Developing your own photographs!

In these times of digital photographing, Nikons, Adobe PhotoShop, photo printers and more, it can be delightful to take a deep breath and think back of an age when analogue photography was king. I would like to share some information with you about analogue photography. On this blog I will post articles about photography, tips and tricks, and how to develop your own film rolls and print those.

(For Dutch readers: baschz7.blogspot.com)

In this first blog post I will take you on a journey through the galaxy of developing your own film rolls. I will tell about black and white photography because you need little chemicals for developing b/w film rolls, it reacts less to temperature fluctuations, it's cheaper in general and you won't mess it up.

What do we need?

1. Any analogue 35mm camera
2. A B/W film roll (I do suggest Fomapan 200)
3. Agfa Rodinal developer
4. Rollei RXA fixer
5. A (35mm) developing tank
6. Lukewarm water
7. Darkroom
8. Measuring cups
9. Clothespins
10. Beer openers
11. Scissors
12. Timer
13. Thermometer

Later in the article I mention I where you can buy or get these goods.

Step 1: Shoot a roll of pics
Get into the wild with your favorite 35mm camera. Any camera will do. Do not have an analogue camera? Ebay is loaded with them. The Olympus-OM series belongs to my favorites. Very well to get second hand sale and offers anything an amateur photographer needs.

My favorite, the OM-10.

I use to shoot my pics on Fomapan, a brand from Eastern Europe that still produces film rolls for little money. You can grab yours on the internet, but visit your local photoshop first. I had very good experiences with fotohuisrovo.nl. But maybe there's some lost film roll anywhere around your home. It's no problem if it's expired. Use ASA 100 for broad daylight, 200 for daylight and small clouds, 400 and beyond for darker settings.

No, this one doesn't say "MegaBytes".

Anyway, have some fun with making random shots. Experiment with shutter speed and aperture, shadows, over and under exposures, portraits, et cetera et cetera.  

Step 2: The stuff

Heel veel heb je niet nodig voor het ontwikkelen. In ieder geval een kraan met wasbak of bad, die gaan we straks gebruiken voor het spoelen van de film. Verder heb je een ontwikkeltank nodig. Deze zijn nieuw vaak redelijk prijzig, maar op marktplaats staan ze voor een fractie van de nieuwprijs. Model maakt niet veel uit, ga op zoek naar eentje voor kleinbeeld film zonder al te veel poespas (zelf gebruik ik een model van Jobo).

You don't need a lot to develop. In any case, a tap with sink or tub, which we will later use for rinsing the film. Furthermore you need: a development tank (these are often quite pricey new, but they are on market for a fraction of the price). Model does not matter much, look for one for 35mm film without too much fuss (I use a model of Jobo).

Note on the tablecloth.

Then you need chemistry: Agfa Rodinal as a developer and Rollei RXA fixer. Furthermore an empty container for used chemicals (do not rinse down the sink! Particularly environmentally unfriendly). Measuring cups: a half or a whole liter. Then some kitchen materials: a beer opener, scissors and clothespins. Finally, a place in the house where it is completely dark, or can be. Think of a completely dark basement or attic. Caution! It must be completely dark!

Step 3: Film in the tank

This step I can better explain using a YouTube tutorial. In this step you will need the beer opener and scissors. And your completely light-tight space! Check the video:

"Blah blah blah."

I advise you to exercise in daylight with an already developed roll. Film loaded? Good! Lid on the tank, then we now prepare chemistry.

Step 4: Preparing the chemicals

Before we develop we first measure and prepare everything. Every brand or type roll needs another development time. Look on or in the box of your film roll to find the development (combined with Agfa Rodinal). Can not find it? Then we take a look at devchart. This is a handy table where you can select the type of roll and the developer (Fomapan 200 and Agfa Rodinal). The database is also available as an application for Android, iOS and Nokia.

The devchart. Here you can find all the brands. Useful!

As you can see, when using Fomapan 200 a dilution of 1 +25 is required and 5 mins. of development time (at a temperature of 20 degrees Celsius).

Now we know that, we get the chemistry together. First a warning from your blogger: watch out with chemistry! It can be corrosive, so make sure you wear gloves. Make sure also that there is good ventilation! For 5 minutes development is one part developer needed and 25 parts water. Look at your tank how much millimeter it can handle: it is important that the entire tank is filled to avoid bubbles. Divide this number by (in this case) 26. This is the number of milliliters developer that you put into the measuring cup. Fill the remainder (up to the number of ml. Capacity of the tank so) with lukewarm water, slightly warmer than 20 degrees Celsius.

The label on your bottle of fixer.

As for the fixer, we handle the same principle. The dilution and time are indicated on the label of the bottle. If you look at the picture above, you notice a dilution of 1 +7 is needed and 5-8 minutes fixing time. Handle the same formula as we handled with the developer, but now with a dilution of 1 +7 instead. If all goes well you will have one measuring cup diluted developer and one measuring cup diluted fixer.

Step 5: Ready to develop!

If all goes well you now have a developing tank with the roll in it that you want to develop and two beakers with chemistry. Make sure that everything you need is in your bathroom. Also the jerrycan. We start with the setting the timer to 5. Pour the developer into the tank and put the cap back on. Start the timer. The first two minutes agitate the tank all the time to avoid bubbles. The last three minutes agitate the tank every half a minute once. Take care you don't shake it, just be gently.

When the five minutes are over you empty the tank into the container, ie let the developer flow into the jerrycan. Now let the faucet run at about twenty degrees (use thermometer!), and then we will rinse the film. Let the tank under the tap fill, put the cap on, turn the tank a few times and let it drain again. Repeat this three times, then let the tank stand just three minutes under gently running lukewarm tap.

Rinsing the film.

Is the tank empty? The film is now purged and ready for the fixer. Fill the tank with the fix, and repeat the same steps as we did with the development. I use the 1+7 dilution, so we let it fix about 7 mins. Pour fixer in the container and close it. Gently agitate the container every half a minute and when the 7 minutes have passed you pour the fixer in the jerrycan, too. This is chemical waste too. Now put the tank under lukewarm tap (20 degrees Celsius) and leave it there for about fifteen minutes.

Step 6: This is where the magic happens!

Congratulations! You've just developed your first film roll. If the film is well rinsed, you can rotate the cap of the tank. Make sure your index and middle fingers are clean, with these you're going to whipe your film "dry". Find the beginning of the film, hold it with one hand. With the index and middle fingers of your other hand you whipe most of the water from the film.

If all went well... You will be able to see negatives!

Keep the film briefly in the light to see if all worked out! Hang the film now a clothespin on it to dry (do this in a dust-free area).

Step 7: And for now...

If your film is properly dried (it takes a few hours), it might be useful to cut the film into strips. For that you can use scissors or a special slide-cutter. Now you're able to scan the film with a special photo scanner or any flatbed scanner. With programs like PhotoShop (expensive) or Picasa (freeware!) you can reverse the scanned image from negative to positive and crop it. Not the real thing, of course, but nice to see them as positives. In a future article I'll explain how we can print analogous using a darkroom!

One of my own results. Ilford Delta 400+Rodinal.

Tips & Tricks

• You can use a hair drier for drying the film quicklier. Be aware with it; don't heathen your film too much.
• When rinsing the film after you did the fixing, you can add a drop of washing soap to avoid bubbles.

Another one.

Photos: flickr.com, google.com, visscherdesign.nl