Sunday, September 21, 2014

Using C-41 films as B&W

I have been very busy, so I had no time to post. But today I discovered something I would like to share with you:

It is known that C-41 may be developed in B&W chemistry giving black and white pictures. But, because the bleach step is bypassed, the negatives are very dense because the filter masks (correct me if it is not that) are still there and they are washed out by the bleach bath.
So I thought following procedure and somebody else may already have discovered it first:
1- Develop in B&W chemicals
2 - Rinse
3- Fix
4- Wash
5- Bleach
6- Wash
7- Redevelop in B&W developer
8- final wash

Final fixing may be not necessary.

This way the bleach step can clear the film and you will get a nice negative, almost like Ilford XP2 or Kodak BW400CN.

Sorry, now I have to go outside and take some pictures with a C-41 film and develop it like B&W.

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I developed the C-41 film I used yesterday like I said above. I used a disposable Kodak camera with a 800 ISO film and I developed it as follows:

1 - Develop in homebrewed parodinal 1:100 for 1 hour in stand dev. at 23ºC
2 - Rinse 3 times
3 - Fix for 5 minutes in comon rapid fixer
4 - Wash for 10 min.
5 - Bleach in Povidone-Iodine (PVP-I) for 1 hour or until the images disappear.
6 - Wash
7 - Redevelop in homebrewed parodinal 1:10 (yes, strong like for paper) for 2 hours
8 - Final wash for 15min.

Here are some of the pictures I took, scanned as color and automatic settings for scanner and brigtness level in Photoscape. 







I think the pictures are not coloured, these tonalities are a result of several things that may be discussed further but not interesting by now.

These negatives will produce B&W pictures like these:





Follow next developments of this subject at the blog, soon! I came to the conclusion that it is possible to produce better B&W negatives using C-41 films. This will be unveilled in the next post.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

What do you think about CCM instead of Paradinol solution?

Anonymous said...

And how do I blix with Povidone-iodine?

Henrique Sousa said...

I don't know. But it could also work good.

Henrique Sousa said...

I used Povidone-Iodine 10% sold at pharmacies. No further dilution. After fixing, you may carry the other operations at light. Just pour the PV-I in the tank and observe it from time to time. PV-I will clear the film and transform silver in silver iodide. When you see there is no more image, wash and redevelop in much stronger developer, I used Parodinal 1:10.

Anonymous said...

How about caffernal as a redevoloper?

Henrique Sousa said...

That could be, but you have to use it perahps more concentrated than parodinal. Maybe 1:5? Never tried!

Anonymous said...

Thanks!