In the realm of “alternate” and “lo-fi” analog photography, redscale refers to the technique of shooting color negative film upside down, resulting in a strong color-shift towards red due to shooting through the base of the film and the red sensitive layer (which is generally at the bottom when shooting emulsion-side up). The blue light exposes the layers containing cyan and magenta dyes, but the layer containing yellow dye is left unexposed due to the filter.
In 2024, Lomography is the only company that I know of is making pre-designated redscale film. However, I can’t seem to produce consistent and satisfying result out from using this film - both in 120 and 135 formats, and I blame it partly on the ISO rating of this film: Lomography “recommends” a range of ISO instead of one single rating. I know making redscale film was simply a matter of spooling an empty 135 cassette from a bulk or unexposed one revered (i.e. emulsion-side to the back) but I had not thought of making one until now.
The film I picked was CineStill 800T for two reasons:
I wanted to start with a high speed filming between CineStill 800T and Portra 800, I love the dynamic range and colors produced by the former.
Found this video where the author shared their findings, so I have proven results and I am not reinventing the wheel.
Loaded the roll into my trusty Nikon FM3a and began shooting around the “usual locations” around home. It took me about two weeks to finish taking all 36 (plus one) photographs and then developed & scanned at home with the same C-41 workflow I have for regular color negative film: CineStill CS-41 two bath (develop & blix) chemistry, then using a Sony a7RIII to digitize and finally Negative Lab Pro to convert.
About 30% of the photographs in the roll were affected by light leaks that I do not have conclusive explanation for. But almost all the photographs came out great - exposed properly (metered at ISO 640).
It was incredible to be able to shoot a redscale film handheld - I am very happy that I did this experiment!