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How to Develop Color Positive Film (E6 Process)
May 27, 2020
Learn how to develop color (E6) film at home in 30 minutes with Matt Moloney. In this tutorial we'll go over the steps required for developing E6 film. How to Develop Color Film at Home (C41) https://youtu.be/W_e4AjUcZtE Find out what happen when you develop E6 film with a C-41 Process: https://filtergrade.com/what-happens-when-you-process-e-6-film-with-c-41-method/ Read about our C41 Color Film Developing Process Here: https://filtergrade.com/develop-c-41-color-film-at-home/ Follow Matt: https://www.instagram.com/matt_moloney/ Developing Process: Step 1: Wash Film for 1 minute Step 2: Developer 1 for 7.5 minutes Step 3: Wash Cycle for 2 minutes Step 4: Color Developer for 4.5 minutes
View Video Transcript
0:00
[Music]
0:02
there they are that's awesome okay
0:08
what's going on everybody we're back
0:10
with another film development tutorial
0:12
and today I'm gonna be going over the e6
0:14
process for developing color positive
0:17
film in this tutorial I'm gonna be using
0:20
some sound from my old archive bags
0:23
these are just some bags of film that I
0:27
never developed because I didn't have my
0:29
time money or I just didn't have the
0:32
right chemicals for it for this one I
0:34
have two rolls of Fuji Belleville 100
0:38
that I shot in about July 2018 and at
0:43
the time I just never had these six
0:45
chemicals I actually cross processed one
0:47
of the roles that I started on with my
0:51
c41 process that's linked in the
0:53
description but I never got to try out
0:56
actually doing the color positive don't
0:59
process so today we're gonna be going
1:00
over that with these two old rolls that
1:03
I shot so let's just go ahead and get
1:05
into the materials on in this tutorial
1:10
I'm going to be using the Arista rapid
1:14
East six color positive film process
1:16
I'll put a picture up here of the one
1:18
that I actually thought I think I got it
1:21
from freestyle photo calm around $30 for
1:25
a one quart mixture and it comes in
1:28
liquid tubes and basically what you do
1:32
is you get your water set to a specific
1:35
temperature and then you pour in your
1:37
chemicals while mixing it and
1:38
I pour each three into these amber glass
1:42
bottles so the first step is going to be
1:46
developer the next step is going to be
1:49
color developer and then the final step
1:51
is going to be blessed with washes all
1:54
in between each step and at the start
1:57
finish and the main thing for students
2:01
of color for developing color positive
2:03
film is that you're going to want to
2:04
make sure your temperatures are really
2:07
on point or else you're going to get
2:09
kind of a skewed color scheme the next
2:12
thing you're gonna need is a Paterson
2:14
developing tank which comes with the
2:17
agitation stick a light type lid and
2:19
also the the two film reels today we're
2:24
going to be developing 35 millimeter
2:26
film so we'll use these two if you want
2:29
to develop 120 film you're gonna go
2:33
ahead and just bring this apart and set
2:37
it to a medium format sizing I'm like I
2:41
said today we're gonna go ahead and do
2:42
35 millimeter film so let's go ahead and
2:47
film ready um two other things that
2:51
you're going to want to have just to
2:53
make things easier are your thermometer
2:55
and also a squeegee for film the drying
2:59
film up at the end and also some
3:02
optional things as well our gloves and a
3:05
rag as
3:07
as a funnel to get the chemicals back in
3:10
so like I said to start we're gonna do
3:13
we're gonna need to make sure
3:14
everything's at the right temperature
3:16
I'm gonna be using a developing process
3:19
where everything is set to 105 degrees
3:22
Fahrenheit so what I'll do to start is
3:26
just put my sink on as high as it can go
3:28
temperature wise and then just let these
3:31
heat up until they're at around 105
3:35
maybe even a hundred and ten for these
3:37
these two since they're at the end of
3:39
the process so let's go ahead and heat
3:41
the chemicals up B just following a risk
3:48
the company that's producing these
3:51
chemicals I'm gonna just follow their
3:53
process and for this steps that are at
3:57
all 105 degrees Fahrenheit just to make
3:59
it as quick as possible
4:00
so here's I just wrote it out to make it
4:03
a little bit easier the first step is
4:05
gonna be to wash for 60 seconds at 105
4:09
degrees Fahrenheit
4:10
the next step is gonna be the developer
4:12
one with inversion cycles every 30
4:16
seconds and that's going to be for a
4:18
total of six and a half minutes and then
4:21
after that we're gonna dump it back into
4:23
the the original chemical bottle that it
4:27
was in and then I'm gonna wash the film
4:29
out again with water at 105 degrees
4:32
Fahrenheit and I'm gonna wash it out not
4:36
too fast but I'm gonna try and just put
4:39
