Developing own BW film

adsl3g

adsl3g

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What are the issues here. Is this worth it. I like BW and now that I have a 35mm SLR, I would like to do my own DP.

Is it worth it - I must add that I have always wanted to do this and I think I am now old enough to try it.:) Will it be an expensive exercise or do you guys think the end result will be rewarding enough.

Anyone tried it before?
 
Old enough? I was developing and printing b/w before I was a teenager. Its great fun - do you have a suitable room?
 
adsl3g said:
What are the issues here. Is this worth it. I like BW and now that I have a 35mm SLR, I would like to do my own DP.

Is it worth it - I must add that I have always wanted to do this and I think I am now old enough to try it.:) Will it be an expensive exercise or do you guys think the end result will be rewarding enough.

Anyone tried it before?
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you just want to develop the film, or are you going to print as well? If you are just going to develop and then scan the negs, it isn't so expensive. You'll just need a developing tank, a black bag (kinda portable darkroom), and the chemicals.

If you want to do your own photographic printing it gets a bit more of a mission, you'll need a darkroom and all the bits and bobs (enlarger, safe light, trays, chemicals, running water etc.). It isn't difficult though.
 
I assume a suitable room would be a room that is dark enough?? would have to convert my computer room to be the dark room as well.. Can my computer equipment live in the same room? or will the chemicals cause some horrible corrosion?

@arf - I think half the fun is in the printing - is it not??

As for old enough, I just never got around to it and pulling half a century now seems to be the way to go - like living in the past :D
 
adsl3g said:
I assume a suitable room would be a room that is dark enough?? would have to convert my computer room to be the dark room as well.. Can my computer equipment live in the same room? or will the chemicals cause some horrible corrosion?

@arf - I think half the fun is in the printing - is it not??

As for old enough, I just never got around to it and pulling half a century now seems to be the way to go - like living in the past :D
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As long as it is pitch dark you'll be fine.
 
When I was doing my own Developing and Printing, I bought film in bulk packs and loaded my own cassettes. Saves money as well as allowing one to adjust the amount of film for a shoot.

If you are going to develop your own, then I'd suggest that you settle on a single film/developer combination as this will make consistency much easier to achieve. Probably the most important point when developing is to make sure that your solutions are always at the same temperature. I used to stand the bottles of chemicals in a 20C water bath for about 30 mins before starting. I also used to fill the tank with filtered water at 20C before developing as this ensured a consistent wetting of the film as well as eliminating air bubbles.

Being a geek I used to play around with all the fun things such as solarization, black & white slides, very low light etc.

For film development, you don't need a darkroom. As suggested above, you will load the film from the cassette into the tank, inside of a black bag. Once the film is in the tank, it is light protected. Best place to work is in the bathroom.

It's a great hobby which I think has pretty much died out with digital.
 
bekdik said:
When I was doing my own Developing and Printing, I bought film in bulk packs and loaded my own cassettes. Saves money as well as allowing one to adjust the amount of film for a shoot.

If you are going to develop your own, then I'd suggest that you settle on a single film/developer combination as this will make consistency much easier to achieve. Probably the most important point when developing is to make sure that your solutions are always at the same temperature. I used to stand the bottles of chemicals in a 20C water bath for about 30 mins before starting. I also used to fill the tank with filtered water at 20C before developing as this ensured a consistent wetting of the film as well as eliminating air bubbles.

Being a geek I used to play around with all the fun things such as solarization, black & white slides, very low light etc.

For film development, you don't need a darkroom. As suggested above, you will load the film from the cassette into the tank, inside of a black bag. Once the film is in the tank, it is light protected. Best place to work is in the bathroom.

It's a great hobby which I think has pretty much died out with digital.
Click to expand...

Is that it - damn - here I was thinking of about 6 letter trays half filled with all kinds of chemicals or is this for the printing part?

*/mental note - dig out old photography book and read up again*

Will keep my eyes open for an enlarger in the area - should be available from any dedicated photographic shop who sells 2nd hand stuff...

Also still looking for a 35mm *ist Pentax..
 
adsl3g said:
Is that it - damn - here I was thinking of about 6 letter trays half filled with all kinds of chemicals or is this for the printing part?

