How to develop your own B&W photos

[student]

Tmax has an advantage in that you can actually process at room temp
( for Singapore tats around 29 degrees celsius water temp )

I remember reading that somewhere, so i started off with Tmax : )

Use super diluted Rodinal
you can then maintain you dev time to 7 mins

But i believe most other films can be developed at this temp too

maybe just not mentioned ?

As what SS said, any film can be processed at any temperature. Just be aware of the trade off, the pluses and minuses. I never process my films at 27 degrees. I don't find any hassle at all in using 20C.

A problem with using "ambient" temperature of the water as a "standard" is that the "ambient" temperature changes according to the weather. And this results in inconsistency.

 

[student]

Some would question why I choose such a high dilution. Firstly it uses less developer concentrate (I'm referring to HC-110), and secondly, the timing is less critical. A difference of 1 min is a smaller fraction of 20 min than of 5 min. The higher temperature (27 deg vs 20 deg) somewhat compensates for the lower dilution, so you don't have to soak the films for too long (eg 45 min). The only drawback would be exhaustion of developer, which I suspect happens beyond 20 min.

Another use of a highly diluted concentration of developer is that dilute developer can behave like a "compensating developer", meaning it can actually control highlights. This can be particularly useful for the type of photography you do with sometimes very contrasty scene. It tames the high values. That is why for Technidol (discontinued) very dilute Rodinal can be used to have a pictorial effect.

 

[kahheng]

Tmax has an advantage in that you can actually process at room temp
( for Singapore tats around 29 degrees celsius water temp )

I remember reading that somewhere, so i started off with Tmax : )

Use super diluted Rodinal
you can then maintain you dev time to 7 mins

But i believe most other films can be developed at this temp too

maybe just not mentioned ?

The Kodak T-grain films have such superhardened emulsions that you can go up to E-6 temps safely (yes you read that right). Just use very very very dilute solutions of your usual developers to maintain sensible development times as the Ratboy has said. Overly short processing times are not advisable.

I used to do TMX and TMY at 28 degrees all the time with D-23 with filtered water straight from the tap. My experiments with the traditional films (i.e., non-superhardened) like Tri-X and a few Agfa emulsions were also very successful but you'd want to 'tropicalise' your usual developer with a large dose of sodium sulphite to prevent rapid swelling of the emulsion which can cause reticulation.

You guys should try TMY with D-23. The results are wonderful especially with the 120 format version of TMY. D-23 is just Metol and Sodium Sulphite.

Rodinal spiked with sodium chloride has a fairly interesting look to it. Less grainy than normal Rodinal.

Go buy yourselves a copy of the Film Developing Cookbook. Endless amusement there!

Damn, I knew I shouldn't have passed all my processing gear to the rodent! :bsmilie:

 

[ratboy]

Damn, I knew I shouldn't have passed all my processing gear to the rodent! :bsmilie:

You missed them right : )

The rodent's darkroom is being shifted again ( Very long OT Story )
But once it is set up, you're welcomed anytime for a cheese
festival ... ha ha ha

I still get haunting dreams from a Saunders 4 blade easel
left behind in your old studio calling to me : )

 

[nmk]

Its time for all the silly questions

1) Where do I buy a dark bag, the developing tank and all the chemicals and what is it likely to cost?

2) I am just entering Medium Format photography, any recommendations for a B&W film that would be easy to develop

3) Once it has been developed do I need a dedicated film scanner to scan the negatives or does a flat bed scanner work

Thanks
Krishna

 

[ratboy]

Its time for all the silly questions

1) Where do I buy a dark bag, the developing tank and all the chemicals and what is it likely to cost?

2) I am just entering Medium Format photography, any recommendations for a B&W film that would be easy to develop

3) Once it has been developed do I need a dedicated film scanner to scan the negatives or does a flat bed scanner work

Thanks
Krishna

If you are in Singapore,
a one stop shop for all the darkroom stuff would be Ruby at peninsular
estimated cost for dark bag S$20 ? dev tank $ 30~50
chemicals , dev $ 10 fix $ 10 stop bath $ 10

theres a guy who holds lesson in Singapore on intro to darkroom
his lessons comes with a whole set of stuff to start you of in film dev
maybe u can search the forums to check ?

 

[tucker]

if ya ARE in singapore, ya won't like to go to Ruby.
there's a supplier @ middle street. Sin cheong I think.
3rd floor. Ruby & TCW gets their supplies from them.
prices are as good as half over there.
enjoy.

 

[sweat100]

Its time for all the silly questions


2) I am just entering Medium Format photography, any recommendations for a B&W film that would be easy to develop

I also jus entered MF photography. I bought Tmax 100 and 400 from cathy. Both are $3.50/roll. Cheaper than the Ilford deltas sold at ruby. I got reasonable negatives form there. Maybe you want to give it a try?

