E6 PROCESSING FAULT CHART

From Rita & Major Pearle (Area 13).

You have just come back from a really marvellous holiday with several rolls of exposed film, which contains unrepeatable shots that you are sure will knock spots off anything you have ever done before. These must be processed to bring out all the beautiful colours of that wonderful day out at the beach and the romantic sunset that you will never forget. This time there will be no careless mistakes, and all the properly exposed and carefully composed pictures will be revealed to cries of "Oh, how lovely" from the family. So before you start making up the chemistry - the films are carefully stowed away in an air-tight box in the fridge; you have checked the supply of chemicals needed and tested the scales to make sure they balance - empty; and they are not near an open window where a draught could upset the delicate measurements. Get out the the formula and make sure you have all the carefully made up percentage solutions ready - just so that you don`t discover half way through making up the First Developer that there isn`t enough 10% Sodium Bromide left and you will either have to use up the 20% solution at the back of the shelf or worse still make up a 10% solution of Potassium Bromide and calculate the difference in the amount required (see notes at end). Do you use distilled water to make up the solutions with? It depends on your tap water supply, and the availability of distilled water - but it is probably better to use distilled water or ionized.

Measure the amount required and warm it gently in it`s container while you weigh out the first item in the formula. Don`t forget the liquid measuring devices graduates, small syringes marked in 10ths of a ml and small medicine dose cups to pour the liquid to be measured into. Off you go - clean bottle ready to receive the finished 1st developer - all labelled and with a nice tight fitting lid. Put it to one side and start on the next item - and so on until you have a complete set all numbered.

Now you can relax until next day to let them all settle down. Next day you have to warm them all up to 27C in order to check the pH`s. This takes some time, and when they have all been adjusted either up or down using Hydroxide for up and acid for down, then you can start increasing the temperature until they reach the processing temperature of 38C. While they are warming up you have retrieved your films from the fridge and they are warming up too - but hang on a minute! you aren`t going to trust all those smashing pictures to untried chemistry without a test of some sort are you? Out with the camera and expose three shots of a test chart; preferably in diffused daylight; one using the exposure of a stop below the rating of the film, one at the given A.S.A. and one at a stop higher. This way when the test is completed you can see which chart looks the nearest to the original and tell whether your camera is under or over-exposing the film slightly. Right - how is the temperature of the water bath that is warming your chemistry a couple of degrees up on 38C? That`s fine - measure the temperature in the first developer bottle - it should be a little bit up on 38C.

You now have your short test piece of film loaded onto a spiral and inside a small tank and off we go...... Don`t forget to warm the tank + film in the water bath before you start, but keep the lid on. Processing times and method are all included in the formula and after a very busy 38 minutes or so you can wash your bit of film and dry it with the hair drier before you can see what the results look like. Pay careful attention to the neutral grey part of the chart pictures - and to the white part and the black. Is the black nice and dense without any colour cast when you hold it up to the light source? Is the white nice and clear not muddy? Does the grey look neutral? If the answer to these three questions is "yes" then you can load all those lovely films on to spirals and off you go. If you have enough spirals do them all together and throw the chemistry away - one shot processing - but that`s up to you. If the answer to your three questions is "no" then you`re in trouble - you have to sort out the problem before you can process your holiday pictures. If the test chart comes out with white squares "A bit pinky" then all your lovely holiday pictures will have little pinky clouds too so you have to be very critical at this stage and find out what is wrong. So here is a list of possible gremlins that could wreck your pictures and what to do about it.....

E6 PROCESSING FAULT CHART

YOUR PICTURES ARE POSSIBLE CAUSE WHAT TO DO ABOUT IT

Very thin and pale Time in 1st dev. too Check timer & pour quicker long. Temp in 1st Dev. Check Thermometer. too high. Too much Try adding 1gm of CD3. Citrazinic acid in CD. Check % solution. Too little Iodide in 1st Dev. Rinse between reversal and Col. Dev.

Too Dark and dense Time in 1st Dev. too short Check timer & wash well. Temp in 1st Dev. too low. See if tank is cooling Too little Citrazinic Acid while processing. in Col, Dev. Add «gm to Col. Dev.

Reddish blacks Col. Dev. is old or cold. Warm it up a bit or scrap. Bleach not aerated enough. Aerate bleach 1 hour. Red fogging by stray light. Check d/room for LED`s.

Magenta Cast pH of Col. Dev. too low. Re-check pH. Contamination.

Blue Cast Over development in 1st Dev. pH of Col. DEv. too high. Re-check pH. Reversal agitation too much. Agitate for 1st 15secs only. Col. Dev. Temp. too high. Check temp. in bottle.

Yellow Cast pH of Col. Dev. too high. Re-check pH. Col. Dev. temp. too low.

Green Cast Reversal bath exhausted replace reversal bath or oxidised. or reduce agitation. pH of Col. Dev. too low. Re-check pH.

Red Cast Inadequate aeration of bleach. Aerate both. Inadequate aeration of fixer. 1st wash temp. too high. Check water temp.

Bronzey Dark areas pH of bleach too high. Reduce pH.

Muddy highlights Thiocyanate in 1st Dev. Check solution for inactive. extra water. (see notes).

N O T E S

Thiocyanate and other chemicals absorb water from the air and should be made up into percentage solutions as soon as possible after purchase. To make slides more contrasty keep the amount of CD3 in Col. Dev. as formula but reduce Citrazinic Acid by 0.5gm. To substitute Potassium for Sodium salts or vice versa. - if a formula calls for 2gms of Potassium Bromide, use 103/119 x 2 = 2.31gms of Sodium Bromide OR if a formula calls for 2gms of Sodium Bromide, use 119/103 x 2 = 2.31gms of Potassium Bromide. This refers to small substitutions only up to 5gms. Aeration of bleach is important because the Ferrous EDTA which is an inactive bleaching agent reverts to the active form Ferric EDTA in the presence of oxygen.