I did it!

R8JimBob88

R8JimBob88

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Name
James Stockton
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Woo developed my first roll of B&W film! Really enjoyed it :) Great feeling taking the reel from the dev tank to see some lovley negs sat on there.

Now then..... I think all went well but obviously wont know untill I get some printed. Are there any tell-tale signs of anything that may have gone wrong? What would the effects be if say I didnt develop for long enough or too quickly? Wrong temperature etc?
 
If the film is too grey(under developed) or too black(over developed).

If you've got a scan with a 35mm neg holder just scan them in, make sure you try and get rid of any water marks (DON'T RUB TO HARD OR YOU WILL RUIN YOU NEG!!)
 
I have a scanner buts its nothing fantastic. In theory, if I scanned them in, and inverted the colours would that give me the photo?
 
Hi JimBob, I'm in the same boat as you being a youngster who has come back to film shooting because digital has been the norm and I thought it might be different.

The lab fees soon pile up and so I've decided that developing my own B/W would be a nice way to save a few pennies, tell me is it really that difficult? How did you find it as a first timer?

Thanks, R.
 
If i'm being honest, its not really hard at all. Getting the film from the container onto the spool can be tricky, it either workds first time or is a pain in the arse but after a few attempts its quite easy.

Mixing the chemicals etc is easy to, I think the hard part is perfecting everything. Getting the correct developing times for exposure etc and drying the film so that there are no streaks.
 
Thanks for your input, I have got a few exposed rolls of Ilford HP5 to one side. When I have some free time I will get the chemicals and hardware sorted out and have a go at processing.
 
I love developing films, For the simple fact you dont know what is going to come up on the film. Its a shame if they dont develop propperly though. I have had this happen a few times to me for my photography at school.

Its the pure satisfaction when you see the pictures come out of the tub =]
 
This takes me back many years when I used to develop my own films. I used to love watching the picture slowly appear in the dish, something you couldn't see with colour developing.
 
rotxlk said:
Thanks for your input, I have got a few exposed rolls of Ilford HP5 to one side. When I have some free time I will get the chemicals and hardware sorted out and have a go at processing.
Click to expand...

where are you location wise Rob? *** if you re in the south east you are welcome to use my darkroom and pots etc ( in fact if anyone down this way wants to have a go with film let me know )
 
the three stars above say c o z nothing naughty .
 
well done Jim , different to other systems for capturing images , maybe more time consuming but there is a sense of ,,,,,, i did that wow. as someone said in an earlier post , if you have drying marks on them it tends to be on the shiny side , if you have a lint free/lens cloth huff ?? breathe on the shiny side and gently rub off whilst its still moist and that normally gets rid of them.
 
Soft and hard water areas make a lot of difference .. getting a water filter of some sort will help reduce the streaks and that.

Other important factors is the temperature of everything being fixed and the timings adjusted to match....best to keep the room, tank, film canister, and the chemical mix all at the same temperature for consistent results ...

(y)
 
Drying marks are a real pain - a couple of drops of wetting agent in the final rinse tends to reduce them. I had bad experiences many years ago with film squeegees leaving tramline scratches so tend to use the technique of gently pulling the film between my index and middle fingers to remove most of the water (ensure that the digits concerned are nice and clean first).
 
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