Btw, if anyone knows where to get 120 BnW film cheaper be it expired or not. Pls share the place.

 

[student]

if ya ARE in singapore, ya won't like to go to Ruby.
there's a supplier @ middle street. Sin cheong I think.
3rd floor. Ruby & TCW gets their supplies from them.
prices are as good as half over there.
enjoy.

Enterprise House, Middle Road.

Tel:63363244

 

[student]

If you are entering B&W photography with films, I would not recommend Tmax films.

Reasons?

Tmax is "fussy" regarding exposure and development.

 

[simon80]

so guys .. when pple do xprocess
shoot in slide and then followed everything in post #1?

 

[kex]

u dun Xprocess in B&W developing..

Xprocess is developing slides in C-41 chemical meant for color negatives.

 

[simon80]

oh ..
so is C-41 replace H110? and then the rest as follows?

 

[nmk]

Thanks to this thread I have finally started to develop my own B&W films. One note of caution though, please try not to use Kodak D76 developer (because it is powder based and harder to measure) unless you have an accurate weighing scale or plan to use the full packet to make stock solution and store.

Also the cheapest place to get all the things needed under one roof (thermometer (meat thermometer), funnels, storage bottles, measuring beaker) etc is IKEA (came to less than $20 for all the above mentioned items).

I bought a developing tank from a fellow CS user and got the chemicals from cathay (I would recommend that any one starting out go for the HC110 or the Tmax developer instead as both are liquids). I happenned to get the Kodak fast fixer and hardener (not sure if this is the best, seemed to work well enough for me).

A Dark bag can be obtained from Ruby Photo. You dont really need a film picker, you can use a plier to ply off the top of the film canister (its quite easy to do, even when you are blind in a dark bag). Total budget to get started should be ~$100 ($30 dark bag (though it is probably available elsewhere for less), $25 for the chemicals, and $25 for the thermometer, beaker etc).

The hardest part of the development process is loading the film on the reel and once this is done the rest is just patience, and sticking to the proper concentration, temperature and timing. I happenned to use the directions on the cover of the developer and fixer. Didnt use an acid stop bath (only water), no HCA or photoflo. Should slowly start using these and see the impact.

I shall give the negatives for scanning soon and shall put up some photos when I get them back. The negatives themselves look okay.

Thanks for all the info here, its been a tremendouns help to me.

 

[csisfun]

Semi OT here:

But just wondering : is there any reason why one would want to use B&W film as compared to digitized B&W? I'm actually quite tempted to borrow a FM2 and try with some B&W film and then compare it to its digital counterpart.

Developing seems quite interesting too, and doesn't cost much from what I see here.

 

[student]

Semi OT here:

But just wondering : is there any reason why one would want to use B&W film as compared to digitized B&W? I'm actually quite tempted to borrow a FM2 and try with some B&W film and then compare it to its digital counterpart.

Developing seems quite interesting too, and doesn't cost much from what I see here.

There are several reasons why I prefer to use B&W films, although I have seen some very good digital B&W images. I believe there is no necessity to doubt that digital B&W is now very good.

My reasons for my personal preference are

1 The process itself. I enjoy the solitude and quietness of the darkroom process. In the glow of a dim light. Making judgements, knowing that every wrong judgement has a price, not s simple process of unclicking a mistake. Every mistake I made is a wasted piece of paper.

2 The medium. There is no necessity to say which is better. They are different. Our eyes see reflected light. That is one of the ley esscence of seeing.

When we look at a digital print, we are seeing reflection from pigments.

When we look at a traditional prin made from silver impregnated papers, we see reflection from this silver impregnated paper.

To me, there is a qualitative difference. And I prefer the latter.

 

[ipsum34]

It's like why most people are driving auto cars, while still some prefer manual cars....more control and satisfaction i guess....

 

[ORIKO]

I have USED B&W FILM PROCESSING machine, low usage at local police department
Model: FP-260
Brand: FC Manufacturing
AGE: 1995
Price: US$600.00
Shipping : worldwide
Installation: N/A
Manual: N/A
If interested in, pls let me know.

 

[stinkabelle]

Hey SS, you stopped at developing negatives. what about the whole process in the photos? if i dont recall wrongly, u actually need to cast light on the photos then drop them in the developer, fixer and stop bath (cant remember if it's the correct order) before the prints appear. so how can you do those at home? do we need to fix a red light on for that process too or is it ok to expose this procedure to light?

 

[Ansel]

Hey SS, you stopped at developing negatives. what about the whole process in the photos? if i dont recall wrongly, u actually need to cast light on the photos then drop them in the developer, fixer and stop bath (cant remember if it's the correct order) before the prints appear. so how can you do those at home? do we need to fix a red light on for that process too or is it ok to expose this procedure to light?

It is called a "Dark Room". ")