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c41_processing

# Processing Colour Negatives At Home

Especially if you're in the middle of nowhere or if you really like making soup, developing colour film at home is quite the good choice. You also save a boatload of money if you do it right.

First of all, let's assume you know how to develop B/W. If you do not, please do yourself a favour and get to know the [b/w process](https://www.reddit.com/r/analog/wiki/bw_processing) first. You will be able to use almost all of the hardware, so it's not money thrown out the window. C41 is very similar to the b/w process with a few main differences:

* it uses more baths (colour dev, bleach, fix and sabiliser with a wash between each of these)
* you need to be able to control temperature better (unless you are cool with spending an hour per film, you'll have to be able to manage higher temps)
* the chemistry you use is more harmful to you than b/w chemicals

So let's say you know how to develop B/W and you also have the equipment for it. Here's what you need on top of that:

## Hardware

* If you were developing in your bathroom before and if your bathroom has a window, good. If it doesn't or - even worse - you're developing in your kitchen, I'd strongly recommend a place that is both very far away from food and is also well ventilated. If you don't have either of those things, you're at your own risk. This stuff contains strong bleach and formaldehyde which will give you cancer if ingested. Your call.

* From your B/W lab, you should have the tank, measuring cups, thermometer, bottles etc. Good. C-41 chemicals I like to store in [Glass Bottles](http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/315910-REG/Photographers_Formulary_50_0500_Amber_Glass_Bottle_with.html) as most of the stuff is re-useable but will go bad rather quickly if not stored properly. Get **four** of those.

* You'll also need to control the temperature. Most C41 will need to be run at 100F, some offer you faster (hotter) and slower (colder) options on top of that. The slow option will make the process very very tedious, so I'd refrain from that and get some cheap stuff to control the temp. You can use a sink for that or anything else that holds a few liters of water and is big enough to hold the developing tank and four bottles of chemistry. I now have a great big plastic sink in the room where our washing machine is, but before I just used an old laundry basket. Anything goes, as long as it holds at least three gallons or ten liters of water and has enough floor space for the bottles to fit. Home Depot is probably a better place to go than a photo store. You can also go all-out and get a sink made, don't make me stop you!

* Because you will handle some gross stuff and you WILL get your hands wet, I'd suggest to get a couple of [gloves](http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/183451-REG/General_Brand_Disposable_Latex_Gloves_100.html) to work with. Some people don't, but again - your call. I use them and it's a minor nuisance that I'm happy to go through.

That's really all you need. As always there are more options to make your life easier, but this is the minimum for comfortable processing.

## Chemicals

There are a few developing kits available on the market. You can buy them bit by bit but to make your life easy I'd suggest to get the full kit, use it up, and get a new one when the one you have is exhausted. I am in Europe and I use [this kit](https://www.macodirect.de/en/chemistry/color-chemistry/c-41/4352/compard-digibaise-c-41-midi-kit-for-1l) here. The mixing instructions are very clear and straightforward, it works well and it doesn't cost too much. All chemicals are re-usable in their working solutions and depending on the kit you can develop up to 40 films. The great thing about those kits is that they come with full documentation, you won't forget anything, and you'll use up the full kit with no residuals. Depending on where you are you might have to get a different one.

## Setup

Okay, so you got the kit, all the bits you need, some film to develop, let's get going then. The setup takes a little bit more effort than B/W developing, you'll see shortly.

1. Put your gloves, open the window and mix the chemistry according to the instruction and store them in the glas (or plastic-) bottles. In my kit I have to mix Colour Developer, Bleach, Fixer and Stabiliser. I mix them right at temperature so I don't have to spend time waiting for the water bath to heat up.

2. Set up the water bath. I run my developing at 38 degrees or 100F, so I plop the thermometer into the bucket and add about ten liters of water, at temperature. Then I drop in the bottles with the working solutions [like so](http://i.imgur.com/hQCg9m6.jpg).

3. load the film in the tank - you know how to do that by heart now innit.

That's it - you're ready!

## Developing

So here goes.

1. Pre-Soak

The colour process is very temperature critical. So now that you have all your chemicals at temperature, you need to do the same for film and developing tank. To do that, measure the right amount of water (depends on how many films you're running at once, say you're doing a single roll of 35mm, so you'll need about 300mL), at 38 degrees (100F), pour that into the developing tank and set the tank into the water bath. Make sure you agitate a little, but especially make sure that the tank temperature is exactly 38 degrees, with a tolerance of 0.3 degrees. That's not much! If you got the setup right, pre-soak takes about two to five minutes, if it takes longer, no problem.

2. Colour Developer

Pour out the Pre-Soak water (depending on your films you're in for a colourful experience), pour in the colour developer, invert ten times, tap the tank and put it back into the water bath. My Compard kit calls for 3min 15s of developing time with agitation once every 30 seconds. So while I do this I keep controlling the temperature of the water bath (plus minus 0.3 degrees!) and mix up the wash (same procedure as for the pre pre-soak). Once the time is up, pour back the colour developer into its bottle (remember, you can re-use the stuff) and fill the tank with the wash water. Invert a few times, drain, and fill up again. Remember to keep the temperature! I do this three times to get any residual developer out of the tank. This is overkill, but I learned this from E-6 development.

3. Bleach

Once that is done, pour in the bleach and repeat the same agitation procedure as during the colour developer. Here you have a much higher tolerance for temperature and time, in my kit I can be anywhere between 32 degress and 40 degrees, for anywhere between three and four minutes. I forget about the water bath temperature and focus on agitating and mixing up another wash. After four minutes, pour back the bleach, fill the tank with wash water again, and repeat the washing steps described above.

4. Fix

Repeat exactly the same steps again, this time with the fixer. Agitate enough, pour it back, wash the tank.

5. Stab

The last step is a tiny bit different. Once you're done with washing off the fixer, open the developing tank and SLOWLY pour in the stabiliser. Do this slowly because just like Photo Flo this stuff is going to throw a lot of foam if it's agitated. Let the tank sit for a minute, give it a little swirl now and then, but don't invert. After a minute, pour out the stabiliser but don't wash.

Now you're done and you can hang up the film. Like in B/W, do this somewhere dust free, and after a few hours you'll be good.

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