Violet/purple cast in shadow areas, any ideas?

[brendan_hohls]

<p>I took some studio photos using two rolls of Fuji Provia 100F and had them E6 processed by my local Prolab. When I got them back I immediately noticed an overall underexposed appearance on many of them in spite of checking with an incident meter and having made successful images with my D700 set at ISO 100 at the same apertures and studio light settings. The really strange thing though was the violet/purple colour in all darker and shadow areas. The model's black hair has turned out purple/violet, the part of her body in shadow shows the same effect, and even the normally black space between frames has a purple/violet colour cast. Additionally in the shadow areas, her black bordered tattoos showed up lighter than her skin in the same areas!<br>

The Prolab says that the other rolls in the batch were fine and they are not to blame. They say that the film could have been exposed to heat but that is highly unlikely on my side since I store the film in the fridge prior to using it and drop it off for processing quickly afterwards and without it being in the heat. I obviously have no control over how it is treated before it ended up in the Prolab's fridge.<br>

Has anyone out there experienced this or have some thoughts on the matter? Some of my friends in my slide group think that it may be the result of over-development.<br>

I am not too bothered about the "ruined" results because I shot mainly digital on the day for the model, and the effects look weird enough that I may even use one or two of them. And no, I haven't had any scanned yet so that I can share them with you yet. Sorry.<br>

Regards</p>

<p>Brendan</p>

<p> </p>

[chris_autio]

<p>I had a batch of 20 rolls of Velvia that were reddish, no matter what lab processed them. I suspected it was grey market film (which isn't necessarily bad) but may have been sitting in heat. You might want to have other rolls processed elsewhere to see if it is the film or the lab. Unrelated but pertinent is that direct lighting with strobes throw out a spike of violet without UV filtering on the bulb and over the bulb, giving a slight blue/cyan cast.</p>

[gary_watson]

<p>With respect, I think your lab is fibbing. Chemistry costs money, E6 volume is way down at most labs and many will squeeze maximum+ return out of their E6 line with less-than-fresh processing and/or iffy staff. I've not seen that purple haze since I switched to pro lab that only runs their E6 line twice weekly with fresh chemistry. If possible, try another lab since it's least likely your film's to blame. Crappy E6 processing, more than ever, is easy to find.</p>

[john_shriver]

<p>Ask to see the lab's control strip chart, and what the results were from that day.<br>

No control strips? Find another lab!<br>

You can't be a Kodak Q-Lab without running control strips, reading them with a densitometer, and tracking the results.</p>

[brendan_hohls]

<p>Thanks so much for the responses and apologies for responding so late. I am also fairly convinced it is the lab because other film from the same batch has not done that. i am away from my home base at the moment, but left some of the offending results from then and will follow up on my return. Unfortunately there are not a lot of alternatives left in Pretoria, South Africa, as far as labs are concerned.<br>

Regards<br>

Brendan</p>