Digital BW, The Print

On Sun, Jul 21, 2002 at 11:55:19PM -0000, tjphotoct wrote:
> --- In DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@y..., Tony Terlecki 
> > 
> > Are you sure the lab processed these as C-41 and didn't 
> mistake them 
> > for traditional B&W film?
> > 
> > -- 
> > Tony Terlecki
> > ajt@m...
> 
> Tony,
> The box, the roll, everything says process C-41. They are a 
> custom color and black and white lab and they also sell the film.
> Do you use XP2 and can you see "grain" in your XP2 or is it very 
> smooth. I can see this grain like pattern even between the 
> frames in the blank film area.
>  Actually I just read it is now XP2 Super.
> TJ
> 

I won't say there is no grain but it is certainly much less than HP5 or
Delta 400. It is also more of a diffused type of grain because it consists 
of dye clouds and it also only apparent in the lighter portions of the
negative. When scanning though I get very smooth tones as you would
expect with a chromogenic film. The clear areas of the film between frames
are pretty grain free. Something is evidently wrong with your film.

I'm not sure what scanner you are using but one test if you have an IR
channel and VueScan is to save off the IR channel and see what it looks
like. If you have a very strong negative image then that means there is
silver in the emulsion and they have mis-processed your film.

There's another test if you don't have the above - go back to the lab and
have them put a frame of the film (one you can afford to trash) into the
bleach step of the C-41 process and then into the fix. If the film was
developed with a traditional silver developer then the bleach will oxidize
the silver back to a silver halide and the fix will then remove all the
silver leaving a completely clear piece of film. If the negative image is 
still there then the dye is probably present and the film probably did go 
through some sort of process with a colour developer.

If they did use a B&W developer then there is a way to recover the dye image
although I've never tried it so don't know how well it works. I can explain
the process if you're interested.

What colour is the film? All my C-41 has a magenta cast to it which is
normal. More importantly what does the lab have to say about your film? They
should know right away what happened.  

You should shoot a couple more rolls and send them to a couple of different
labs just to satisfy yourself what a properly developed XP2 neg looks like.
It really is a great film for scanning so something is definitely amiss.
-- 
Tony Terlecki
ajt@...