Six Gates movies (SGF) is an all-Italian initiative aimed to recovery and remarketing of special and rare films which are bought in stock and resold wirewound on a new package created ad hoc; the offer is quite wide, ranging from color to black and white, positive and negative with some specialties like this Pink O’ Chrome: for purchases and to check availability, which are inevitably variables it is good to visit the SGF site or contact the Puntofoto shop in Milan.
The film we are dealing with here is one of the most unique and because of that can give surprising results: named Pink O’ Chrome, it’s a positive emulsion film dedicated to offset internegative duplication and hold a sensitivity of 12-15 ASA; on some presentation pages it is deemed to have the remjet layer while I did not find it while processing: if any, normal normal processing has however completely eliminated it without polluting the chemicals. In any case its particularity is to make pictures with a purplish or pinkish dominant (hence the name) with fairly unpredictable variations; If processed in C41 chemistry, it produces a constant and heavy blue cast and this is what has been done in this trial, which, given the nature and the circumstances, is just a report of an experience with the Pink O’ Chrome.
At the end of the C41 processing the negative has a distinct yellow coloration which suggests how strong dominant over the images would be: it is clear, then, that the film is not suitable for all types of shots but, when used properly, it can definitely have a very distinctive effect. The choice is really upon the photographer who must judge what are the right subjects to enhance the quality of this SGF Pink O’ Chrome. The photos shown were taken by exposing at the sensitivity of 15 ASA using a good resolving lens (Minolta Rokkor 58/1.2) and some of the images were then printed on RA4 paper.
Reduced sensitivity requires the use of very bright optics or tripod but, rewards the image definition and the virtual absence of grain; being still a reversal film, the exposure latitude is not the most extensive though it is not easy to measure the extension given the dominant: Let’s say that is felt a weakening of the dominant underexposing 1 stop, the same even if it does not lead to some to have a balanced colour image; hues tend a bit to get lost as expected, and you find yourself with an image perfectly defined in detail (if the optics permits) but almost monotonous.
Shooting with a bit more generous exposure and, above all, by taking less enlightened subjects, makes appear different colors although obviously heavily altered by blue mask: the yellow of the vase pictured at right is roughly, in natural colours, the same shooting yellow candle as in the previous picture in bright sunlight: this is an example that makes us understand how the response to significantly changes exposure condition will affect color rendition.
This is the element on which those who want to use this still interesting film should make some considerations, preparing themselves to a careful selection of subjects and lighting conditions in order to extract the best from Pink O’ Chrome and not to make the images repetitive and tiring, very easy thing when working with special films. Continuing in the considerations, sensitivity choice seems appropriate for what is the result described by the seller and the subsequent treatment to the development does not pose any problem: the scanner recognizes and digests the blue mask (as long as the software is not enabled for color correction) and plays effortlessly; as regard the RA4 print, starting from the basic filtering the mask produces far more tenuous tones, giving the impression of image blurring; working on the filtration to increase cyan, tones printing becomes “correct” (the last image of this brief description is a scan from print).
The image on the left serves to confirm what has already been said above concerning the underexposure: this is a 2 stop underexposure in daylight, required to capture a moving subject and you notice the phenomenon of masking attenuation, which does not however let emerge the true colors of the subject and makes the whole image undoubtedly less interesting. To this we must add also the predictable loss of detail in shaded areas which leads to the conclusion that the maximum the film may be overexposed to a single stop without impacting heavily on the yield.
However, the Pink O’ Chrome shows its definite character and certainly in the hands of creative photographers it can lead to achieve great impact pictures although, as mentioned at the beginning, the choice of subject is key to exploit it to the maximum; exposed at 15 ASA is well balanced (the blue, of course) and with a repetitive behavior with regard to variations in exposure that schedules with accurate shooting. Probably the same considerations apply if the film were to be dealt with in E6 but dominated blue that returns when processed in C41 makes it unique, while there are also other films with dominating purple.
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