C41 "pre-flashed in Rodinal"!

[ChrisR]

I wonder whether others have heard of this approach? I first saw the phrase reading a post on the "If Time Stood Still" blog by Mark Ewanchuk, which I quite like. Not having a clue what it meant, I asked in the comments, and Mark replied, pointing me to this previous post. The key part is:

"This roll [of Portra 400 shot at 1200] was first soaked in Rodinal (1:100) for ten minutes at room temperature (without agitation) and then rinsed, and immediately processed in standard C-41 chemistry."

He claims this is effectively "analogue noise reduction". Go read his posts!

I quite like the effects he's achieved...

 

[FujiLove]

This is a very interesting approach that I haven't seen before. Have a read through this thread on Photrio:

https://www.photrio.com/forum/threads/using-rodinal-to-push-portra-400.112316/

 

[VirtualAdept]

Thats pretty amazing, I might have a look at my film stash and see what I can use to play with this idea... if I ever get out with a camera, that is

 

[excalibur2]

I wonder whether others have heard of this approach? I first saw the phrase reading a post on the "If Time Stood Still" blog by Mark Ewanchuk, which I quite like. Not having a clue what it meant, I asked in the comments, and Mark replied, pointing me to this previous post. The key part is:

"This roll [of Portra 400 shot at 1200] was first soaked in Rodinal (1:100) for ten minutes at room temperature (without agitation) and then rinsed, and immediately processed in standard C-41 chemistry."

He claims this is effectively "analogue noise reduction". Go read his posts!

I quite like the effects he's achieved...

Interesting about the comment at the end:-
"The Agfa 400 is also a personal favourite of mine. I have shot with it extensively. Both that and the 200 push one stop very easily. Interestingly, although they have very similar formulations, they are not *precisely* rebadged Superia. They have different edge markings, and have been manufactured in different plants."

 

[skysh4rk]

Does this technique help? In relative terms, maybe, but it only seems to look good in daylight/window light to my eyes (i.e., the first three of @ChrisR's first link and the two pictures in the second link are really quite good).

Aside from the daylight photographs though, the colours look shifted and inconsistent; I wouldn't personally be very pleased with them (in terms of colour/exposure; there are some nice compositions and moments captured). I mean, look at how different the couch looks from photograph to photograph; it goes from white to to orange to yellow and then back to white as the light source changes. For example, here is a comparison of a section of couch from one daylight photo (left) to artificial light photo (right):



For most of the photographs, for me, Cinestill 800T or a flashgun would have been preferred to this Rodinal pre-flash technique, which would be a last resort.

 

[FujiLove]

If you read through the thread on Photrio I posted above, Photo Engineer suggests that colour negative film can be shot two stops underexposed without pushing, and this will give essentially the same quality without introducing the colour shifts that creep in with pushing or other chemical changes to the processing.