The "How I Develop Film" thread

[starkkarim]

Another one using the same method:

Distance by Stark Karim, on Flickr

 

[timor]

This colours are very nice. Composition and use of DoF in the first picture is to say at least romantic and pictorial like. Lovely.

 

[rosewater]

I'm developing 35mm film for the first time at home but I'm a bit nervous about getting the film out of the canister. Is it easy to use one of these? AP METAL 35MM FILM CASSETTE CARTRIDGE OPENER CAN OPENING DARKROOM DEVELOPING

 

[jcdeboever]

I'm developing 35mm film for the first time at home but I'm a bit nervous about getting the film out of the canister. Is it easy to use one of these? AP METAL 35MM FILM CASSETTE CARTRIDGE OPENER CAN OPENING DARKROOM DEVELOPING

Those work gteat from what I seen on videos. I use and old fashion bottle opener for the metal canisters. The plastic canisters, I just peel apart by grabbing the film exit and prying it back, then just pull the top off. But lately I've been bulk loading film into reusable canisters and those just pop off by hand. You can save a substantial amount of money by buying film in 100 ft rolls and loading yourself. Of course that only applies if you plan on shooting a lot. My favorite 35 film is Kodak 400tx and Fujifilm Acros 100. I bulk load the 400tx and use the Acros for special well lit situations.

 

[timor]

Do you really want pay that much money for it, when regular beer bottle opener will suffice ? Opening cassette in even "messy" way will not damage film.

 

[timor]

Off course the trick is to do it in total darkness.

 

[Bob Peters 61]

I use Unicolor C-41 powder kit, makes 1 liter each of developer, blix (combination bleach-fixer) and stabilizer, which can be re-used for 8-10 rolls within 6 mo. of mixing the chemicals, given you express the air from your storage bottles before putting them away.

I selected a plastic Paterson tank as it holds the heat of warm liquids better than metal and has a light-proof funnel that locks on securely more easily and reliably than finding and threading on a screw-on light-baffle. Also lets me see the fluid level in the funnel to make sure I have enough chemical in to completely submerge the film.

For initial mixing, the developer and blix both need to be mixed (separately) into 110º F distilled water and the stabilizer into room temperature distilled water.

Pre-soak film for at least 1 minute in 102ºF tap water, no agitation needed but I usually give it a little goose with the agitator stick to get the bubbles out. Also, a tad bit warmer to start is OK as that helps warm up the film and plastic processing tank.

Developer for 3:30 at 102º F, agitating for first 15 seconds and then 4 inversions every 30 seconds.

Blix for 6:30 at 95º - 105º F, same agitation as Developer.

Then you can open the tank up as after the blix the film is no long sensitive to light.

Rinse well, and then another 3:00 rinse in tepid running water.

Stabilizer at room temperature for 1:00

Then squeegee off the film and hang it up for a couple hours until completely dry.

I then soak and wash the Paterson tank and all its components with dish detergent and rinse well afterward

And I just mixed my second batch of chemicals before noticing that I need to mix the blix ahead of time, or else not use them just as soon as the developer cools to use temp. Because when adding the Blix B powder to the blix it has an exothermic reaction. That fizzing isn't all the chemical reaction does, it also gets hot. Not too hot to mix and store in plastic containers, but hot enough that by the time the developer hits use temp and is used right away, the blix will still be way too warm come time it's needed, under time and temperature constraints.

Consequently, these two rolls have the same ugly color cast as the first roll I developed myself. Well, live and learn, I guess.

 

[Bob Peters 61]

I'm developing 35mm film for the first time at home but I'm a bit nervous about getting the film out of the canister. Is it easy to use one of these? AP METAL 35MM FILM CASSETTE CARTRIDGE OPENER CAN OPENING DARKROOM DEVELOPING

I've tried a flat "church key" type of bottle opener and never had much luck with that. However, I have a waiter's corkscrew with a dual bottle opener cut into the hinge, and the pointy prongs of that get right in under the lip of the cassette end to pry it right up. So I would assume that any sufficiently pointy bottle opener cut edgewise into the metal of which it's made should do the trick.

Never saw fit to spring for the special-purpose tool for a function I have covered another way already.

And even in the unlikely event that opening the cassette leaves a jagged edge that scratches the film coming out, it'll only get the part at the end that got fogged loading the camera anyhow and not the negatives.

 

[snowbear]

A regular bottle opener or can opener has always worked for me.

 

[wobe]

I use Cinestill C-41, a lightbag and Patterson bucket and now develop all my films myself with results I am quite happy with.

No special tips - i just follow the printed instructions

Tricky part is loading the film onto the spools inside the light proof bag, has a tendancy to twist off the spool as you're winding or worse get jammed around the little ball bearings that are supposed to grip and release the film to pull it onto the spool. Very stressful when you are doing everything by touch and trying to keep your fingers off the film!

(If the film tag is fully wound into the spool I use the old piece of film trick, moistened and fed into the spool to stick to and pull out the leader tag which usually works, then snip with scissors inside the bag after winding on the spool)

 

[Steve Anchell]

Both C41 and E6 films are actually black and white to start with, the colour being put in during processing.
Both film are called 'tri-pack', being 3 b&w films in one.
Each film consists of three b&w film layers, each layer sensitised to either red, blue or green light.
Both films are initially processed using a standard b&w developer to produce a silver mask for each layer.
Other chemicals are included that contain 'colour-couplers' which produce the different colours in each layer.
The silver masks are then bleached out.

Hertz, this is an old thread so you may not see this. You have it mostly right but in fact, the difference between Ektachrome and Kodachrome is that Kodachrome did not have any color dyes in the emulsion. Color had to be added in precise amounts using a machine processor - it could not be hand processed, then or now. As a result of market demand, Kodak created Ektachrome that did contain color dyes and could be developed by professional and amateur photographers in their own darkrooms.

Of historical interest, the original Ektachrome process up until E4 was used at 75 degrees F and took more than an hour to process, and included reexposing the film to light to reverse the image. Kodak increased the temperature to 85 degrees F with E4 in order to shorten the processing time to less than an hour and make development more profitable for the labs. They also introduced a chemical reversal step to eliminate reexposure.

Many professionals did not like the E4 process and continued to develop Ekatachome film using the E3 process. Note that Ektachrome is the name of the film, the process in which it is developed is E2, E3, E4, E6. Although the film has been improved over the years, it the process that has dramatically changed, not the film.

E5 was announced with much fanfare, but before it was released, Kodak research scientists came up with E6, which was used at !00 degrees F for 37 1/2 minutes if I correctly recall, making it even more profitable. E5 never saw the light of day.