video: episode 20, how to develop black and white film for beginners
Process your own black and white film
Today’s video is something really different, we’ll take a break from lighting this week and get back at it next Monday. It’s fun to change things up, it keeps things interesting and it seemed like this video could fill a need.
There are a few different reasons you might want to shoot with film. Maybe you prefer the feel of a vintage, mechanical SLR (EpicEdits has a great post on film vs. digital cameras) . And if you’re going to shoot the old-fashioned way, why not give processing your own black and white film at home a try? It’s not quite a lost art yet…as a matter of fact, it may be regaining popularity. Young photographers that have only known a digital world are especially curious. I hope this video proves a helpful resource for those wanting to get started. You’ll also need a way to scan the film to get the images into your computer. Or, better yet, find a local darkroom to print them old the old-fashioned way.
For those of you (like me) that have developed thousands of rolls of black and white, maybe you’ll want to take this journey just for the memories. Too bad I can’t conjure up the smell of fixer for you through the video.
For some things it’s best to see a video demonstration, like loading a reel or agitating a tank. To really process film, though, you’ll want to have a written guide handy. For great (free) information straight from the experts, check out:
Ilford’s wonderful pdf, processing your first black and white film
Kodak’s black and white tips and techniques
***Subscribers view video here:***
Remember, the steps are:
- Load film in darkness
- Developer
- Stop Bath
- Fixer
- Rinse with water
- Photo-flo
- Hang to dry
If you don’t have a local camera store that sells darkroom supplies, I was able to make a grouping of products (thanks to Amazon.com) so you can see some recommendations, including reading. Trying to show you all of those products in any other manner would have taken hours, so thanks to Amazon.
P.S. I mentioned in the video that this was episode 20. Well, though there are over 20 videos on prophotolife but there wasn’t an official video episode 19. Somehow, it got passed by. Episode 19 will now be known as “the lost episode”.
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Actually just took a photography course at University and we did it (almost) like that, just no fancy “stop” fluid or the special Kodak stuff - was expensive enough to buy the developer and fixer already. That being said I will continue to give my negatives away and develop the positives myself - it kinda sucks because if you make one mistake with the negatives all the pictures are gone! Of course with experience this risk gets bigger, but professional photo stores are just better for developing negatives IMO.
Surprisingly, that looks like something I might try sometime. I got into photography because it was all digital and I didn’t have to worry about the expense of film and developing. Everything can be done on the computer.
It certainly looks easier than I imagined. Now, what do you do with that film you just developed?
That’s an understandable perspective, Dennis, and it makes sense for a large number of photographers. There was a time when photographers wanted complete control over their black and white because they didn’t trust the lab to do it right! I still feel I develop b&w better than the lab does. It was once a whole personal workflow from developing to printing. Now that negs largely go into a scanner, film developing is much less critical.
John, the actual developing is easy. The biggest thing is getting everything organized to start and then scanning (or printing) the images. I’ll show my scanning setup sometime soon to “complete the circle”.
Thanks for the post.
I’m *so* close to jumping into developing my own B&W. I just haven’t been able to jump yet.
Right now I’m shooting Ilford Super XP2, which is a color process B&W film so I can take it to just about anywhere to get it processed. While that’s a plus, I did get back a couple of mis-processed negatives from one roll, so it’s not a perfect process (no pun intended).
I guess that it will come down to money. By the time I shoot about 14 rolls of film, I could have bought the chemicals and processed the film myself. Granted that doesn’t take my personal time into account.
I guess that this would be much more important if I wanted to start shooting B&W 120 film. Then I can’t just drop it off for 1 hour processing.
That was interesting to see. I had never seen a step by step on how to develop film before. What is the difference with color negatives or slides?
XP2 is great quality and, as you’ve said, it is easily processed at any color lab since it’s a C-41 process (same as color neg). Kodak also has their C-41 process b&w film. The C-41 films use dyes to create the image where conventional b&w films use silver (which is what we developed here).
It’s possible to process color neg and slide at home but it’s tricky and expensive. Being very time and temperature dependent, color can be easily thrown off, something that doesn’t have to be dealt with in b&w. It’s hard to beat the local photo lab for processing color.
Funny thing is I had given up on B&W film when it got to be so expensive to develop compared to colour. Around here colour film can be done in 45 minutes and developed and made into 4×6 prints for about $3.50 but B&W there is only one store nearby that will take it, they send it out so it takes 2 weeks, and cost me $20 a roll last time I tried. As I’m playing with film again though I may pick up the supplies and give B&W a try this way. I’ll have to see what a canister, a 1:1 duplicator (for making positive slides) and a batch of chemicals will set me back.
If anybody is worried about the price of developing, make sure you use dry chemicals instead of premixed. Premixed Ilford DD-X is 16 times more expensive than dry Kodak XTOL chemicals (I prefer the results with XTOL anyway) in my town. Most of the price goes to transporting around the water.
Wow Jim, great video! I REALLY need to spend the money on the equipment and chemicals so I can do my own b/w. Not only will it save me money in the long run (I pay almost $8/roll to have it developed), but I’ll also save the drive to the film shop and the two day wait for them to get around to it. I really can’t stand waiting sometimes!
I took a B&W class at my University and we did pretty much this process except we had constant running water, probably for the wash but I can’t remember exactly what for. Rolling the film onto the developing roll was trying. Wish I had seen that push the roll into wheel back then. I had one roll where the film touched and I lost a few pictures which that probably would have helped.
I have noticed on Craigslist (in the San Francisco bay area) lately that a whole lot of darkroom equipment is being given away, sometimes free so it might be a place to pick some of the equipment.
I might have to try this again.
Thanks for this video, Jim!
This certainly can shorten the time you have to wait for your pictues when shooting analog, haha.
The last time I did this was in mid-school, I think.. omg.. 12 years ago
As mentioned before one has to be very careful with the film development. Otherwise your images could become flat, grey and boring or whatever.
BTW - I found a nice article about the zone-system when shooting film. Very interesting read..
http://www.forphotography.com/how-tos/zone/zone1.html
Greets,
Martin
Hi Jim
just to confirm… episode 19 doesn’t exist, right?
just to thank you for your videos - I’m learning a lot with them or just recycling my previous knowledge about some techniques.
Best regards
João Mário
Yes, that’s correct, episode 19 doesn’t exist. I forgot to make number 19!
you got the Olympic Gold Medal for faster answer
Hi there, really useful video, there are just a few questions that I would like you to answer if thats ok?
1. Do you just fill the tank with the chemicals because i thought you had to measure them out?
2. Does it matter what fixers you are using or is it just like “b&w fixer” the same goes for the other chemicals, do you need specific ones for your film or are they just standardised?
if you could answer them that would be great, thanks!
Hi Durkin, when you’re mixing the chemicals together they need to be measured properly so they’re the correct strength. The chemical packages should have that information on them. Once they are mixed to the proper strength, though, just fill the tank up till it’s full.
As for fixers there are different types but generally the same fixer is used for film and paper, it’s just mixed a little differently. For film there is less water used so the fixer is stronger, for paper the same fixer may be used but it’s diluted more with water.
I hope this helps!
I’m having trouble with reeling the film to the tank. i developed a roll today and i think the film is sticking together and that part was not developed.
Hi Jim -
Thanks so much for a such great DIY Instruction on processing B&W film - you make it look so easy. I’m certain there is much more that goes into the selection of the various chemicals and how they all interact with each other as well as how they interact with the various films, but you’ve done a superb job at keeping 1st things 1st and demonstrating simply HOW TO DO IT.
Thanks again!
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