As a movie fanatic, I’m at all times trying to discover new methods to create photographs – whether or not or not it’s by a brand new photographic course of, a brand new creating approach, a novel scanning technique, and so forth… Over the previous month I made a decision that I’d check out creating some Kodak Portra 400 movie with Kodak’s d76 creating resolution. Going into this experiment, I knew that Kodak Portra 400 was usually a C-41 processed, shade unfavourable movie inventory so I used to be curious to know if the d76 creating resolution would give me black and white negatives on Portra 400 movie inventory, or would it not give me one thing totally different than something I may count on? At present I’m going to inform you what occurs once you cross-process your shade unfavourable movie (develop shade unfavourable movie with black and white creating chemical compounds).
All photographs © Moloney Artistic Company.
Right here’s What Occurs When You Cross Course of Coloration Unfavorable Movie
First off, let me begin by saying that this was my first ever experiment with creating shade movie with d76 black and white creating resolution. I’ve tried out cross-processing Ektachrome in C-41 shade unfavourable chemical compounds earlier than, however this was new to me and I had no clue what to anticipate (the very best, and in addition at occasions, the worst feeling to have).
My regular course of whereas utilizing Kodak’s d76 creating course of is as follows:
- Develop for 9 min.
- Agitate first 30 seconds
- Relaxation
- Agitate each 30-45 sec. thereafter
- Cease Bathtub for 1 min.
- Fixer for 9 min.
- Agitate first 30 seconds
- Relaxation
- Agitate each 30-45 sec. thereafter
- Verify movie after 9 min. mark and resolve whether or not to go away it for longer or take it out for drying
- Wash for so long as wanted
- Squeegee & Grasp Dry
I made a decision that since this was my first experiment I ought to simply check out the identical course of, however now with C-41 movie. Sooner or later, I’ll check out totally different time lengths and processes, however I figured that this is able to be a great base to start out with.
I went forward and began by heading into my darkroom (my lavatory with an previous black backdrop over the door cracks) to place my movie into my Paterson tank. As soon as I used to be prepared to start out creating I dumped my developer in and processed for the primary 9 min. Once I dumped the movie out, I noticed the primary main distinction – the colour of the developer. After utilizing the d76 developer on black and white unfavourable movie, I usually would dump it out right into a storage container in order that I can eliminate it correctly. Once I dump it into the storage container, the developer normally stays the identical, clear, water-like shade that it began as. Nonetheless, when processing shade unfavourable movie with this developer, it appeared to have stripped the brown/crimson from the movie. I dumped the used developer into the storage container and it was a crimson/brown shade.
I proceeded to make use of the cease tub and agitate for a minute to remain on monitor with the bottom course of.
I then used my fixer for about 10 minutes earlier than I took the movie out for drying. Once I took the negatives out of my Paterson tank, I seen they regarded fairly attention-grabbing; not like B&W movie strips, they form of regarded like shade negatives however one thing was totally different about them , particularly the shadows – I used to be antsy to see them scanned out.
I cleaned up and made lunch whereas my movie cling dried in my skilled drying unit (once more, my lavatory as a result of it’s clear and there’s not as a lot mud in there) after which as soon as it was all dried off I introduced the movie over to my desk to see what I used to be working with.
Let’s check out a few of the outcomes:
My first response was pleasure as a result of it was one thing new. I’ve solely been capturing for 4-5 years now, however I’m nonetheless at some extent the place doing the identical factor too many occasions will get boring. Seeing one thing totally different, and funky – it at all times makes me proud to be doing what I’m doing. It makes me really feel like I’m doing one thing proper after I’m doing one thing that isn’t regular.
The subsequent factor I paid consideration to was the blue tone that I used to be getting from the movie. You may see it closely within the first two photographs, and I used to be additionally noticing that the blue was dominating the colour tones a lot so that you simply truly couldn’t actually see some other shade tones.
One other that I started making an allowance for was the sunshine. All of those photographs above had been shot in pure mild, so perhaps this was affecting the colour?
I additionally examined a number of different indoor shoots with a bit window mild and largely regular home lights and determined I’d use these to match the scans and their shade tones. Listed here are the indoor photographs:
You may see an enormous distinction between the 2 simply based mostly off of shade alone and this to me was unimaginable. The pure mild supplied one thing that indoor lighting couldn’t, and that was even by the black and white developer. One other factor that I ought to point out is my scanning settings – I scanned all of those negatives with 48-bit, shade unfavourable scanning settings and I used to be shocked after I noticed barely colourful photographs open air after which discovered largely black and white photographs after I shot indoors.
One factor that appeared to stay constant nonetheless, was the lack of shadows and highlights. For the outside photographs it appears to be like like I misplaced plenty of element within the sky and sure brighter areas, and inside I misplaced plenty of the shadow particulars.
On the finish of the day, I’m no knowledgeable so I’m not precisely positive what’s inflicting all of this, however that’s why I experiment. With out making these curious errors, I’d by no means know the true final result of what may occur. To sum up this entire experiment, would I cross course of my movie on this method once more? Sure. Would I do it typically? Most likely not, however after I wish to create photographs with this sure look, I now know methods to manipulate my chemical compounds in a method that can re-create this impact, and for that, I’m proud.
Hey! Thanks for maintaining with my experiment, for extra of my photographs remember to take a look at my Instagram right here and ship me a DM – I at all times love to listen to from different movie photographers even if you happen to’re simply reaching out to say hello! 🙂
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