water in it dump it out put water in it
4:41
dump it out
4:42
in a relatively quick manner just to get
4:44
all the old chemicals out of there I'm
4:47
gonna do that about seven to ten times
4:49
the next step is going to be the color
4:52
developer which goes on for four and a
4:54
half minutes and you're gonna have the
4:56
same inversion cycles which I'll show
4:58
you while I'm doing the process every 30
5:01
seconds after that you're gonna wash it
5:03
out with the same process of seven to
5:05
ten dump cycles and then you're gonna
5:08
put your Blix in again 105 degrees
5:11
Fahrenheit for 10 minutes and you're
5:13
gonna do those same inversion cycles
5:14
once you're done with that blips you can
5:17
wash the film out for about 5-10 minutes
5:19
it doesn't really matter exactly how
5:21
long you do it you want to just make
5:23
sure all the chemicals are out and then
5:26
once everything's out we'll go ahead and
5:28
take a look at the film see what it
5:30
looks like and then hang it dry so I'm
5:32
gonna just go ahead and put my process
5:34
down over here and then let's go ahead
5:36
and start
5:37
[Music]
6:02
alright so I'm gonna go put my film on
6:06
the reels in my bathroom just turn off
6:09
all the lights make sure there's no
6:10
light coming in put them on the reels
6:12
and then I'll meet you back here to
6:13
actually start the process
6:17
[Music]
6:24
so we have our film inside of the
6:27
Paterson tank now and I'm just gonna go
6:30
ahead and make sure that the film is all
6:32
at the right temperature and if it is
6:34
I'll go ahead and get started with the
6:37
first watch again we're looking for that
6:43
105 degree fahrenheit range a few more a
6:46
few less that's okay but anything more
6:48
than five degrees off and might see some
6:52
color variations
6:55
[Music]
7:03
it's only 275 right now so it's gonna be
7:05
a little long
7:06
all right so right now the thermometers
7:11
and the first developer and I might
7:15
about a hundred degrees Fahrenheit which
7:17
means and it's been climbing so it's
7:20
about to be at the temperature we're
7:23
looking for for so for now I'm gonna go
7:25
ahead and get the water heated up to
7:28
about 105 as well just to get started
7:30
for the first walk all right so the
7:36
water is a 105 now it looks like it
7:40
might feel a little hot though
7:41
[Music]
7:43
so I'm gonna get out my phone for the
7:46
timer and go ahead and hit stopwatch and
7:51
if you hit stopwatch on the clock
7:53
tapping on iPhones and then slide to the
7:56
right you have a better trying to stop
7:58
water so the water is at 105 now so I'm
8:03
gonna go ahead and put the film under
8:08
and I'll start the timer right now once
8:16
it's full start it now
8:18
and we'll go for one minute
8:22
[Music]
8:25
go ahead and turn the water off just let
8:28
it soak a little bit not too
8:30
[Music]
8:32
so I usually let the water run for about
8:34
30 seconds and then I just let it soak
8:37
for the next 30 seconds while I keep an
8:41
eye on the temperature of the film the
8:42
chemicals spread so we're about at 45
8:46
seconds and the first developer looks
8:49
like you said it get enough temperature
8:50
so I'm going to go ahead and put my
8:52
gloves on
9:01
all right so go ahead and dump out the
9:03
water and you're gonna see kind of a
9:05
attented color that's if you leave your
9:09
water running the whole time it should
9:12
look like regular water but if you don't
9:14
then it's gonna look like a lot kind of
9:17
like bluish purple color so as you can
9:21
see this is my first developer I'm gonna
9:22
go ahead and shake it up a little bit
9:24
and this is gonna be for six and a half
9:27
minutes so I'm gonna be ending I'm
9:30
starting at one and a half so I'll be
9:32
ending at about eight minutes I'll go a
9:35
little bit later since it's gonna take
9:38
me about 15 seconds to actually flip the
9:41
chemicals in
9:46
I saw something aside and then I'm gonna
9:51
just use the agitation stick for about
9:53
15 seconds at the start and then from
9:58
there so now I'm in about two minutes
10:00
and I have about six full minutes left
10:03
and I'm gonna be doing my inversion
10:06
cycles like I had mentioned every 30
10:08
seconds so I'll show you what that looks
10:11
like in just a minute
10:16
so put the lid on just to make sure
10:20
nothing gets spilled out or anything
10:22
like that and then I usually get my
10:24
funnel so I know exactly which bottle to
10:27
put the chemicals back in so I'm at the
10:31
two minute and thirty mark and I'm gonna
10:33
go ahead and just do some inversion
10:35
cycles like this nothing too speedy just
10:38
flipping the container over while I'm
10:40
rolling it a little bit so that the
10:42
films the chemicals spread all over the
10:44
film so I'm going to do just about three
10:48
maybe four or five every 30 seconds and
10:54
then once I'm done I just hit it just to
10:57
tap all the film the chemicals off the
