processing e-6 in tetenal, No image!

[Steve M Hostetter]

Hello, I got me some Tetenal e-6 chemicals from Freestyle and I'm using it as a 3 bath process. I am mixing according to the bottle instrutions and going by the times in the book that came with it.
There is no image at all just clear sheet of plastic staring back..! Could the chems be bad or am I screwing it up?
thx
steve

[Jakelovesphoto]

Are you remembering to re-expose it?

[Steve M Hostetter]

Ok, I think I was doing step 3 second.. testing

[Steve M Hostetter]

Re-expose? Pre-soak?

[Jakelovesphoto]

After you bleach, and clear with hypo clear or just rinse it a ton, you have to take the film right out in the light and expose it for 3-5 minutes. Artificial light, the sun is too much. Then you redevelop and fix.

The process is:
Develop
Bleach
Hypo-Clear
Re-expose
Redevelop
Fix

[Steve M Hostetter]

the bleach and fix are mixed together

[Jakelovesphoto]

I've never done slide film with Blix. Seems I'll be of no more help Sorry.

[Steve M Hostetter]

Thx anyway :)!

[jbenedict]

Call Freestyle in the morning.

[Bob Salomon]

Just to be sure, it was exposed film that you developed?

[richardman]

Re-exposed slide films?! Learn something new everyday? Wait, even when I was using Kodak 6-bath, it never asks for re-exposed. Are you sure you are talking about E-6 process?

I used up liters of stuff, never had a problem. Operator error is most likely... Like Bob said, are you sure they are exposed film?

[Steve M Hostetter]

I got it figured out, I had my chems mixed up.. I used the bleach/fix second and the color developer last instead of the other way around.. :) I got one more question though????
I'm gonna re-use the chems more then once, how much time do I add each time I re-use and how many times can I re-use them before disguarding??

[Steve M Hostetter]

By the way I don't think you can re-expose your image without fixing it because you'd lose it .. I know I did it with paper once! :/

[Bob Salomon]

I got it figured out, I had my chems mixed up.. I used the bleach/fix second and the color developer last instead of the other way around.. :) I got one more question though????
I'm gonna re-use the chems more then once, how much time do I add each time I re-use and how many times can I re-use them before disguarding??

Can the chemistry be replenished?

[Steve M Hostetter]

Bob, it says it can but whats that mean and would you even do it?

[richardman]

For the C41 Chemical, they publish a re-use chart, but I don't think they ever did one for E-6. I'm pretty sure with the Kodak 6 bath (no longer available), you can reuse and replenish with extended time, but I'm not sure if that's viable for the 3-bath kit.

Tetenal warns about the precise mixture of the color dev, so I'm not how good an idea is it to replenish.

[richardman]

OK< I did some googling, and I'm sure the reference to re-expose must be if one is to cross process!! not straight forward E-6 with transparency film.

[vinny]

just follow the instructions.
re-exposure isn't necessary and I don't know why someone would recommend it. it would be necessary if doing b+w slides if you weren't doing chemical "re-exposure".

[Bob Salomon]

Bob, it says it can but whats that mean and would you even do it?

It means adding an amount of the replenished to the used chemistry after a recommended number of rolls to keep the chemistry at full strength.

[Gabriele Campagnano]

Tetenal e6 is not supposed to be replenished. BTW do you see any letters at the edge of the frame?
There is no need to re expose as this step is done chemically in the process.
Did you have the right temperature?

Gabriele

[Steve M Hostetter]

Gabriele, everything is spot on it was my user error .. I have since ran 10-8x10" transparentcies and I am very pleased with the results!!

This is a great experience for me being the first time to use the 3 bath system. So much easier then the 7 steps I done before! I have about 400+ 8x10" films that I bought and shot up from ebay and this forum over the years (last 7+) and just put them in the freezer till I could afford to process.. Well I know, not the best way to shoot and process but I did bracket exposures and it seems to have paid off for me :)
Is there an 8x10" transparency thread on here?? :)

PS.. I hope to post some soon but please don't expect me to know what cam and lenses I used because as of right now I don't think that will be near posible.. I must say this is very strange but wonderful experience because I have to recolection of taking most of these and the locations are a blur.. fun stuff!

[polyglot]

While there is nominally a re-exposure step, that's typically performed chemically rather than optically. It's called the "reversal bath" and it happens between first develop and colour developer. It activates all the unexposed (and therefore undeveloped by first dev) halides in the film, ready for the CD step. In other words it forms the negative of the negative image, ready for the CD step to convert that to a positive dye image.

I take it you've figured your problem out now, but transparent results imply that there was no activated halide in the film when the colour developer was applied, therefore no dyes were formed. Either you missed the reversal step or CD step or bleached or fixed before the CD.

There's an all-about-E6 section in my FAQ (link in signature) which might be worth reading for all those here who seem a little confused about what the steps are and why.

[Jakelovesphoto]

Re-exposed slide films?! Learn something new everyday? Wait, even when I was using Kodak 6-bath, it never asks for re-exposed. Are you sure you are talking about E-6 process?

I do apologize about that, I only do BW slides and I made the mistake of assuming it was similar. My bad.

