"Processing Error" continued . . .

Here's part 2 of my post of a couple days back (I don't know how to

paste in a link to the thread, so check my posting history for the

first part). I took the negatives back to the lab and asked them to

redo the bleaching and fixing in order to get the residual silver

off. It looks like they not only washed off the silver, but also did

more processing, since now the colors are REALLY jacked. You can see

the change vs. my last post regarding these same negatives.<div></div>

And now here's the same frame with ICE and ROC turned on.<div></div>

It appears that even when I tell them what I need done, they trust the machine instead of their own brains. If only the residual silver had been removed, these negs might have turned out pretty much ok.

Time to find a new lab?

Your lab is worse than useless. Find someone who cares or mail them in a mailer. C-41 is almost idiot proof. But you seem to have found an exception.

 

I am sorry they ruined your photos.

 

,Grinder

Remember when the corner drug store did it better?

 

I am sorry for your loss but I have to say those do look very intersting and with the right subject matter if it could ever be duplicated it would be useful.

 

Larry

The lab;s work is more interesting than the photographer's.

 

Convert it to B&W.

slit the throat

Go claim a new roll at least and then tell them they've just lost a client who will 'spread the word' (in a non-Christian manner :-).

I'd say they screwed the pooch... Big Time. Two separate ways.

 

First, any lab that doesn't maintain their C41 or E6 bleach strength isn't a lab at all: They are just masturbating with your precious film.

 

Second, it looks like they indeed hosed your colors on the second pass.

 

Since you're in Seattle, sending the film down to A&I in LA is your best bet. But then again, your corner Wal-Mart with it's Frontier will do a credible job in the C41 soup, too.

Whoa--I hate to think that they may have been "masturbating" with my film. I'll have to sterilize the inside of my scanner : ( <p>

What's a good way to find a lab that's run by experienced people who think about what they're doing? Do I have to just go through the Yellow Pages by trial and error?

"Do I have to just go through the Yellow Pages by trial and error?"

 

Well... does Drycreek have profiles for any labs in your area? Any recommendations you can find on Photo.net? Are there any local photography clubs in your area you can ask? Any professional-type camera stores who can suggest a lab? If you call up labs and ask a few questions, you can quickly figure out who knows who they're talking about and who doesn't.

That has to be the most bizarre 'error' in a film that I have ever seen in my life.

 

The top goes one direction and the bottom goes another. It is a shame that we don't have more data like a MacBeth chart or something.

 

What does a full scan of the negative look like, including the edge marks. Can you do that so we can see the effects on the factory printed data?

 

Ron Mowrey

The edges look the same as normal. What happened was that the film was processed once, but silver was left covering up the denser parts. The film was then put through the whole process again, causing the dark (less dense) parts to become overdeveloped, and then the residual silver that masked the bright parts was finally washed off like it should have been in the first place. I told them to just do the bleaching and fixing part, but they put the film through the entire process again. These were done at a certain camera shop in Orem, Utah (I won't name names). They probably think of their processing machine as a mysterious black box filled with tiny little elves who always know what to do to get the right results. That way they can feed the film to the machine and forget. <p> I know I could get good results from mailers, but I'd rather have a local lab do "develop only" with no prints, since I own my own scanner and shoot a lot. With mailers I'd be paying more than twice as much and getting prints that I don't necessarily want. This whole dilemma is making the Canon 5D look tastier and tastier, but it's still too expensive.

Ron: Now that I compare the look of the edge data on this roll to other rolls of 400UC, I can see that it is decidedly darker, which is probably because the roll ended up overdeveloped. Here is another before/after comparison.<div></div>

... and after.<div></div>

That's the strangest looking development I have ever seen! I don't see that putting a film through the processor again should have such a dramatic effect on the film like this, since its already fixed no further development can take place. If the original problem was retained silver, it should be slightly improved if anything.

What did the lab say? Surely all their films can't be coming out like this? If so all the films they are printing are going to be like your first example, and that can't go on for long.It would be interesting to know what's going on here.

It's a pretty cool effect though, maybe they should patent it.

I think I can explain it a little better now.

 

The film had retained silver halide, not retained silver metal. The fixer was bad, not the bleach. (I should add that the bleach may have been bad, but the major effect seems to have come from bad fix)

 

Therefore, you had what looked like silver retention, but it was AgX blocking the image and it was fogged of course due to being in the light.

 

When they re-ran the entire process, additional dye was depositied by additional development of silver halide and this caused a color shift in the areas that were not fixed properly.

 

Rebleaching and / or refixing will never change the color balance of a negative or transparency, if the original dye image is correct. It will simply remove the offending silver and silver salts. Density is the major thing that will change along with apparent grain and sharpness.

 

They owe you big time for this.

 

Ron Mowrey

so let's say i have a roll of C41 that came out normally... if I ran it through again what would happen?

If you have a roll of C41 film processed normally, and then just reprocess it, the only thing that might happen is a slight increase in overall dmin with no change in color whatsoever. This would be the random noise introduced by aerial oxidation of developer then going on to couple with dyes uniformly throughout the film. With luck, you would not even see that.

 

Ron Mowrey

But if it wasn't fixed properly in the first place, wouldn't you notice some obvious fogging once it's been exposed to light?