The Collective

Developing Film

Today we were able to develop our film, which was taken on the Barbican a few weeks ago. Having not developed film before I was looking forward to learning how the procedure was done. In our groups we lay out our tools in order, as this makes it easier to put the tank back together at the end. I then went into the darkroom, which was pitch black. I had to pop open the film canister, remove the film, load onto the film reel and place the reel inside the developing tank.

I learnt a lot from my introduction to developing film today, such as I had to handle the film on its edges and try not to touch it too much, especially while loading the film and during the development process. I must admit, it sounds a lot easier than it actually is! Once the reel was inside, I screwed on the lid, which makes it light tight, meaning that I could turn the lights on again. Once this part was complete, the rest we could do in the light! We had to measure out 150ml of water, which had to be at 20 degrees. We then poured the water into the tank, this is pre-wetting and will make the film swell up and accept the developer solution. 150ml of developer was then added to the tank, which had to be agitated for one minute, then every minute for the next twelve minutes. Developing chemicals become exhausted after coming in contact with film. Agitation ensures that fresh chemicals are touching the film. However, over agitating can give negative results and can increase the contrast too much. The developer cannot be reused, so must be poured down the drain.

The next step, was to add 300ml of stop into the tank, I agitated this for thirty seconds. However unlike the developer, the stop can be reused, so was poured back into the container. Lastly, 300ml of fix was added, which was agitated for five minutes. Just like the stop, we reuse the fix; so again, this was poured back into the container. We then took out the reel and placed it into running water for twenty minutes. After that, we placed it in the dryer and left it for about forty minutes.

We then came back the next week to complete the procedure. The three chemicals we used were developer, stop and fix. Developer makes anything that the light has hit, go black. The stop, stops it developing and the fix stops chemical reaction happening.

When we were setting everything up, we had to make sure that each tray had two litres of chemistry in (1000ml). We then had to work out how much chemistry was needed.

Developer:

1 part Fix to 9 part water

1+9=10

2000/10=200

1 part=200

Stop:

1 part to 19 part water

1+19=20

2000/20

1 part=100

Fix:

1 part to 9 part water

1+9=10

2000/10=200

1 part=200

Kit List:

Tray

Tongs

Lens

Negative Carrier

Contact sheet boards

Focus finder (for printing)

Developer: 90 seconds

Stop: 30 seconds

Fix: 5 minutes

Water: 10 minutes