Ektachrome As A Negative

by Ted Peterson
There are several problems associated with the use of negative film for making color and black and white prints. These include:
1. Film speed. If low light situations exist, the ASA speed of negative materials become a serious limitation.
2.Grain. If a 35mm negative is blown up to over 10" X 12" or larger, the grain becomes a serious degradation to the image. If you blow up part of a 35mm film to any thing over 8"X10" it become unacceptable. Image sharpness is lost, and the grain size become noticeable and objectionable. Some of the new negative films are getting better.
3. Ability to make black and white prints from the negative The use of special paper is one way, but it must be developed in darkness. The orange mask in the film will not let you use most of the black and white paper.
4.Contrast. Negatives taken on overcast days may lack the contrast necessary to make a good quality print, and those taken in the sun may have too much contrast to retain both highlight and shadow in the prints.
All these can be overcome by using Ektachrome developed to a negative using a modified negative developing system.
The grain of Ektachrome is almost completely undetectable. It is no problem making 16"X20" or larger prints from a 35mm negative. We had one member of our club that made a 20"X30" print from a part of a 35mm film and you could not see any grain.
Film speed-High Speed (400 ASA) Ektachrome can be used at speeds up to ASA 1000 or more.
Contrast can be readily controlled at the time the negative is developed.
Excellent black and white prints can be made on any standard black and white paper.
How to do all this? Develop your own negatives. No lab will develope Ektachrome as a negative. After you develope a roll of Ektachrome in negative developers you cannot use that developer to develope negative film again. You can use developers that has been used in developing negative film for developing Ektachrome.
If no contrast control agent is used, the negatives may be a little too contrasty to make a print that you think is a good print. The agent that is used is citrazinic acid used with NaOL to retain the alkaline balance of the developer. As citrazinic acid is hard to get we have not used it in Portland. We control the contrast by cutting down the time the film is in the developer.
The negative process is used as specified in the instructions except for changes in the development time and the addition of a rinse after the first development. At the end of the development, pour out the developer and fill the tank with water. Pour out the water after one minute and resume the process with the next step.
To use the posted speed of the film, use about 2/3 normal posted time for the development time. For 2 times the rated speed increase the time to about 1 1/4 posted time. Try different times. If the contrast is too much, cut down the time some.
Some people do not like to take pictures of people because the contrast may be too great. If you do it right you should not have any trouble about the contrast.
You should remember a base color of some item in the picture. If not, because you do not have the orange mask the film will not know what the base color is. We had a flower that we did not tell the members what the base color of the flower was and at the next meeting the members came back with pictures with all different colors even though we gave them ALL the same negative.
With a clear base negative you will be able to use any type of black and white paper and any grade.
Go ahead and try this. You may not like what comes out or it may be too much trouble. You will have to make all your print from now on as no lab will be able to print color prints. When you print it, you use color fillers to make up the orange mask, OR you take a blank color negative film and develope it so that you can place a blank developed color film with you Ektachrome negative.
Let me know what you think about this. Send to Ted Peterson 8686 SW Oak St. Portland, OR 97223-5814.
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