Found Film - Kodacolor X - Developed as B/W

[paul_nelson]

Developing film has been my least favorite part of the

photographic process. However, I have been inspired by many of the

found film threads and the offer for the after-hours use of a

darkroom at work. I?ve picked up several exposed rolls of film

including quite a few rolls of Kodacolor X. The price and wait to

develop it without knowing if I can get a color print are too steep

for me to risk on someone else?s unknown roll of film. There have

been several suggestions here to develop Kodacolor X as B/W film, but

few specifics. So . . . I decided to give it a try (I had 5 rolls

and nothing to loose).

 

I rinsed the film in the tank twice to remove the blue dye.

That was followed by development in Rodinal 1:50 for 10.5 min at 72

degrees. I used a water stop (filled, shook and emptied the tank

twice) and fixed using FP-4 for just over 3 minutes. That was

followed by an 8 min rinse and 30s in photoflo.

 

At first disappointment ? the emulsion side of the film was a

uniform dark gray. Then, I noticed images through the base and could

see images when holding the film up to the light. After drying, I

scanned the film as a positive (Epson 2450 ? it could not find an

image when the film was scanned as a negative), converted the image

to grayscale, and adjusted the levels to get a usable image that I

could post here.

 

The film came along with an ANSCO Readyflash camera. The

camera is shown below with its hood ornament. Overall, the camera

appears to take decent pictures ? I like the balance in the pictures

shot with a flash. However, sharp is not a prime quality of the

meniscus lens. There were many instances where I wish I could make

out more of the writing on books, magazines and bottles to make

better sense of the pictures. For tight scans, grain is apparent at

2400 dpi, but text is elusive.

 

The pictures seem to fall into three series. Given the

number of pictures that came out I?ll post them in separate threads.

The series are: confirmation, good bye teacher, and graduation. The

confirmation pictures follow in this thread:<div></div>

[paul_nelson]

This series appears to have been taken in a Catholic church. My wife and I suspect that it was taken at a boy?s confirmation given the apparent age of the kids in the pictures. Her guess was that the pictures date from the 60?s (I?m not as good as she is at picking out styles).

 

The first picture is of a boy, dad?, priest and nun. My wife noted that this is a different priest from the one officiating at the service (who doesn?t wear glasses and has a receding hairline).<div></div>

[paul_nelson]

Is this a confirmation service or something else?<div></div>

[paul_nelson]

The kid?s legs look really strange in this shot.<div></div>

[paul_nelson]

Double exposure ? the boy returning down the aisle underneath the youth in the church basement. This and the next picture may be from a different event. Gotta love those white socks with black shoes!<div></div>

[paul_nelson]

I wonder what?s up here and what the youth are holding in their hands.<div></div>

[James G. Dainis]

The Confirmation rites in the Catholic church are conducted by a bishop, not a parish priest. That may explain the second "priest" conducting the ceremony. It is a very sacred moment and since it only happens every few years, according to the bishop's schedule, I find it hard to belive that it would be conducted in a basement. Also, at that period of time, those being confirmed wore confirmation gowns, just like college or high school graduation gowns. At last that is the way it was in my small town of MA.

[James G. Dainis]

One other thing, well up into the 1960s, no women would enter a Catholic church without a head covering. Many girls, who ordinarily didn't wear hats would use a scarf or lacking that, pin a handkerchief or even a Kleenix onto their heads.

[larrydressler]

Next time try Diafine. And they would love how you got those images on CSI. maybe you could help them solve a 40 year old Murder?

[Julio Fernandez]

Most likely first communion Catholic, I would say. Those young guys and gals are holding hymn booklets, that is the style used just after the Vatican Concilium II in the early 60s. It fits with the hair and clothing style. I would bet for 1964 or so.

[kelly_flanigan1]

Here I have developed many dozens of Kodacolor rolls in D-76. I expereimented with HC110; acufine; ethol blue; diafine; DK50; kodagraph; microdol; and have used just D-76 the most. I have been doing this for 40 years. Often the films are fogged; aged;; have alot of base fog; that no developer can undo. Today it is far easier; one can scan in the negatives; and adjust the contrast; insteady of messing with hard contrast papers to recover the images. Long ago I used a grade 6; yes six agfa paper; or process camera high contrast projection Super-K papers.

[dave_s]

I'd say a bit later than Julio's guess, but who knows. Kids' appearances would vary between different communities.

 

The boys are starting to have a bit of hair on top (even at this formal event), so 1968 or later. Even the dad has a bit of hair, combed across, not slicked back. On the other hand, nobody looks like Prince Valiant, so before 1971. I'd guess 1969 or 1970 myself. The black-rimmed glasses are another very 60s thing.

 

The kid with the splayed lower limbs in one picture-- I wondered if he was a polio survivor with one or both legs braced. But he looks fine in the other pix, and there's no evidence of crutches or anything.

[gene m]

Excellent

[greg_miller10]

Perhaps worthy of note. When we develop our Kodacolor X it is developed into color but seldom do we deliver color images to our customers. The reason for developing old film into color when possible is two fold. One - the grain structure of the dye image is not nearly as aggressive of that of the silver image thus allowing us to make more pleasant prints with a more attractive tonality. The other reason and the more important one is that as these old roll films age they fog in from the edges. This is apparent in the posted images and will become more and more obvious as they are brought up to normal contrast levels (unlike the low contrast images shown here). When developed into color the blue sensitive dye layer has not been effected by this fogging nearly to the degree the other two dye layers have. In scanning we use extreme physical color filtration to isolate this dye layer and then it is again isolated if necessary in the channels menu in photoshop. In the end as would have been the case with the images show here developed in Rodinal (which are quite good so the film was likely in very good shape) ours would likely have been unrecognizable from newly purchased and shot B&W film. But then again Paul has saved himself 200 dollars with his 5 rolls and had his curiosity satisfied.

 

 

All the best

 

Greg Miller

 

Film Rescue International