10:59
film and get a reset and then let this
11:02
go for another thirty seconds and then
11:04
I'll do that again I also like to make
11:08
sure that my other two chemicals are
11:11
staying at 105 degrees Fahrenheit and
11:14
and right now I'm just assuming that
11:16
they're starting to cool down a little
11:18
bit they might be getting towards 90
11:20
degrees Fahrenheit so I'm gonna just
11:22
reset the water and then I'll reheat the
11:25
chemicals to make sure they stay at 105
11:27
degrees the whole time so this is at 30
11:35
seconds again I'm going to go ahead and
11:37
do the inversion cycles
11:42
just let that water run just so that it
11:44
can heat up and then I'll throw the
11:46
bucket up
11:52
you tap the gun one thing I didn't
11:56
mention at the beginning of the video is
11:58
that for color positive film with this
12:01
specific usage process for your first
12:03
developer you're gonna want to add 30
12:06
seconds every two rolls that you develop
12:09
so I've only used this specific batch
12:11
one other time so I'm actually gonna add
12:14
30 seconds to this process just because
12:17
I've used it for two rolls already so
12:21
just make sure you keep that in mind or
12:23
else it might affect the color for the
12:26
developing time so it's at 30 seconds
12:28
again I'll go ahead and give it another
12:30
inversion cycle
12:32
[Music]
13:01
all right so we're rounding eight
13:04
minutes now and I'm gonna go ahead and
13:06
do my I might do one inversion cycle
13:10
after this book I'm gonna let it sit for
13:12
an extra 15 to 30 seconds since the
13:15
chemicals have been used before and then
13:18
I'm gonna dump them out let's just make
13:19
sure that the water is at 105 go for our
13:22
wash
13:26
so I'll do like a little baby inversion
13:29
of birth mom letting that water heat up
13:37
so I'm gonna go ahead and dump the
13:39
developer the first developer back in
13:48
[Music]
13:53
all right so go ahead and wash off your
13:56
other anything that was touching the
13:59
first developer you don't want any
14:00
cross-contamination and then I would
14:03
just go ahead and set that first bottle
14:06
aside just to get it out of the way so
14:11
the next step is gonna be the loss like
14:12
I said it's that the water is at about
14:15
100 degrees now so I'm gonna go ahead
14:17
and start that like I had said in the
14:20
beginning you're gonna want to just fill
14:22
the water fill the container up with
14:24
water about seven times and just dump it
14:28
out make sure all the the old developer
14:31
is just out of the container because you
14:33
don't want any of that in there when you
14:35
dump your next developer end
14:42
so you see it takes a little while to
14:44
get off its gonna make sure it's at the
14:47
right temperature and the next step is
14:55
going to be the color developer so just
14:58
get that bottle ready make sure you have
15:00
the right one
15:01
don't don't confuse the two bottles
15:03
that's a big problem and I've done that
15:06
before you don't want to deal with that
15:09
so this is still at 105 so that's
15:12
looking good the next step is going to
15:15
be four and a half minutes and for the
15:18
color developer and for the Flex it
15:20
doesn't matter how many times you've
15:21
used it you don't have to change the the
15:26
time the length of the time for any of
15:29
those two chemicals so that's not a
15:30
convenient so that's about good for the
15:33
wash let's go ahead and shake the
15:37
chemical or the color developer just to
15:39
make sure everything spread around and
15:41
then take a look at your timer just to
15:43
see what four and a half minutes will be
15:46
from that point I'm starting at about
15:48
eleven minutes now so I'll go until
15:53
fifteen and a half minutes maybe sixteen
15:56
minutes depending no I'll go until
15:59
fifteen and a half minutes based off
16:03
this Sun this time that I'm using right
16:07
now so again I'll use the agitation
16:13
stick I'm gonna wash that off just to
16:14
make sure use the agitation stick for
16:17
the first 57 seconds just to spread the
16:21
chemicals all around
16:23
then wash that off wash everything else
16:26
off you know how to put the funnel into
16:35
the whatever bottle is gonna be getting
16:38
the chemicals back into it that's what I
16:40
always put the funnel back into just so
16:43
I know you never want to confuse the
16:45
bottles and pour chemicals into one of
16:47
the other ones because then they're just
16:49
a waste so now that the color developers
16:52
in we're going to do this for four and a
16:54
half minutes and we're going to use
16:56
those same inversion cycles for this
16:58
process together
17:04
[Music]
17:09
all right I met 14 in the 14 minutes in
17:12
about 50 seconds right now I'm gonna do
17:14
my last inversion cycle before the color
17:16
developer and then I'm gonna pour the
17:19
chemicals back into the amber glass
17:21
