No longer a dark room virgin!

[redneckdan]

I developed my first two rolls of E-6 this morning. Poured the first developer at 02 30 and hung them up at 15 11. They are drying right now.

 

[DocFrankenstein]

Much more satisfying than the other first time, isn't it?

 

[cbay]

Good for you! Ive recently started using the dark room @ college, not my favourite thing as I hate waiting for photos to develop using the process. But its great when you get a good print from it.

 

[bigfatbadger]

Good for you! Ive recently started using the dark room @ college, not my favourite thing as I hate waiting for photos to develop using the process. But its great when you get a good print from it.

Really? watching them develop in front of you is one of my favourite parts of photography!

Congratulations RedNeckDan!

 

[cbay]

Ye, I like it but i think its waiting and if it doesnt turn out how you want it to Im disappointecd (Which happens alot) So i think I just prefer digital as you know what you've got everytime whereas you dont with film in darkroom. Only an opinion though as i know lots of people love it. Its great to know to do though and great when you get it right.

 

[bigfatbadger]

Ah, I get you now!

Personally, digital feels too much like being at work. Being in the darkroom is prolonging the escape that I get from taking pictures!

Having said that, I do use digital a lot as well. I have no strict opinions as to which you should use

 

[Hertz van Rental]

Really? watching them develop in front of you is one of my favourite parts of photography!

If you can see your films developing then you've left the lights on and you're going to fog the lot
I know what you mean so don't worry.

I had a student once processing some B&W film. He came out of the deep tank room in a panic saying that the developer wasn't working, that the films were blank.
I asked him how he knew.
He went bright red and mumbled something incoherrent, which gave the game away.
"You turned the lights on in the middle of processing and got them out to have a look, didn't you?" I asked. To which he nodded with an 'I am an idiot' look on his face.

 

[redneckdan]

I was impressed that I even got recognizable images. I went out and shot two more rolls of film today so I could give it another go tonight. You guys were right, its definitely fun to play in the dark. My only problem was getting the film reels to load, I'm using plastic reels and teh film would slide on nice fer the first 3/4 and would seem to just get stuck. I ended up cutting each roll in half and doing 2 batchs of with 2 reels with 18 exp instead of 1 batch with 2 reels of 36 exp. What am I doing wrong?

 

[bigfatbadger]

Are your reels wet? They need to be very dry

 

[Hertz van Rental]

Or it could be a chemical build-up on the reel tracks.
Check to make sure the ball bearings aren't jammed.
Give the reels a good scrub and dry them well.
You can also get sticking if the reel is warped a little.

 

[redneckdan]

I threw them in the dish washer and they work fine now, thanks. Just pulled the rolls number 3 and 4 out now. They are drying, I ordered some slide mounts and hopefully somebody on campus has a slide scanner.

 

[redneckdan]

roll number four has almost like a brown sludge on one side. Did the bleach not do its job? the other roll is fine. the roll in question was the top roll in the tank.