Low contrast and blue tones

[davebullivant]

Hello all,

I have been developing c41 at home this year, and until now have just been happy that I am getting a consistent image and correcting any colour balance issues during post production. But now I am looking at the quality of the actual neg and wanted to see if I am doing something wrong.

I have attached an image which is a straight scan without any corrections.

Is this look normal? Does it always need some correction, or am I doing something totally wrong. Here's an outline of my process using the tetenal chemicals:

Preheat film tank (with film in) with hot tap water for 5 min.
Dev for 3.15min with 1 min full agitation, then 5 secs every 30.
Blix for 4min, agitation as above.
Rinse in cold tap water for 3.5 mins, changing the water every 1 min.
Stab for 1 min, full agitation.
Mineral water with wetting agent for 3 mins (no agitation)
Then hung out to dry.
Scanned with an epson v700 with epsonscan, using digital ICE but nothing else.

Any thoughts would be very much appreciated.

Thanks!

Dave

[TonyW]

You may find it helpful to use Epson professional mode and initially do a preview scan.  

Use the marquee tool to crop the unwanted black and white edges out of the scan area and then apply changes to colour and contrast using the Epson tools as required to get closer to your desired result.  You can of course just rely on post in PS but my preference is to get as close as possible during the initial scan, leaving a little room for fine tuning later.

This is a reasonable way IMO http://www.alexburkephoto.com/2013/06/02/scanning-and-editing-color-negative-film/

No sign that anything wrong with your processing steps but there is one thing that concerns that is the preheat.  I assume that you are not actually using hot water but mean that you are preheating with water at the same temp (100 deg. F) as required by the rest of the process?

Edit: Just a thought about processing.  Are you sure that you should be pre soaking rather than pre heating i.e. Dry heating tank and film for 5 minutes? 

[davebullivant]

Thanks so much TonyW! That was exactly what I was looking for.

[davebullivant]

And regarding your questions, I don't use 'hot' water, just the same (possibly a couple of degrees higher) as my processing temp. Not thought of dry heating. I use a plastic dev tank, so not sure how I would do it. Maybe in the oven at a super low temp? What would you recommend?

[TonyW]

And regarding your questions, I don't use 'hot' water, just the same (possibly a couple of degrees higher) as my processing temp. Not thought of dry heating. I use a plastic dev tank, so not sure how I would do it. Maybe in the oven at a super low temp? What would you recommend?

I know that you are using Tetenal chemistry and their instructions may differ but Kodak are clear on the C41 that the process does not include a pre-wash/pre-soak.  Seems plenty of users (at least hobbyists) prefer a pre soak and report no issues so you may not feel the need to alter your procedure but FWIW Kodak give the following specific instructions:
Do not immerse the film in a warm water pre soak.  Warm up step is done by warming the outside of the tube with hot air or in a tempered water bath.

Instead there are suggestions for the optional step of using a tempered water bath or by using a hot air system to bring the tank and film up to the operating temperature of the processing chemicals.

Alternative would be to adjust the Developer starting temperature after calculating the drop when film and reels loaded.  These are outlined in Kodak instructions Z131 part 3 Here

Oven heating way too risky IMO although it may give you some funky distorted plastic art from your tanks and reels  

[fdisilvestro]

Hi,

A couple of comments about the processing:

- I would also recommend not to pre-soak the film with water as a first step
- If you use stabilizer, you should not rinse afterwards, as it is designed to be the last step in the process.
 
Avoid any possible contamination of the developer by stabilizer, even traces of it, as they might be the cause for contrast/color issues. It is recommended that you remove the film from the tank and reels before stabilizing to avoid any possible developer contamination
 
A simple test you can make is the following:
Make identical exposures on two rolls of film. send one to a professional lab an process the other yourself. Compare the negatives and scans under same conditions. If both are indistinguishable, then you are doing a good job.

[ced]

Try modifying to your heart's content post scanning but cropping on the scanner before scanning will improve.

[Martin Kristiansen]

At the very least a pre soak necessitates increasing developer time by approx 20 seconds. With short developer times like you have with c41 that is significant. Even though c41 is a fairly robust material generally a change in temp of even a few degrees C between the personal and the dev can result in reticulation which looks a lot like grain at first glance.

It’s hard to say from the scan, I would need to see the beg bug it looks a little flat. That could indicate under development.

I used to work in professional photo finishing labs when that was still a thing including one in South Florida. I admit my memory is not to be fully trusted though.