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Film Acceleration


grant mcphee

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There's an esoteric film processing technique called 'film acceleration' I've been reading about.

 

It seems to involve shooting colour reversal, underexposing by 2 stops then developing in a B+W negative developer such as D76. Then, after being exposed to light processed normal in a colour neg developer like C41 (or ECN2?). i.e. developed twice.

 

The results from stills I've seen are completely bizarre but very interesting.

 

I was wondering if anyone had tried it with movie film?

 

I'm going to have a bash next week with some 7280 and processing it myself at home (d76 + C41) but was hoping someone would have tried it in a professional film lab with decent telecine, or if it has been used in any films.

 

Would be interesting to find out what experiences people have had with this, stills or movie

 

thanks.

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Really cool looking stuff. I cross process a lot and I pretty much always push because I like the look better. This is even closer to what I'd like! The problem is that it's not an easy process. I read that article and it's a bunch of work just to get the film ready for the lab....if they'll even do it. Maybe someday I'll try it, but not this week.

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sounds like... what is it called? ENR process? cant remember what it is called but something i practice and alter often with handprocessing motion picture film.

i usually process 16mm reversal or neg film in c-41 first. it provides really nice, in my opinion, high contrast overly saturated images along with the normal hand-processed look.

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If you're using D-19 as the first developer, which accounts for effective film speed, that'd probably boost the level of push process up to at least 3 1/2 stops over the rated ISO.

 

IIRC, D-19 produces higher grain, and about two stops more speed than D-76 development with your standard B&W films, which may (just speculation here, of course, I've never done acceleration processing) make it too much for this process.

 

I'm taking a class right now for which I am trying to get more acquainted with slide film (I shoot almost exclusively C-41 for professional still photography jobs I shoot), so I'm going to give it a try as well on my next roll of E-6, might be well-suited to an upcoming project to set my stuff apart from the slew of digital cameras and photoshop immitations that seem to predominate any still-photography creative discussions these days. This, on the contrary, seems to be right up my alley.

 

Please post samples and experiences you have, John, so you can make all of the mistakes with your roll and I can have all of the success with mine! ;-)

 

Regards,

 

~KB

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The normal reversal processing involves:

 

BW developer (such as D19 or D76 or whatever);

 

Re-expose

 

Color developer (based on CD3, generally used in paper development RA-4)

 

belach/fix

 

 

THat's the conventional E6.

 

You can also use c41 based chem, the difference is that the developer is based on cd4, so, bw dev, re-exp, c41 dev, c41 bleach/fix.

 

Actually, I just had a burst of excitement and I'll try this this weekend...

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  • 1 year later...
That's the cooles thing since holga/lomo cameras.

 

My favourite.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/alextoevs/292...reataccelerate/

 

learn how to develop super 8 this way i must.

may the colour be with you.

 

 

Not sure why my link disappeared.

 

http://www.flickr.com/photos/33094657@N08/...57610860482304/

 

All of my first attempts had a really strong cyan cast in the negative, making the positive really red. I don't really understand why but maybe Karl does?

 

I think the problem, at least the problem I have had doing this with super 8 is super thin negatives. It is really difficult to get anything off it. Perhaps a bit more experimenting to get them a little thicker is probably worth trying. Probably best to experiment with 16mm reversal

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Not sure why my link disappeared.

 

http://www.flickr.com/photos/33094657@N08/...57610860482304/

 

All of my first attempts had a really strong cyan cast in the negative, making the positive really red. I don't really understand why but maybe Karl does?

 

I think the problem, at least the problem I have had doing this with super 8 is super thin negatives. It is really difficult to get anything off it. Perhaps a bit more experimenting to get them a little thicker is probably worth trying. Probably best to experiment with 16mm reversal

 

 

Grant,

Your link on flickr includes a pic of tree, rather beautiful stuff, but you say, experimented with developing in "coffee"?

I suppose you only refer to the effect you got, not that you actually used coffee as a dye in the process.

lovely stuff anyway.

 

wolfgang

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Grant,

Your link on flickr includes a pic of tree, rather beautiful stuff, but you say, experimented with developing in "coffee"?

I suppose you only refer to the effect you got, not that you actually used coffee as a dye in the process.

lovely stuff anyway.

 

wolfgang

 

It's "Caffenol" developer.

 

Arm & Hammer Washing Soda, Folgers Instant Coffee and water. Add ascorbic acid powder to reduce staining from the coffee. :)

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