Developing Film

mangorockfish · Mar 12, 2023

Trying to get back into film and have a few questions. Not sure of the proper procedures going forward. Do you send your color film out for the total procedure, i.e. developing, printing, etc? or do you develop the film at home and scan and print yourself? Not sure if I have any of this correct or not so help me out here. I know I'll have to send mine out for a while so where is a good place to send it where I'll get my negatives back and not a disc? Thanks

480sparky · Mar 12, 2023

B&W film has such a great latitude when it comes to developing I have no issues developing it at home. But color is very very finicky. Even one degree in temperature difference can mean a very noticeable difference in your negatives. That, coupled with the short shelf life of many chemicals, causes me to simply take it down to the local camera store for developing.

If you want to collect your exposed film until you have taken enough to soup 'em at home so you don't have unused chemicals sitting around expiring, that's one method around the latter issue. But even doing that, I never had truly satisfying results developing my own C-41 and even E-6 films. My local store can scan film, but I just request "Develop Only" and I get the negs back in sleeves.

This is not intended to deter you from doing so, this is just my experience.

mangorockfish · Mar 12, 2023

I was asking about color. I can do B&W at home.

wobe · Mar 13, 2023

Pasted a link below where I answered virtually the same question fyi.

Post in thread 'The "How I Develop Film" thread'
The "How I Develop Film" thread

Basically, yes I develop and scan colour film myself - it’s a breeze actually, so long as you follow the timings and temps exactly. I found the trickiest part keeping dust and fingerprints off while wet but nitrile gloves and more careful drying placement of the negatives fixed those.

I don’t push and pull etc (well, not intentionally anyway), I guess that is more complex and accident prone!

cgw · Mar 13, 2023

"I know I'll have to send mine out for a while so where is a good place to send it where I'll get my negatives back and not a disc?"

For starters, where are you located???

Rickbb · Mar 13, 2023

I’ve found that color is just too difficult, (for me anyway), for home processing. If I did decide to shoot color film again I’d send it out. I got tired of seeing rolls ruined by a 2 degree temp change while in the tank.

I would do color enlargements at home though. You can redo a print that is not right, but that neg that’s under or over developed can’t be fixed easily if at all.

Once you find a good lab you can work with you’ll get consistent results and they can afford a much better scanner than I can.

RAZKY · Mar 13, 2023

I find home-processing color film to be a snap - just follow the same time/temperature precautions I use for black and white.

Peeb · Mar 13, 2023

I find no problem processing C41 at home.

I've digitalized a couple of different ways: copy stand and digital camera using Negative Lab Pro or just using a flatbed scanner and included software.

ac12 · Mar 13, 2023

As @480sparky said, I never had enough color neg film to use up the chemicals, so economically it did not make sense, to me, so I always sent it out.
But MOST of the color I shot was slide, and that had to go to a lab.

I did print from slide, using Cibachrome. Too bad that is gone, as I would like to do some of that again.

480sparky · Mar 13, 2023

ac12 said:
As @480sparky said, I never had enough color neg film to use up the chemicals, so economically it did not make sense, to me, so I always sent it out.
But MOST of the color I shot was slide, and that had to go to a lab.

I did print from slide, using Cibachrome. Too bad that is gone, as I would like to do some of that again.

99% of my 'early days' shooting was Kodachrome 25. I did dabble a bit in E-6 and Ciba, but never had much luck with either.

ac12 · Mar 14, 2023

480sparky said:
99% of my 'early days' shooting was Kodachrome 25. I did dabble a bit in E-6 and Ciba, but never had much luck with either.

Doing Cibachrome with filters was a pain. It would be much easier with a dichroic head, where you can just dial in the filtration, rather than shuffle filters.
And getting the right filtration was HARD, for me.

480sparky · Mar 14, 2023

ac12 said:
Doing Cibachrome with filters was a pain. It would be much easier with a dichroic head, where you can just dial in the filtration, rather than shuffle filters.
And getting the right filtration was HARD, for me.

I had a dichroic enlarger and a color analyzer. Spend a lot of money being disappointed.

ac12 · Mar 14, 2023

480sparky said:
I had a dichroic enlarger and a color analyzer. Spend a lot of money being disappointed.

The analyzer is a challenge, FIRST you have to get a good print, then you can calibrate the analyzer to it.
BUT, like an averaging meter on a camera, is that print "average" in color

Gel filters were a LOT cheaper than a dichroic head, which as a poor college student, I could not afford anyway.
But a dichroic head enlarger is something that I can now afford. I actually have one, but I'm waiting to build a darkroom for it.

Joel Bolden · Mar 14, 2023

mangorockfish said:
Trying to get back into film and have a few questions. Not sure of the proper procedures going forward. Do you send your color film out for the total procedure, i.e. developing, printing, etc? or do you develop the film at home and scan and print yourself? Not sure if I have any of this correct or not so help me out here. I know I'll have to send mine out for a while so where is a good place to send it where I'll get my negatives back and not a disc? Thanks

I used to develop B&W in the military, and it is easy; however I don't (normally) use that film. I've been sending my color C-41 film to The Darkroom in San Clemente, CA for the last 10 years, and have had zero problems with them. they do process all sorts of film, including E-6, and offer several options as far as media goes. They do provide an online album which you can download, and they always provide negatives; obviously they also provide prints. They also provide a free mailer with the negatives or you print a shipping label at their website. I've used them for both processing and enlargement/printing with excellent results. Another lab I use for developing ECN-2(Rem-Jet coated) films like the FlickFIlms is the Old School Photo Lab in New Hampshire. They also process C-41 and other types but I've only used them for the ECN types. They provide an E-mail download and negatives. Their processing time for that particular film is slow(7-20 days) so If you're in a hurry I wouldn't recommend them. So far I've sent them two rolls of Vision3 film and the results as far as quality goes are equal to The Darkroom.