What do you actually need to process B&W Negs?

I'd love to shoot more B&W film through my classic 35mm cameras but I'm always put off by the lab costs, which is a shame, as I'm missing out on some great films.

 

Assuming a got a scanner to do something with the Negs, what do I actually need to develop them? And how easy is it without a darkroom?

 

I'd love to try some Tri-X, so advice would be welcome!

 

Cheers!

 

Stuart

You can successfully process BW negatives without a darkroom-and do a great job anywhere you have running water. I have developed hundreds of rolls and 4x5" large format negatives in hotel bathrooms across the country! :cool:

 

I suggest you start with a good book, such as Steve Anchell & Bill Troop's "The Film Developing Cookbook." Find it here at Amazon:

 

https://www.amazon.com/Film-Developing-Cookbook-Darkroom-Vol/dp/0240802772/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1508499596&sr=8-1&keywords=the+film+developing+cookbook

 

Everything you need you can get on one shot somewhere like bhphotovideo.com or adorama.com. If you shop around ebay and other places you can get some things a bit cheaper, but consume more effort. Here is the basic list:

 

• Film changing bag. This is a light-tight zipper bag with sleeves to insert your arms and hands. Put your film canister, an opener, and the developing tank inside and load your film in the tank.
  
• Film development tank. Available in 1-6 roll sizes. I reccomend a 2-3 roll model as it allows you to put in a larger amount of developer, or process more than one roll of film.
  
• Developer powder. I suggest something like Ilford ID-11 or Kodak D-76 to start out with. These are time tested standard developers.
  
• Kodak or similar "Indicator Stop Bath" concentrate.
  
• Kodak or similar powdered fixer.
  
• For optimal processing (although not absolutely necessary) a "Rapid Hypo Clearing Agent" and Kodak PhotoFlo-200.
  
• Hangers & weights for developed film strips.
  
• A decent digital thermometer.
  
• An accurate timer that is good for at least 30 minutes, and can be set in increments of 15 & 30 seconds.
   
  
• Medium sized funnel.
  
• Plastic jugs to hold prepared chemistry. You need at least 3-4 gallon jugs for holding stock solution. Quart can be used, but DO NOT try to divide dry developer powder intended for 1 gallon batches into quart lots. Too much chance for issues due to division error and chemistry components not evenly distributed in the large bag.
  

Easy. I run water in the kitchen to the desired temperature and fill a container with the running water. Keeping the water running I set a film developing tank (full of developer) into the container of water to set the temperature of the developer. I take the tank out, dry it, dry hands (otherwise I find placing the film on the reel is a pain) and go into my darkroom, i.e. light-sealed closet. Put the film into the tank in the closet. The rest - developing, agitation, washing, fixing can be done in the light, although I err on the side of keeping bright light away and when developing infrared film like Kodak HIE I do everything in the dark until fixation.

 

A piece of advice - practice loading the film reel with a dummy film roll in the light. This takes some practice and you don't want to be fumbling, swearing and sweating in the dark the first time you try.

Re timers: there are some nice app timers if you have a smart phone which you can set to go off at repeat intervals, e.g. every 30 seconds for agitation.

When I did my own processing (mono and slide) I created a set of audio tapes, dual channel, with music on one channel (different for each film - I standardised on FP4 and Tri-X, and Sakurachrome for slide), and a 'bleep' every minute from a cirtest on the other channel, enhanced by my own dulcet tones marking passage of time, warning about next action to be taken a minute beforehand, and explicit instruction for each step at the appropriate time (i.e. 'Pour out developer - pour in stop bath). This way, I had very little chance of getting distracted, and everything was standardised. No doubt there are electronic variations on this theme now.

The shopping list above should do the trick, but for developer, I would like to mention you do not need to go with the powder-based ones necessarily. ID11 and D76 are great starting points, but once you prepare the developer, it will expire after a while. Depending on the volume you shoot, that may mean you'll have to throw out expired developer quite some times. A great alternative is Kodak HC110, which comes as a syrup with long shelve life.

