Frugal Film Project February 2025 - C41 Stand Development
Here in Ohio we had a VERY snowy January, with snow on the ground nearly the entire month. As we approached the end of January, things began to warm and we began to experience a big thaw.
As the snow continued to melt and temps began to rise the first day of February, I got out and about to shoot my February roll of film for the Frugal Film Project. As stated in prior posts, this year I’m shooting my trusty Canonet QL19 rangefinder camera coupled with Fuji 400 consumer grade film. Shooting color film gives me a lot of options this year to experiment!
For this month’s roll, I decided to try Stand Developing the film. I’ve used the Stand Develop method for years for black and white film, but its almost unheard of for C41 color film. Here is the process I found online and followed for this roll:
1 minute pre-soak, 68F reverse-osmosis filtered water
44 minute Stand Development in room temp C41 developer after 1 minute of agitation
1 minute rinse (3 refills) of 68F reverse-osmosis filtered water
44 minute Stand in room temp Blix after 1 minute of agitation
3 minute rinse (9 refills) of 68F reverse-osmosis filtered water
Hang to dry after squeegy with Kim Wipe
The results? Surprisingly good. I think the colors came out well, and I didn’t notice any increase in grain. Scanning in as raw negatives was easy, and the color conversion in Negative Lab Pro was seamless. All-in-all an interesting experiment.
Below are my favorite images from the roll. Click on the first image to enlarge and scroll through.
So, is this something I would do more often versus normal C41 developing at 102F degrees? Probably not. It takes a LONG time, and usually while I am developing I’m doing a few rolls at the same time and want to get it all done ASAP. Sitting around or doing other things for nearly 90 minutes isn’t my jam. When I do B&W stand development its usually because I’ve shot something with a Holga or some other unpredictable camera and it helps with results. I might try to do C41 Stand Developing again with a roll that was shot in a Holga or a Brownie to see if it helps level-out exposure. However for most of my color developing I’ll continue to use the standard 102F temp and process times.
Let me know if you have any questions, and as always thanks for reading!
Jeremy
