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Position:Home>Visual Arts> Developing your own film?Question: Developing your own film!? Just how easy is it!? I'm thinking of getting into it for black and white 35mm and 120 film!.
Should you be trained by someone or is it something that you can pick up out of a book or with coaching!? I've heard of daylight developpers (dont know the name) that you load in the dark!. Do they work ok!? I dont have alot of space so a true darkroom is pretty much out of the question!. Anything I should be aware of!? Are the chemicals particularly nasty!? Thanks in advance!.Www@QuestionHome@Com Best Answer - Chosen by Asker: It is relatively easy, but taking a Black and White class would help a lot!. Black and White leaves some margin of error when it comes to water temperatures, unlike developing E-6!. It also takes some practice to get the film on the developing reel in the total darkness!. You have to be careful not to pinch the film, which will cause "half moon crescents" on our negative!. I strongly recommend taking a class!. They'll show you how to develop and make prints!.Www@QuestionHome@Com It is not easy!. You really need to take a class in photography to learn how to correctly develop film!. You do need a completely dark place to load the film into the developing tank !.!.!. there can be NO light entering the space at all or you risk fogging the film!. The actual process of using the chemicals necessary to develop the film and the agitation technique during the development, rinse and stop bath are unique unto themselves!. Of all the requirements necessary to produce perfectly developed film is keeping the temperatures at +/- 1/2 degrees F!. This is one of the "secrets" learned while attending one of the more popular photo schools!. While the chemicals are not "nasty", you cannot let one contaminate the other or you will ensure your next development will end in failure!. The problem with developing at home is that the spent developer and fixer must be sent to a proper hazardous waste facility and cannot be dumped down the drain!.Www@QuestionHome@Com Having been responsible for the training of photography teachers as well as many years of practical darkroom work,what other answerer said is correct!.However it is possible to learn the processes by studying from books!.The Ilford and Kodak manuals carry all the details and Health and Safety instructions that are needed,although the information is often scattered about!.I trained on 1950s industrial cameras and auto processors and have kept up to date by studying the regular updates from manufacturers,thus being able to continue with modern digital work-flow!.Writers such as Michael Langford have long academic and professional careers and produce excellent technical books on chemical processing!.I can supply a long list of recommended books covering the work from training schemes at 16+ in Secondary schools to Post graduate and Doctoral research,at which ever level you require!.Www@QuestionHome@Com If I can do it with my severely ADD brain, then just about anyone can do it!. It will help to learn from someone who knows how, though!. And you can flip on the light switch after loading film!. The developing canisters are light-tight!. Hey, I've even done color film and slides! Even cross-processed once, but it was by accident!.Www@QuestionHome@Com I would say B&W is not too technically demanding, in that temperature control is not terribly critical!. You ought to be in the right range with 68-70° being the goal, but there are charts help you alter your timing if you are a few degrees plus or minus!. Color is just crazy though, and you can't do this without the right equipment for temperature control - in my opinion!. You DO need to follow the steps to get it right, but it's not like messing up by 2 or 3 or 10 second is going to ruin your film!. It would help to have someone with you the first time or two, just because there are some tricks to loading the reel that help a lot!. If you can't get the film on the reel, you can't do anything else and you're screwed!. Even this should be practiced in the light with a roll that has already beed developed (or trashed) and after that, it's not too bad!. Maybe we view these things differently in the 21st century, but I used all the chemicals when I was 7-8 years old and I'm still here to tell the tale!.Www@QuestionHome@Com |