What happens if you process black-and-white film in a color process like C-41 or E-6?
Asked 5/26/2019
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A friend accidentally had a black-and-white 35mm film developed using a color process and got unusual-looking results. Technically, what happens when conventional black-and-white film is run through a color process such as C-41 or E-6? Why do some rolls come out blank while others can show a faint or unusual image?
Originally by Photography Stack Exchange contributor. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
Photography Stack Exchange contributor
7y ago
2 Answers
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Developing black-and-white film as color (C41 or E6) is usually expected to produce blank negatives because the bleach step removes the silver and leaves behind only dye. Black-and-white film has no dye to leave behind.
A partial bleach might leave a faded looking image. Skipped bleach might look like normal black-and-white processing. (These are guesses because I haven't done any partial/skipped bleach processing on either color or black-and-white film.)
A different color process might produce different results, but this scenario is unlikely because they are not in common use.
Cross processing C41 black-and-white in E6 might produce unusual results. C41 black-and-white film does have dye in it.
tfb notes that the temperatures for color processes are much higher than black and white. This might cause "smeary horribleness / reticulation". Normally, such problems occur when there is significant temperature variation among the solutions.
Originally by user75526. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
user75526
7y ago
0
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With ordinary black-and-white film, the image is metallic silver. Standard color processes are designed to leave behind dye images after the silver is bleached away. Since normal B&W film has no color dye couplers, a full color process with bleaching will usually give a blank or nearly blank result: the silver image is removed and there’s no dye image to replace it.
If bleaching is incomplete, skipped, or replaced with a non-bleaching fixer, the silver image can remain, giving a visible black-and-white image with unusual contrast, density, or staining-like effects. That can create the faded, distressed, or pictorial look your friend saw.
Also, color processes run at higher temperatures than typical B&W processing, which can further change contrast and grain.
One exception is chromogenic B&W films made for C-41 processing: those do form dye images and are intended for color-style processing. But conventional silver-based B&W film generally is not.
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