contaminants and spend extra care to not cross contaminate. The last thing mentioned in the thread (and also above) was to squeegee. These all seemed to make a big difference for me,