bottle and then I'll do my wash so let's
17:25
just wrap this up and then I'll rinse
17:28
this off real quick let's go ahead and
17:32
get the water set to 105 again so that
17:36
it's ready for when you need to wash it
17:38
out
17:39
[Music]
17:42
we're almost at 15:30 now
17:45
[Music]
17:51
all right so we're a 15:30 let's go
17:53
ahead and dump that back
18:00
are you covered make sure all that stuff
18:08
and then let's just go ahead and start
18:11
walking it if it's at the right
18:13
temperature not feels like it is if my
18:21
thermometer so I'm gonna go ahead and
18:23
start walking you know just get it you
18:25
know
18:26
[Music]
18:32
yeah I said about 100 degrees right now
18:35
I think it's climbing to 105 let's just
18:37
get all the color developer out doesn't
18:43
look like there's any more color develop
18:45
in there
18:45
developer in there I'm gonna do one last
18:47
rinse out and then we'll put the Flex in
18:51
which is going to go for even 10 minutes
18:53
every single time let's just wash this
18:58
off one last run before we start alright
19:07
so looks like we're set
19:09
let's go ahead and shake up the blix my
19:11
timers at 17 and a half minutes so I'm
19:15
gonna do 10 minutes starting at 18
19:16
minutes so that'll end me at 28 minutes
19:20
flat on my timer
19:39
all right and I like to do the same
19:43
process with blitz first 15 seconds with
19:46
an agitation stick the manual doesn't
19:50
really say to do that but I kind of just
19:52
stay consistent with 15 seconds of
19:56
agitation for all my film developing
19:59
processes I think it does a better job
20:02
spreading all the chemicals out right
20:04
when you pour them into the powder some
20:07
think it's going to put the lid on and
20:13
then we'll do our inversion cycles every
20:16
30 seconds finally almost done and the
20:23
best part about each six color positive
20:25
film processing is that you're gonna get
20:27
to see the photos right after right when
20:30
you take to take them out of the bucket
20:31
we don't have to wait until we go scan
20:33
them or anything like that
20:34
so that's always like a super super
20:36
rewarding process and kind of super
20:39
rewarding feeling
20:41
[Music]
20:54
but with the blips I'm gonna go ahead
20:56
and dump it out and then I'm gonna wash
21:04
for five minutes just leave the water
21:06
running for five minutes straight at the
21:09
same 105 degrees Fahrenheit that's just
21:12
to get anything that's left in the
21:14
Patterson tank out so that when you go
21:16
to scan you're gonna have nice clean
21:19
clean negative or positive traffic so
21:24
I'll go ahead and leave the timer on
21:25
until about 32 minutes wash everything
21:31
off in the meanwhile
21:39
[Music]
21:44
this is a good time to just put
21:46
everything else up because you're just
21:48
gonna leave the water on anyway and then
21:55
go ahead and also get your squeegee
21:57
ready just to run this five minutes is
22:01
up that's when we get to see the photos
22:03
finally a little bit well they get into
22:16
another minute and then I'll check it
22:18
and then after that is the moment of
22:21
truth
22:24
[Music]
22:29
[Music]
22:32
Brett 32 minutes that's close enough and
22:35
I'm ready so let's just go ahead and
22:37
take a look I'm gonna just dump the
22:38
water out there they are that's awesome
22:52
you can see all of them right there as
22:55
color positives you can see the
22:58
difference they're not like color
23:00
negatives where it's a red tone and you
23:01
can't see anything that's awesome
23:10
let's go ahead and squeegee this off you
23:26
could use all different types of color
23:28
tones in this where you get some light
23:30
behind it as well even got a selfie in
23:32
there right there that's awesome some
23:44
photos at the beach
23:45
okay let's hang this dry and then we'll
23:48
take a look at the Nashville oh well
23:55
these are looking cool and some light
24:00
leaks and some burns on this Rolla - I
24:03
don't know I don't remember exactly what
24:05
I was shooting at the time but this
24:06
looks pretty cool maybe it got exposed
24:11
there's some porches here yeah it looks
24:15
like the camera got a little bit exposed
24:16
right here and then at the bottom
24:20
there's some there's some better
24:22
exposures looks like in the city before
24:27
coronavirus alright let's go ahead and
24:31
hang these dry
24:34
[Music]
24:39
all right so I just finished up my East
24:42
set developing process the film is in
24:44
the bathroom hanging up dry right now
24:45
I'm gonna go ahead and just wrap this up
24:48
here and then I'll show some of the
24:50
scans once I'm done but I hope you
24:53
enjoyed the film process if you have any
24:55
questions feel free to leave a comment
24:57
below or reach out to me on instagram at
24:59
matt underscore Moloney I hope you
25:02
enjoyed and peace out
25:09
[Music]
25:46
[Music]
26:00
[Music]
26:08
you