Developing B&W film, who wants to share?

[donvito]

Hi guys,

I know this question has been asked a thousand times. Sorry for asking again.:sweat:

Anyway, I shoot medium format with 120 B&W film. However, I'm not satisfied with the developing of the well-known labs. So I plan to process it on my own.

Is anybody here willing to share how to do it? I mean we go to a dark room and the person well-versed in developing will share how to do it. Nothing formal, just sharing. For those who wants to learn, we can just share the dark room rental. If someone can show how to print as well then it would be great. But the objective is to learn processing first.

Maybe we can organize something like a MF thingy? Shoot first in the morning then process in the afternoon? Most probably a weekend when most of us are free. What do you guys think?

And, of course, everybody's welcome to join. So who's interested?

 

[enivre]

Hi guys,

I know this question has been asked a thousand times. Sorry for asking again.:sweat:

Anyway, I shoot medium format with 120 B&W film. However, I'm not satisfied with the developing of the well-known labs. So I plan to process it on my own.

Is anybody here willing to share how to do it? I mean we go to a dark room and the person well-versed in developing will share how to do it. Nothing formal, just sharing. For those who wants to learn, we can just share the dark room rental. If someone can show how to print as well then it would be great. But the objective is to learn processing first.

Maybe we can organize something like a MF thingy? Shoot first in the morning then process in the afternoon? Most probably a weekend when most of us are free. What do you guys think?

And, of course, everybody's welcome to join. So who's interested?

You mean printing bro? You don't need a darkroom to simply develop B&W film, just need a dark bag and one of those lightproof film tanks.

 

[The_Cheat]

You mean printing bro? You don't need a darkroom to simply develop B&W film, just need a dark bag and one of those lightproof film tanks.

Agreed! You do not need a darkroom to develop MF films. There's a link in the tradition darkroom section (sticky somemore) that teach you how to do the processing. It's pretty easy. You just need to get the items for the processing, which is really not that expensive.

You only need a darkroom for printing, or for processing (tray-processing at least) of sheet films (4x5 or above).

 

[clubgrit]

Here's another source of info :

Basic Black & White film processing is extremely simple, and the equipment you need is minimal. - Ilford
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.
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[student]

What was the problem faced by the TS? He was not happy with the negatives developed by the labs.

Seriously, does anyone really think that by just following the sticky by streetshooter, or the basic Ilford guide, one can do better than the labs here - by people who have been developing negatives for years?

 

[peapilot]

ahh no but it's a start! you know what they say about steps and a journey of a thousand miles!

 

[student]

ahh no but it's a start! you know what they say about steps and a journey of a thousand miles!

Absolutely!

We start somewhere. But meanwhile, a lot of your negatives will probably be worse than those developed professionally.

That "thousand miles" is quite a distance! The journey is interesting, but be prepared for a lot of falls.

 

[donvito]

You mean printing bro? You don't need a darkroom to simply develop B&W film, just need a dark bag and one of those lightproof film tanks.

ok thanks for the info.

 

[donvito]

Agreed! You do not need a darkroom to develop MF films. There's a link in the tradition darkroom section (sticky somemore) that teach you how to do the processing. It's pretty easy. You just need to get the items for the processing, which is really not that expensive.

You only need a darkroom for printing, or for processing (tray-processing at least) of sheet films (4x5 or above).

Really you can't do developing in a dark room? Sorry my mistake.

 

[donvito]

Here's another source of info :

Basic Black & White film processing is extremely simple, and the equipment you need is minimal. - Ilford
.
.
.

Thanks for the link. I'll try it out.

 

[donvito]

What was the problem faced by the TS? He was not happy with the negatives developed by the labs.

Seriously, does anyone really think that by just following the sticky by streetshooter, or the basic Ilford guide, one can do better than the labs here - by people who have been developing negatives for years?

Exactly my sentiments. What I wanted was more freedom in post-processing. Anyway, I just thought someone could help out here. I still think it's better to learn hands-on with someone who is an expert. Someone who has vast experience.

I learned my photography from one of the best photographers in our city. I would never have learned everything if I had just learned from the internet. It's still different if someone is mentoring.

 

[The_Cheat]

Really you can't do developing in a dark room? Sorry my mistake.

You can definitely do development of roll film in a darkroom. It's just that the equipment that we used are usually light-proof. Hence given a choice, who will wanna develop in the darkroom?

The development tanks we use are very convenient outside the darkroom environment. Just need to use a changing bag to load the film into the reel, shut the tank up tight, and voila! Everything else can be done in the light.

For sheet film, tray processing is done in the darkroom as using changing bag to remove the film for development is not ideal. Tray development also save on chemical as compared to the daylight 4x5 tanks (which are also quite expensive). It's quite horrible though, cos you will be working near the trays without any light for nearly half an hour (dependent on film and developer), intoxicating yourself in the fumes from the chemical .

 

[sljm]

Developing is pretty straight forward (i learn alot from ilford), but what is important is actually finding out what developer and film combination at what speed gets u what u want.

Try to get a copy of Ansel Adam's "Negative" to read about how to test ur film with ur camera's meter and then see what developer at what timing gives u the negatives u think will be best for u. (sorry abt having no commas).

 

[donvito]

Developing is pretty straight forward (i learn alot from ilford), but what is important is actually finding out what developer and film combination at what speed gets u what u want.

Try to get a copy of Ansel Adam's "Negative" to read about how to test ur film with ur camera's meter and then see what developer at what timing gives u the negatives u think will be best for u. (sorry abt having no commas).

Thanks!

 

[donvito]

What was the problem faced by the TS? He was not happy with the negatives developed by the labs.

Seriously, does anyone really think that by just following the sticky by streetshooter, or the basic Ilford guide, one can do better than the labs here - by people who have been developing negatives for years?

Hi Student! I saw in the other thread you were organizing something related to this. Did it push through?

 

[student]

Hi Student! I saw in the other thread you were organizing something related to this. Did it push through?

I will organise one. But could not decide on the timing!:embrass:

 

[donvito]

I will organise one. But could not decide on the timing!:embrass:

Cool! Can you let me know then?