I’ve been home-developing all my film for the past few months. I’ve changed black & white developers and techniques a couple of times, still searching for the ideal recipe, but with respect to color, I think I’ve found my Nirvana. I’m using the Tetenal kit, processing using a technique called “bleach bypass“. It’s pretty self-explanatory, so I’ll let you read about it on Wikipedia if you want more information.
So here are the variations on the theme that I’ve done, along with examples.
BLEACH BYPASS I: BEACH BYPASS
Agfa Vista Plus 200 rated at 400
3:15 develop at 100°F
0:30 blix 100F
5:00 fix (Ilford rapidfix) RT
1:00 stab RT
Conclusion: awesome.
BLEACH BYPASS II: SON OF A BEACH
Agfa Vista Plus 200 rated at 400
3:15 develop at 100°F
5:00 fix (Ilford rapidfix … same “contaminated” fix as Bleach Bypass I) RT
1:00 stab RT
Conclusion: blix is completely unnecessary.
BLEACH BYPASS III: MYSTERY SCIENCE BYPASS 800
Fuji Superia 400 rated at 800
3:15 develop at 100°F
5:00 fix (Ilford rapidfix … same “contaminated” fix as Bleach Bypass I) RT
1:00 stab RT
Conclusion: Filmstock makes no difference.
BLEACH BYPASS IV: CROSSPROCESS VS BLEACH BYPASS
Fuji Velvia 100F rated at 100
3:15 develop at 100°F
5:00 fix (Ilford rapidfix … same “contaminated” fix as Bleach Bypass I) RT
1:00 stab RT
Conclusion: BB reduces the cool factor of Xpro, so don’t bother.