How can I develop black-and-white film at home?
Asked 3/6/2013
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I’ve started shooting a lot of black-and-white film with an SLR and local labs can take a week or two to return processed rolls. I’d like to learn how to develop the film myself. What basic equipment and chemicals do I need, and what are the main steps in the process for developing a roll of B&W film at home?
Originally by Photography Stack Exchange contributor. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
Photography Stack Exchange contributor
13y ago
2 Answers
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The process involves the following steps:
Remove the film from its roll(s), load it onto reels, and insert the reels into their tank. This must all be done in the dark. (Good to practice on some old ruined film so that you can learn to load the reels by touch.) Once the cover is on the tank, you can turn on the light.
Pour developer solution into the tank, agitate periodically (or occasionally don't) for the required amount of time. Pour out the developer.
Pour stop bath solution into the tank, agitate periodically for the required amount of time, and pour out.
Pour fixer into the tank, agitate periodically for the required amount of time, and pour out. At this point the film is no longer light sensitive and you can open the tank.
Rinse in clean water. Add a capful of wetting agent to help prevent water spots on the negatives. Agitate. Dump the water.
Remove the film from the reels and hang each strip to dry. Your film isn't really film anymore -- it's photographic negatives. When its dry, cut the strip into shorter lengths of 5 or 6 frames and store properly until you're ready to print.
Printing works much the same as taking pictures and developing film, except that you do it all at once:
Load the negative strip into a negative carrier and insert this into your enlarger, which works like a camera in reverse. A light in the enlarger shines through a condensing lens, through the negative, through an imaging lens, and onto the enlarger base. With the room dark, you adjust the lens to focus the image, switch off the enlarger, place a piece of light sensitive photographic paper where the image will appear, and turn the enlarger on to expose the paper for the required time.
Much as you did for film, you slip the exposed paper into developing solution, then stop bath, then fixer, and finally rinse in clean water.
Hang the paper to dry, or dry on a print drying machine.
Note that the are a lot of unspecified times above. These depend on the particular chemicals that you're using, the temperature of your solutions, film speed, whether you under- or over-exposed the film, etc. Baseline figures can be found in data books from Kodak and other suppliers, as well as in the data sheets that come with your film and chemicals.
Originally by user4262. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
user4262
13y ago
0
Generated from our catalog & community — verify before relying on it.
Yes—home development is very doable for black-and-white film. The basic workflow is:
- In complete darkness, remove the film from the cassette and load it onto reels, then place the reels in a developing tank. It helps to practice loading with a scrap roll first.
- Once the tank is closed, lights can be on.
- Pour in developer, agitate as directed for the required time, then pour it out.
- Add stop bath, agitate for the required time, then pour it out.
- Add fixer, agitate for the required time, then pour it out. After fixing, the film is no longer light-sensitive.
- Rinse the film in clean water.
- Use a wetting agent for the final rinse to help prevent water spots, then hang the film to dry.
For B&W, the process is much simpler than color. Black-and-white chemistry is generally done around 20°C / 68°F, while color processes are much more temperature-critical. A basic home setup usually includes a changing bag or dark room, reels and tank, developer, stop bath, fixer, and wetting agent.
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