*/mental note - dig out old photography book and read up again*

Will keep my eyes open for an enlarger in the area - should be available from any dedicated photographic shop who sells 2nd hand stuff...

Also still looking for a 35mm *ist Pentax..
Click to expand...

Trays are used for paper printing. And it's best to have sufficient space to separate wet and dry areas. I liked to have them on opposite sides of the room. Room lighting will be via a safe light for B&W. If you do colour printing it's total darkness, although you can (used to be able to?) get a paper drum which is rather large if you aiming at large prints!
 
bekdik said:
Trays are used for paper printing. And it's best to have sufficient space to separate wet and dry areas. I liked to have them on opposite sides of the room. Room lighting will be via a safe light for B&W. If you do colour printing it's total darkness, although you can (used to be able to?) get a paper drum which is rather large if you aiming at large prints!
Click to expand...

Methinks I will tomorrow start with the developing stage :cool: - that seems easy and relatively cheap at this stage - I just got a Epson V200 Photo scanner and I can then scan the negatives as a starting point.

This sounds like it could be loads of fun...
 
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adsl3g said:
@arf - I think half the fun is in the printing - is it not??
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Well, as a sense of achievement, I suppose. Personally I prefer the digital darkroom... I like the *undo* button ;).

That said, there is definitely something to be said for the characteristics of silver oxide b&W film. I love the contrast of kodak tri-x (can you still get it?) and the dynamic range of ilford hp4. You can't copy it exactly with digital cameras as far as I can see. There are some Photoshop actions for postprocessing, but they don't quite look the same IMO.

BTW: If you're shooting B&W, do yourself a favour and get yourself a red filter and experiment.
 
adsl3g said:
Cause I was smiling??
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No - I mean why B/W film when it sounds like your aim is to digitise it anyway. There's nothing particularly exciting about developing the film itself - imo the fun comes in when you're printing. I know some photographers who even leave the actual film developing to labs.

irc you have a decent dSLR so why not use it with b/w in mind? :)
arf9999 said:
BTW: If you're shooting B&W, do yourself a favour and get yourself a red filter and experiment.
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ok - help me to understand if you will . . . . what's the point?

My understanding is that a digital camera separates RGB the moment you take a photo. Why not dial down the red in post? It could turn out that an average b/w shot is in fact stunning in colour but the moment you filter out the red that option is gone forever right?
 
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bwana said:
No - I mean why B/W film when it sounds like your aim is to digitise it anyway. There's nothing particularly exciting about developing the film itself - imo the fun comes in when you're printing. I know some photographers who even leave the actual film developing to labs.

irc you have a decent dSLR so why not use it with b/w in mind? :)ok - help me to understand if you will . . . . what's the point?
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Will explore the printing as well ATM just want to try the developing.

I am 'playing' with BW on the digital. PP it is a lot easier than colour - getting some interesting results from PS.

Anyway, the point in film is basically the fun factor. No quick retake if the 1st one did not come out right - you take your time with film cause you cannot make a mistake. And I love it when people run over to see the pic you just took and look into the solid back of the camera :D
 
@bwana, I'm talking about film not digital.

The dynamic range of film is very different from CMOS/CCD, in addition the gamma curve (I think that's the correct term) as well as the sensitivity to different frequencies of light is different. Even using a Pan-X vs Tri-X vs HP-4 film you get subtle and not-so-subtle differences in result.

Using a red filter on black and white film produces some really interesting results on portraits as well as landscapes. (jfyi: the red filter doesn't dial down red, it cuts green : you can approximate the result on post production from a digital image by dialing down green before converting to black and white, but the gamma curve and higher dynamic range are difficult to copy).
 
arf9999 said:
@bwana, I'm talking about film not digital.
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Fair enough then. :)
arf9999 said:
Using a red filter on black and white film produces some really interesting results on portraits as well as landscapes. (jfyi: the red filter doesn't dial down red, it cuts green : you can approximate the result on post production from a digital image by dialing down green before converting to black and white, but the gamma curve and higher dynamic range are difficult to copy).
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Not the way I would do it but then thats the beauty of PS - many different ways to skin the same cat right? :)
 
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