Cheap, and fun to see how a developer can change the result, could be a small bottle of Rodinal (R09 One Shot).

 

Fixer also comes as a fluid (i.e. Ilford Rapid Fixer, or Fomafix), but since it doesn't expire as quickly, less of a concern there.

 

Not strictly necessary, but useful: sleeves to put the negatives in, to avoid them scratching and damaging.

Joe's list is a good one but I strongly recommend that you get stainless steel developing tanks over the number of plastic models on the market. Nikor is the "popular" name for the ss tanks. Plain water can be used vrs the acetic acid stop bath. Wouter's idea on the pre-packaged liquid developer/fixer chems is also a good one. Here is my Igloo Cooler idea (yes, again!) for keeping the chems at an equal temperature. Shown is enough chems (small green bottles) for a 120 or two 35mm rolls. The cooler also keeps the "clutter" down. Go to it & yell if you get into some screwy problems. . . we all did at first! Enjoy, Bill

If you do purchase a ss tank system, start with a 450ml size over the "standard" 1 roll 340ml size. If I use my 450ml tank for just one roll of 35mm film, I space the reel in the tank middle with the top cap from a large orange juice bottle. Drill a mass of 1/4" holes in the cap. In the middle of the tank, the film receives excellent fluid circulation. Three caps from milk jugs are used to space a roll of 120 film. Bill

You cannot trust an ordinary faucet to mix to a constant temperature (ever take a shower when someone starts a washing machine?). The error is not just out of the ideal range, but potentially damaging the film. Fill an insulated container, and adjust the temperature while stirring. I usually don't bother temperating the bottles. If you use a stainless steel tank in a tempered water bath, heat transfer is good enough to bring the contents to temperature from ambient. Color chemicals at 100F is another matter. You have to temper the chemicals as well. Only the first color step is temperature-critical.

 

You need running water to wash the film, so I just use cold. I bought a siphon film washer. It's faster and much more efficient. It fills slowly from the bottom, then drains quickly through a siphon.

 

I wish I still had one of those GE "X-Ray" interval timers. You set a dial then pulled a lever to start the countdown and alarm when finished. Now they're antiques selling for about $100. An ordinary kitchen timer will work, but keep it clean. You will probably have chemicals on your fingers when you start it.

 

You can still find tempering faucets, but they are very expensive and require plumbing skills for installation. Always maintain an air break between between a faucet and a water bath, for safety! There are check valves which serve the same purpose, aka back flow preventers.

 

Quick question. Where are the little stainless steel caps for the Nikkor tanks shown above? That's the only kind of tank I use, and they leak like a sieve, However agitation is by inversion, so you need a cap.

 

Stainless reels are the only way to go, IMO. You can blot them kinda' dry and start a new roll any time. They load from the inside out, so they never bind, but the film will kink if you're not careful. Practice with an old roll of film until you can do it in the dark (LOL). It is not necessary to clip the film to the core. It's easier to load if you keep the inside end straight, and hold it with your fingers through the ends of the core.

 

Buy a few pairs of cotton or nylon finishing gloves. Your hands will sweat badly in a changing bag in the summer, and leave fingerprints on the film. For the same reason (sweating), I avoid latex gloves.

Edited October 20, 2017 by Ed_Ingold

There is a lot of good info here, but it is really pretty simple - if you can cook breakfast, you can develop B&W film. I started at around 12 or 13, and was nearly always successful, though a much hated Daylight Developing tank caused some setbacks. Mostly it is keeping things clean and uncontaminated, paying attention to fresh solutions, time, temp, and process steps. If the ambient temp of the place where you live is within the range for the process, you can work from that. If your rinse water is not hot (or loaded with too many minerals) , you are in business straight out of the tap. Do make sure the place where you load the reel is completely dark or use a changing bag. You do need to practice loading film on the reels in the light -- saves on swearing. Gloves - I never used gloves for any B&W processing, and never saw any harm to the film. A basic kitchen timer will work for time -- or the stopwatch function on a cheap watch.

