Purple Negatives

[Stealth3kpl]

Advertisement (gone after registration)

My Acros 100 developed in D76 1+1 have a purple hue. Does this suggest underfixing (they don't look cloudy) or under washing, or is it normal?

Pete

[Advertisement]

The Leica Q3 is available for pre-order at B&H Photo Video and Adorama

[pico]

What I am about to write might seem counter-intuitive, but when you have purple negatives, try soaking them again in developer. Agitate. Then wash thoroughly. Not to worry, the negs do not develop again. The point is to put them into an alkaline state so that the tint can wash away.

 

If that does not work, then use hypo-clear then wash.

 

In the end, the color will not hurt anything.

[Stealth3kpl]

It seems that they're going clear just whilst hanging. What is it that makes them purple?

Pete

[adan]

Usually residual color in B&W film is left-over antihalation dye. It's a dye layer between the emulsion and the shiny plastic base to absorb light so that it doesn't reflect off the plastic and "halate" - or form halos around highlights by passing back thorugh the emulsion back to front.

 

http://chestofbooks.com/arts/photography/The-Fundamentals-Of-Photography/images/Fig-98-Halation-in-Print.jpg

 

It is supposed to dissolve away during processing, but for some reason, the T-grain type films (Acros, Tmax) are especially resistant to this dye washing out. Using an ammonia-salt hypo clearing agent like Heico PermaWash seems to help.

[dave_d]

As stated, the purple stain is from the antihalation layer. Rapid fixer does a better job at clearing the purple from the film. Also, if your fix is slightly exhausted it will have a hard time clearing the purple. You can try fixing a little longer or using a two bath fixing process and splitting your time. Washing well also helps.

[cocker]

I usually do a soak with plain water at the right temperature before the Developer. With Adox - and some other films IIRC - the purple dye is washed out then.

[Stealth3kpl]

Advertisement (gone after registration)

Thanks guys. I think I'm usually more thorough washing the negs. They seem to have cleared now, just by drying. In fact I'm just finishing scanning, thanks to the warm weather.

Pete

[Stealth3kpl]

Ta Daaah!

Well, I like it.

 

[ATTACH]317974[/ATTACH]

[ymc226]

I think a 5 minute presoak will get rid of much of the purple negative it that bothers you. There was a long thread in APUG regarding purple negatives in regards to TMax and the general consensus was that it was harmless.

[Rolo]

A pre-soak will affect the development process, as anybody doing it will know. New comers may not.

 

A quick swirl, not a 1 minute soak, with water at 68 dregs will remove some of the anti-halation coat and bring the film up to developing temp.

 

A 5 minute soak will saturate the film and the developer will need to replace the water to get to the silver.

[andybarton]

Agreed.

 

You will be amazed at how much purple dye comes out of film.

 

When you rinse, put the rinse water into a glass or clear translucent (Tuppaware) jug. As the rinse takes hold, you will see the water get less and less purple tinted.

[chrism]

Pre-soak is my solution - and the water will come out looking like Ribena!

 

Chris

[too old to care]

Well, this explains something that has bothered me for awhile. Films such as Plus X tint the exhausted developer (Rodinal) very purple, where films such as Ilford do not. Now I know why. The first roll of Ilford that I developed, after no longer being able to get Plus X, did not tint the developer at all. I assumed that I had messed up until I saw that the negatives were ok after the fix.

[fotohuis]

It's typical for Acros 100 film. You can get rid of it by a longer wash. If you put UV light on the film it's also going away. It's a colored dye in the film.

A pre-soak is not advised at all by Fuji for their films, neither does Ilford. You can sometimes get uneven development but for most films it doesn't add anything. Only when working with a deep layer type developer (Ultra Fine Grain) e.g. CG-512 it can have advantages.

For the rest it only add an extra (unnecessary) step in the film development.