[Steve M Hostetter]

Jake, it's totally fine and I appreciate you taking the time to talk to me..:) Poly, I was doing the bleach fix before the color developer and how I got it turned around I couldn't say because I know the fix comes last.. I do believe that the reversal bath is mixed with the color developer in this case..

[richardman]

I do apologize about that, I only do BW slides and I made the mistake of assuming it was similar. My bad.

Cool. I actually would like to play with B&W reversal processing at some point, but it seems kind of complicated XD

[polyglot]

I do believe that the reversal bath is mixed with the color developer in this case..

Yep.

[alexn]

I have reused chems from the tetenal kit 3 times without problems, 4 runs on one mix of chems your results start to get a bit... funky... I never read anything about adding extra time for chemical exhaustion however I always went with a small 10% time increase per re-use on the first developer and colour developer... the blix, if you add extra time, your blacks become muddy browns, however your shadow density is lessened, so if you can correct the colour shift in the shadows, it never hurts to go a little longer on the blix.

[StoneNYC]

I'm actually really surprised that the developer is any good anymore, since you used it last in the beginning, it must have been at least slightly contaminated by the bleach / fix and I would have thought that this would have ruined the developer.

Glad it wasn't ruined.

And yes "back in the day" they used to re-expose the film, but since then they have been able to do it chemically instead.

[gliderbee]

I got it figured out, I had my chems mixed up.. I used the bleach/fix second and the color developer last instead of the other way around.. :) I got one more question though????
I'm gonna re-use the chems more then once, how much time do I add each time I re-use and how many times can I re-use them before disguarding??

Somewhere on this forum, I posted the answer I received directly from Tetanal. It should be easy to find with the search function.

regards,
Stefan

[Corran]

Stone, the Tetenal kit instructions say to have a wash in between each step, so it's understandable that he had no contamination.

I also use the Tetenal kit, the 5L one. I mix it in 2.5L batches in Jobo bottles. I use a 2.5L set for tanks that just cover 4x5 (in an HP CombiPlan holder) and dip 'n' dunk. Each batch lasts about 3 months. I've done a lot of film within these 3 months, much more than they "recommend."

I had a problem with black specks/marks/weirdness but I finally isolated that to my water bath that I was using to also rinse. I have a separate rinse tank and now I am all good.

[StoneNYC]

Stone, the Tetenal kit instructions say to have a wash in between each step, so it's understandable that he had no contamination.

I also use the Tetenal kit, the 5L one. I mix it in 2.5L batches in Jobo bottles. I use a 2.5L set for tanks that just cover 4x5 (in an HP CombiPlan holder) and dip 'n' dunk. Each batch lasts about 3 months. I've done a lot of film within these 3 months, much more than they "recommend."

I had a problem with black specks/marks/weirdness but I finally isolated that to my water bath that I was using to also rinse. I have a separate rinse tank and now I am all good.

Yes I realize about the rinse but I was under the impression that even a little would contaminate it, and any wash will most likely have small amounts left. But I'm glad it's not as sensitive as I thought.

I may have to try the Tentenal kit, I just need a JOBO machine that will hold my 3000 series tanks, at a fraction of the cost haha

[richardman]

With a Job 2509 reel and tank, it costs ~$1 of Tentenal E-6 per sheet. Since each sheet of Provia is about $4, it brings the total to $5 per sheet. I would rather not risk color weirdness or other things and just use the chemical one shot.

[Michael Roberts]

Gabriele, everything is spot on it was my user error .. I have since ran 10-8x10" transparentcies and I am very pleased with the results!!

This is a great experience for me being the first time to use the 3 bath system. So much easier then the 7 steps I done before! I have about 400+ 8x10" films that I bought and shot up from ebay and this forum over the years (last 7+) and just put them in the freezer till I could afford to process.. Well I know, not the best way to shoot and process but I did bracket exposures and it seems to have paid off for me :)
Is there an 8x10" transparency thread on here?? :)

PS.. I hope to post some soon but please don't expect me to know what cam and lenses I used because as of right now I don't think that will be near possible.. I must say this is very strange but wonderful experience because I have to recolection of taking most of these and the locations are a blur.. fun stuff!

Steve, thanks for starting this thread. I have also been stockpiling exposed film until I have time to start processing. I've got 200+ b&w sheets and 25+ trannies. I will need to use Tetenal going forward, so I'm glad to learn from your experience.

[Steve M Hostetter]

Awesome Michael, hope to see some pics :)

[Steve M Hostetter]

richard, could could say I am risking $4.00 to see if I can save $120.00

[richardman]

Ha ha, well, yes, for testing I suppose you are right, but when I am shooting for "real," I don't want to second guess if somehow I make a mistake to not rinsing enough to avoid contamination or if the chemical is still good etc.

[Steve M Hostetter]

My Jobo just went out of service:( No problem though I have a frying skillet that I fill with water up half way and put her on warm setting.. Then I popped out the uniroller and a thermostat and walla works like a charm!! Just for those folks that think they need a fancy Jobo thingy

PS
God bless to everyone that responded to my thread!! :)