As I young guy, I developed film in a lot of rental places kitchens, and hung the film to dry in the shower stalls.

Start with a roll that you shoot just as a trial run. Once you have succeeded you are ready to go. Have fun!

Ed, you will see the Nikor cap under the reel. The Nikor (or any other brand of ss tank) will leak mostly from the seam around the tank & cover. My green developing bottle is marked for the liquid volume that is about 1/32" below the lip on the main tank body. I use liquid developers, so 1-6 ml does not upset the fill mark. As to those "odd" dribbles that leak out during inversion, a double folded paper towel is used over the cap. Bill

Seeing as you are in the UK I found Clifford Street Photography very helpful.

CliffordStreetPhotography.com

 

They do a starter kit on their ebay shop

FILM DEVELOPING KIT FOR 35MM & 120 FILM "WITH PATERSON DEV. TANK" | eBay

that comes with instructions. Good kit, good price.

They also do chemicals.

ag-photographic - Ag Photographic. The Specialists for all traditional photo products.

 

are also a good source for chemicals and film.

 

I bought a home brew 5L plastic tub with lid for mixing developer at stock, and transfer the amount I need to a washed out 2L plastic milk carton, and then dilute it.

Fixer is a good idea :) and stop (not really necessary - just wash for a few minutes)

I use Ilford ID11, Fix AG plus, Ilfostop, and a washing agent -Tetenal Mirasol 2000 antistatic.

Best value is Ilford ID11 in a 5L pack. It must be mixed all at once to avoid crystallisation - hence the 5L home brew tub.

 

Get some empty 2L plastic milk cartons to store your dilute chemicals, and a black marker pen!

 

Ken

I forgot to mention, just to make life easier, I bought a small pair of round nose scissors (for cutting the film in the changing bag) and a small

tub of 25 binder clips from Tesco (for weight on the bottom of developed film when it is drying)

I use an old bottle opener for opening film canisters (you open the flat end) in the changing bag.

It's fun and very easy.

I find the kitchen is the easiest place to do it - lots of work surfaces and soap to wash any developer that gets on your hands!

Protect the worktops with an old towel or cardboard.

 

For temperature, you'll need to warm everything up to 20C in the UK. I use a plastic kitchen sink bowl to stand the container of developer in warm water.

Normal mains water is at 14C in the UK.

For even more answers, here's an old thread with the same question!

Equipment recommendation to process at home

Good timer? For B&W a wrist watch with a second hand is more than good enough. A few seconds either way is not going to make or break.

 

And unlike E6, a few degrees one way or the other is no biggie.

Since your reason for doing this is cost, you might see what other are giving away.

 

It is often easy to find them on Craigslist, or other similar sites for free, or for low prices on auction sites.

 

There is another choice though, and that is to use Ilford XP2 film, which is developed in the C41 process used for color negatives.

 

It is often easy to find cheaper places doing that, than ones that will do ordinary black and white film.

Thanks for all the great advice Chaps - Much appreciated! That should get me started!

 

Thanks!

As noted above, if you're in the USA Craigslist is a great source.

 

Really, all you need is a developing tank with reel(s) (plastic is cheaper than stainless), developer, stop bath, Photo Flow (or equivalent), two 1 gallon plastic containers (for developer and fixer), and a photo thermometer. No need for a changing bag because any bathroom will work provided you can make it light tight. No need for stop bath, either. For developer, I recommend something that has a long shelf life. Alternatively, I use XTOL mostly and have it in a wine bladder to keep air out. It will last more than a year.

Cost isn't the only reasons for developing B&W. It isn't even the most important. The big deal is quality and consistency. In all my years, I've never got B&W results worth snapshot quality from a local lab. I'm sure a custom labs would be better. Color, on the other hand, has been pretty good from a lab, and prints from images I've scanned have been very good as well.

 

I use gloves in the midwest because it gets really stuffy here in the summer, and my hands sweat a lot in a changing bag. I highly recommend a changing bag, or better yet a changing "tent", which has a little frame and more space to work. You need a darkroom for printing, but B&W film can be done in daylight once the tank is closed.

