Strange Sepia Tone

[Greg McCary]

I had this scan come back from the lab with a sepia look to it. Looking at the negatives I don't see how it could have been my developing that caused it. I developed it with Tmax. Other negatives have came back fine. Is it a lab problem? Even with the strange tones to it it is a fairly popular picture. I guess sometimes a mistake can turn out well. I am just curious as to how the scans came back like this?

[Xia_Ke]

Hi Greg Correct me if I'm wrong but, I think you told me before the place that scans your negatives does so in color and not monochrome correct? Without knowing more about your development process, my guess would be that your film was not thoroughly fixed. What fixer are you using and for how long? I'm assuming this same tone is spread over the entire roll and not just the one frame?

[walterick]

If the other pics on the roll come back the same, but scans from other rolls come back fine, then its probably your developing. I don't know enough about b&w developing to say, but I suppose its possible that something you did caused a tone.

But another part of my brain is saying that black and white fim shouldn't have a color tone so it must be their scanning. Was it a pro lab?

[Greg McCary]

If the other pics on the roll come back the same, but scans from other rolls come back fine, then its probably your developing. I don't know enough about b&w developing to say, but I suppose its possible that something you did caused a tone.

But another part of my brain is saying that black and white fim shouldn't have a color tone so it must be their scanning. Was it a pro lab?

It was the Wal-Mart. I am wondering if thier scanner was set up for color? The whole roll came out this way. Other rolls that I have had scanned were fine.

[photophorous]

It was the Wal-Mart. I am wondering if thier scanner was set up for color? The whole roll came out this way. Other rolls that I have had scanned were fine.

I think it's the scanning. You'll have to look at your negatives to tell for sure, but that's what it looks like to me. A lot of people think you should scan B&W film in color mode, and then desaturate in photoshop. Or it could just be a lab operator that didn't know the settings should be changed. Doesn't matter much either way, because you can just desaturate. When I scan at home I get variations of warm colors like this.

Paul

[Xia_Ke]

Greg, I was reading through some Kodak Tech-Pubs tonight and stumbled across this:

IMPORTANT: With KODAK PROFESSIONAL T-MAX Films, fixer will be exhausted more rapidly than with other films. If negatives show a magenta (pink) stain after fixing, fixer may be near exhaustion, or fixing time is too short. If the stain is pronounced and irregular, refix the film in fresh fixer.

This backs up my theory about not being a thorough fix. CLICK HERE for the tech pub if you want to read more about Kodak's recommended times for all development steps. What fixer are you using again? How long did you fix this roll for and do you reuse your fixer?

[Greg McCary]

Paul, Aaron. I hope to have a scanner soon and I can do everything at home. I also will try and keep fresh fixer. I usally only use it twice before I mix up a new batch.

[another view]

The neg probably has a little bit of a blueish/purpleish color cast to it, so when it was inverted from a negative to a positive it came out with this color cast. Not uncommon, and this is the reason so many labs have a hard time printing the C41 b&w films. You could either just convert to greyscale in Photoshop or use the "channel mixer method" to remove the color from it.

[Xia_Ke]

Good point a_v. I had forgotten all about that. If it had a pink cast before being scanned as a color negative, it wouldn't show up as pink afterwards. DOH!