The Emulsion Lament
October 25th, 2007 by Al Wortham
I miss film and knowing everything about it. Okay, I knew a lot about a little…anyway, it was fun to study or just experiment with how various film reacted to light, chemistry and the calculated manipulation of both. Certain films had specific characteristics especially, the different films of the two main brands Kodak and Fuji. Very valuable information back in the day and now of no consequence in the digital age.
So begins the lament, provided that you haven’t stopped reading this which would mean that you are still reading this and this and this and… Whoa…I just woke myself up.
Learning the specific characteristics of Kodak, Fuji and even lessor known brands like Aftra films made me very good and valuable at my job and fueled my passion for my then immersion into photography. Yeah, I just patted myself on the back and smacked my ass saying you da man. I worked 30 hours a week at a professional photo lab and was enrolled in photography full time as well as working as a photo assistant periodically and working freelance for the school newspaper. That just prompted some warm nostalgic feelings. Forgive the drooling reminiscent tone but damn those days were exciting and memorable.
Kodak’s film characteristics were a little magenta. And if you pushed the film, especially slide (E-6) film in the chemistry it would start to go really magenta after about 1/2 stop. Fuji was a bit on the green side for negatives but there slide film Provia RDPIII was awesome. You could push it in the chemistry up to 1 1/2 stops before there was a noticeable difference in the natural colors on the film. This could be a life saver if you are shooting something and for whatever reason your light meter reading and/or assistant mis-read the exposure by a stop, you could push it in the chemistry 1 stop and another 1/2 stop if that wasn’t enough and still maintain the color integrity of what was intended, not to mention that the grain structure would also hold damn well against this strain.
You still there? Get us another beer wouldya.
Quick lesson if you don’t know: pushing and pulling films are terms used in a lab during post production. If you push the film you increase the exposure on the film as well as time in the chemistry. Hence, pulling film is the opposite. Your are trying to remove some exposure/overexposure from the film when pulling. Film reacts more drastically in terms of color shifts when pushing film than pulling it. Also, grain is increased the longer the film is exposed to the chemistry, etc.
My favorite thing to figure out was how different films reacted when cross processing them. If you don’t know, all negative film is C-41 which is the lab or professional reference and E-6 is the reference for all positive or slide film. Now, each of these has a very specific and different type of chemistry and process including temperature for developing. You develop a negative and you still have to print it on paper to see the positive image or photograph. A slide on the other hand is a positive image and once developed you, in affect, have your picture. Going back to my aforementioned favorite, if you take pictures using positive or slide film (E-6) and process it in negative (C-41) chemistry that is called a cross-processing. And yes, it’s called the same for going the other way - negative film C-41 developed in positive E-6 chemistry.
Without visual examples you will have to take my word for it when I say that when you figured out how different films reacted, and/or didn’t react. Cross-processing film would create photographs with a texture, vibrancy and mood that was so much fun to play with. A fun example is one photograph I took while hanging out in New York with my friends. The printed photograph looked like it was painted. It was a relatively calculated event. I knew that by shooting and then cross processing Kodak EPP (E-6) film in negative chemistry that the finished photograph should have an overall cyan hue, with saturated colors and more than normal grain. I had also remembered a photographer that shot for Billabong had mentioned to me that they did a few campaigns with this idea and that they used hot lights as the light source. If you don’t know, hot lights or any incandescent light is yellowish-red or warm in color temperature. For whatever reason, this made colors pop with the aforementioned process. Meanwhile, back in New York, I’m looking at the Brooklyn skyline from Manhattan totally front lit by the sun on a clear spring day at dusk. My calculated and educated guess ended up producing one of mine and my friend’s favorite photographs for quite some time and people still see it and think that it was manipulated somehow. Well, it was…by film, chemistry and a warm evening sun.