Developing Your Own Film
How I Develop My Film at home.
In a previous review we talked about what is my favorite film: Fomapan Action 400. The thing is, Black and White films are not as cheap to develop compared to their color counterparts. A roll of color film is usually four to five dollars cheaper to develop. One way to combat this increased cost is to develop the film yourself. Keep in mind this article only refers to black and white developing, so don’t do this with color.
Depending on who you talk to there are many ways you can develop film. The least amount of chemicals you can get away with is one. In some cases you may see as many as 5 commonly used. Personally I just use 4. The process of developing we are exploring today mirrors my process. Just note that there are different ways and none of them are incorrect.
The things you will absolutely need are: Developer, stop bath, fixer, a film rinsing agent, a developing tank with reels, a sink, scissors, a bottle opener or film canister opener, a thermometer, graduated cylinders, clips to hang the film with, and a stop watch. You will also need to look up your developing times for your developer. Each developer has a different developing time for different films. You can’t mix and match films here, but you can develop multiple rolls of the exact same film at at time. There is an app called Massive Dev Chart you can get that has most every developer and film in it, which is my go to.
Now for the fun of the show: Let’s Develop!
Go into a pitch dark room, or if you don’t have one get a changing bag. I can’t stress enough how important it is that the room is dark, any light will ruin your film in this first step. Pop open the film with your bottle opener by prying off the bottom of the film canister. Pull the film out of the canister and snip off the leader of your film (the beginning of the roll with the curve on it). Spool the film into the reel based on your reels directions. Make sure to save the leader you snipped off; it comes into play later. Place the reel inside of the developing tank and ensure the lid is on tight. Once the lid is on then you are safe to take the canister into the light.
Next, we need to prepare the chemicals you need to develop with. I measure mine into graduated cylinders of water, developer, stop bath, fixer, and film rinse. If you are unsure how much you need, fill the canister with the reels in it with water until it goes just above the highest reel (before you load film of course); pour it in to a graduated cylinder and that how much of each chemical you will need. Next make sure your chemicals are all at 68 degrees. If not fill a container with hotter or colder water then your chemicals and place the graduates in the water to get up to temp. Once up to temp, place the leader you had into the graduate that has the fixer. Time how long it takes to clear. Take a note of this time, you’ll need it soon.
Start by pouring in your water. Agitate it with your film for a minute and pour it down the drain. Agitation here can be one of two ways. Either invert the canister upside down and right side up every second or spin the agitator for the canister one full clockwise and counterclockwise rotation per second. After you finish agitating tap the canister on the counter to remove any air bubbles. Immediately after you pour out your water pour in your developer and start the stop watch. Agitate your film for the first minute of your developing time and for 15 seconds every minute after. Once you hit the end of your developing time pour out the developer into the sink and immediately pour in your stop bath. Agitate your film for 30 seconds, and return the stop bath to your graduate. Stop bath is reusable.
Think back to the leader we fixed earlier. However long that took to fully clear, we need to fix for a minute longer than that. Pour in the fixer and agitate for a minute, then for 15 seconds every minute after that. You may only need a minute or two if the fixer is very new. In that case I just agitate for the first minute and then for 10 seconds every 30 seconds. Once fixing is done return it to the graduate as this is also reusable.
Open the canister and turn on the faucet to be lukewarm. It should be about the same temp as your chemicals. Let the water flood the canister for at least 10 minutes, but I prefer 15. After this rinse, I use a film rinse like Photo-Flo from Kodak or distilled water and give it a fill and dump twice. Now let’s pull out the film and take a quick look. It shouldn’t be cloudy, if it is then fix the film again for about 1 minute by dipping it fully in a tank of fixer and pulling it out repeatedly. Once the cloudiness is gone rinse the film again for 15 minutes and give it one last distilled water or Photo-Flo rinse.
Now we just squeegee off the excess water with clean fingers or a film squeegee and hang the film up to dry. I like to use my bathroom with the exhaust fan on as it tends to be the least dusty place in the house. Let it dry for a couple hours until fully dry. Then just trim the frames and place them in sleeves until you are ready to enlarge or scan.
It sounds like a lot at first, but honestly it’s a very forgiving process. Take your time, and don’t panic about making a mistake. Timings aren’t super exact to the second so an extra 20 seconds overdeveloping or a missed agitation in the middle probably won’t hurt anything. The only major critical step would be that you must load it in pure darkness. So get out there and try developing yourself! It’s a great way to explore the development process and really gives a personal connection to your images.
The chemicals I usually use are listed below. Don’t be scared to look at other options though. There are many out there that may work better for you.
Kodak Professional D76 Developer
Kodak Professional Indicator Stop Bath
Kodak professional Fixer
Kodak Photo-Flo
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