Back to Colour - Catching up on C41

Fuji Provia 2nd 4
Down to the last two exposed rolls in the fridge, both colour 120.  I was disgusted to realize that one of them's Velvia for xpro, (if I wanted all those horrible oranges I'd go back to digital), but I'll use it to remind myself how to do colour, because it's been a while and the other roll's Portra, and I want to make a good job of that - I've never used it before, let alone deving it.

Digging down through the layers of the Avenue's archaeology I find that I first did C41 in October 2009.  I bought a litre kit of Tetenal, and made up half a litre of developer, blix and stabilizer.  I continued to use it throughout 2010, though I can't easily work out now how many rolls I did, three I pooled in DIY Color on Flickr, but I probably did more.  Mostly slide for xpro, but some straight C41, too.

During 2011 I was mostly in Shanghai, and just went to the Lomography shop there for any processing.  At the end of that year, though, I xproed a roll of Provia when I got home.  It was fine, (that's one of the exposures in the corner, the view from my apartment in Jing'an, shot with the Holga, on xproed Provia), considering the chemicals had been sitting in improvised bottles in various locations around the flat for over two years.

I let them go down the sink after that, as I'm going to give the Portra a go (and that stuff's not cheap), so I 'll make up the second half litre from the kit. The reason I'm relating this is that I do believe a lot of bullshit is posted online about the fragile longevity of processing chemicals, the inadvisability of using the same batch for xpro and C41, and the vital need for optimal storage conditions.  Margins for temperature too.  I just find that you don't get problems if you're a bit slap-dash.

So, here's a quick round up as notes-to-self:
I'm off to the kitchen now.  A nice way to wrap up a stay-at-home Bloomsday.  The weather's been filthy.  

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