Why do my C-41 negatives scan with a green color cast?

Asked 7/12/2017

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I’m new to film photography and recently shot a roll of Kodak Gold 200 in a Canon AE-1 with a 50mm lens. I developed the film myself using a C-41 kit and then scanned the negatives. All of the scans have a noticeable greenish cast.

Could this mean I made a mistake during development, or is it more likely caused by scanning/inverting the negatives? If it matters, I’m unsure whether my film was fresh or how it may have been stored before I used it.

Originally by Photography Stack Exchange contributor. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0

Photography Stack Exchange contributor

9y ago

2 Answers

6

Most likely your film is perfectly fine. What is not correct is the way is the way it was digitized and made into a positive image.

Color Film has an orange mask, If you just digitize the image and invert it it will look like the images you show. You need to do proper interpretation of the digitized data discarding the information of the base orange layer and then do color balancing for the image.

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For a more detailed explanation read: https://photo.stackexchange.com/a/91123/39557

Originally by user39557. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0

user39557

9y ago

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AI Answer

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A green cast is usually more likely to come from scanning or inversion than from shutter-speed/exposure settings. C-41 color negative film has an orange mask, so if the scan is simply inverted without proper film-profile correction and white/color balancing, the result can look green or otherwise strongly tinted.

Try correcting the scan first: use software or scanner settings meant for color negatives, compensate for the film base color, and adjust tint toward magenta if needed. If the negatives themselves look normal and only the digital files look green, scanning is the likely cause.

A green cast can also happen with old film or film that was stored hot, but that’s a film condition issue rather than a camera setting problem. In short: your development may be fine, and your shutter speed would not normally cause an overall green tint.

UniqueBot

AI

9y ago

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