> So, just for the fun of it let me ask, what happens if you process > kodachrome in C41 chemistry? Anything? Mud?
Nothing, because all the cool stuff in C41 is in the film rather than in the processing. Each layer of C41 has the color dyes and couplers already in there with the silver halides and the sensitizing dyes. On the top is the blue layer with no sensitizing dyes, then there is a deeply dyed yellow filter layer to block out all blue, then there are layers below sensitive to red and green. The red and green layers are -also- unfortunately sensitive to blue (as natural halides are) so that yellow filter prevents them from getting them exposed by blue light. It's not perfect and it doesn't block UV effectively, which is why occasionally pink flowers would photograph as blue on older Kodacolor emulsions. Anyway... so you expose the film and each of the layers gets a latent image appropriate to the color it's sensitized to, and you send it to the lab. It's first developed in an ordinary B&W developer to develop silver images, then a color developer connects the color dyes up to the silver. The excess color dyes are removed in a clearing bath, the silver is bleached out, the dyes are stabilized, any residual silver is fixed just for stability, and the lights are turned on. Initially in the C-22 days these were done with multiple baths, but these days some kits have it down to just a developer/color developer and a blix. Modern developing kits also do things like having multiple developers with different temperature sensitivities which compensate for one another, so you don't need the high precision water baths that you did when C-41 first came out. One of the nice things have having split bleach and fix is that you can eliminate the bleach in order to leave a B&W image on top of the color dye image. This gives you much lower saturation but about a stop greater sensitivity. It's a useful effect to lower saturation but it was also used by press photographers in the seventies to get an extra stop out of the film. So... if you run B&W film through C-41... you get a B&W image... then it bleaches it away and you get a roll of blank film. The color dyes don't get attached because they aren't there. Same thing happens if you were to run Kodachrome or Agfacolor films through the C-41 machine. E-6 is a special case because the E-6 dye coupler chemistry is very similar to that of C-41 and they use the same color developing agent. So you can cross process C-41 in E-6 chemistry and vice-versa and get an image, though your color rendition won't be anything approaching accurate. --scott _______________________________________________ FrameWorks mailing list FrameWorks@jonasmekasfilms.com https://mailman-mail5.webfaction.com/listinfo/frameworks
