Question about B&W film

PetethePrimate

PetethePrimate

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I popped a C41 process B&W film (think it was an XP400) into ASDA the other day. When I got the photos back parts of the pics have an orange hue to them.
I was using a graduated orange filter on my camera to see if it improved the sky definition, but the orange bit is only on the top of the filter. I have water, clothes etc that on some shots have a faint orangey hue to them.

Surely B&W film will only come out either Black, white or shades of grey or have ASDA produced these strange shades by poor processing?

I can't post any examples (yet) as they forgot to do me a CD of images & I don't have a scanner.

Just wondering whats gone on.
 
Its likely to be because of poor printing practises by ASDA. When black and white is printed on colour paper as most labs do, it can have a slight tint to it if the operator has not set the printing up properly as obviously the paper is designed for a colour image.

If you ever want truely beautiful prints, try the Ilford Lab service as they print on proper black and white paper rather than cheating and the prints themselves look superb. It is a fairly expensive though in comparison to ASDA, although nothing is stopping you from having a few enlargements done by them.

http://www.ilfordlab.com/

They also do black and white C-41 film developing as well as traditional black and white by the way.
 
Although it's a black and white film, it is put through a colour process (C41), lathough that has no bearing on the result you have anyway. those negatives probably appear to be a bit purpleish or greenish?

Anyway, the problem only comes at the printing stage. Your pictures have also been printed on colour paper, and this means they will have a colour cast, that cast can be anywhere from a pleasant sepia to a rusty orange, or a blue cast. because it is black and white there is no reality check for the operator, or the machine to think "Well this doesn't look quite right"

Once you have your negatives, you really want to have them printed on black and white paper using proper black and white chemicals, or go to somebdoy that prints on colour but knows how to colour balance the machine to get a good black and white result.

Hope this helps.
 
As Jerry says, it's down to the Colour paper, and operator error. I've found that with the supermarket's you really need to impress upon the operator that it's a colour process black and white film, and that you WILL NOT BE PAYING FOR prints that have a colour caste. Get that in writing, before leaving the film. Then, when you get there, and they've munged the prints, you either get them re-printed and get proper B&Ws or you get a free set of odd-toned pictures. It IS POSSIBLE to get the colour balance right and get neutral B&W shots out of minilab machines - my local Boots have been on the money with every film I've given them.
 
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Thanks for all the replies. They are reprinting these for me after my good lady popped in and had a little chat with them :), but I won't be getting anymore done there. I have struggled to get any shops to provide me consistent results (No 2 films seem to look the same) so thanks for the suggestion about Ilford Labs Sam
 
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