 

At the newspaper where I worked while in college, we had shallow sinks with a standpipe and tempered, running water, hot, cold and chilled. That kept all the spills contained and the temperature constant within about 1/2 degree F. After that, nothing else was good enough, so I never built a darkroom. Developed a lot of film in the kitchen, though.

You need a darkroom for printing,

Sorry, I printed in various kitchens at night with a black king sized towel or black corduroy curtain over the window, bathrooms likewise, though you have to have a tub and plywood working surface, since there are no countertops.

Developed a lot of film in the kitchen, though.

Nice edit, Ed.:D

Really, all you need is a developing tank with reel(s) (plastic is cheaper than stainless), developer, stop bath, Photo Flow (or equivalent), two 1 gallon plastic containers (for developer and fixer), and a photo thermometer. No need for a changing bag because any bathroom will work provided you can make it light tight. No need for stop bath, either. For developer, I recommend something that has a long shelf life. Alternatively, I use XTOL mostly and have it in a wine bladder to keep air out. It will last more than a year.

 

Yes, and no! Having spent countless hours in hotel bathrooms, a home darkroom that was in a bathroom, and a number of more formal darkrooms--let's agree that it is not always easy to eliminate light sources, or become aware of minor ones until being in the space for 10 or 15 minutes. Beyond long enough to fog higher speed films. A $30 investment in a light bag overcomes all of this, and adds the ability to open film or loaded cameras anywhere at any time. Just saying... ;)

 

While indeed a running water bath, or direct immersion in the fix is certainly possible in lieu of acetic stop--I like to know that I know that the development process has been arrested in a moment. Chuck wrote that "a few degrees or a few seconds" is unlikely to create problems. I will stipulate that this is certainly true for development times of 68 degrees F or below, with slower ISO films (<200) in common solvent type developers. 15 or 30 seconds too little or too much in a solution at 78 degrees and above (this is logarithmic folks!) can shift the density of the negative N-1 or N+1 which can amount to a whole stop of under or overexposure and even etch away detail from some highlight areas or bury the details of shadow areas a full zone down. So timing is important... o_O

Edited October 21, 2017 by PapaTango

I've developed film in bathrooms, kitchens, dorm rooms and decent darkrooms for decades and have never owned a changing bag. IMO, stop bath is important and I don't understand the desire people have not to use it. That was true decades ago as well, but you're way better off with it than without it. Unless using alkaline fixer. Best results are obtained using the "primary recommendation" temperature. The balance of activity of the various developer components can change with temperature, so staying close to 68 is desirable. Everybody should start out with full strength D-76 or the equivalent (ID-11?) because it's the standard against which all developers are compared. Play with dilution and other developers after you understand the reference.

As much as like like HC110 (dilutions B and H) I would agree that it's better to start with D-76 stock. I started with it when I was still in junior high school. If HC110 (or other similar liquids) disappeared from the market I would still be okay with D-76. And one can even make D-76 from scratch if desired. For temperature control a large pyrex test tube can be filled with hot water (for warming) or ice water (for cooling) and then stir the developer with the test tube to adjust the temperature.

let's agree that it is not always easy to eliminate light sources, or become aware of minor ones until being in the space for 10 or 15 minutes. Beyond long enough to fog higher speed films. A $30 investment in a light bag overcomes all of this, and adds the ability to open film or loaded cameras anywhere at any time. Just saying... ;)

I'm sure you're in the minority in that you've done a lot of film processing in hotels. I suspect the OP will be doing this at home, like the great majority of us, where control of light is pretty easy. I'm curious, why does it take you 10-15 min to load a roll or two of film onto a reel? The only time I use a light bag is when I'm loading 4x5 film into holders in the field.

 

While indeed a running water bath, or direct immersion in the fix is certainly possible in lieu of acetic stop--I like to know that I know that the development process has been arrested in a moment. Chuck wrote that "a few degrees or a few seconds" is unlikely to create problems. I will stipulate that this is certainly true for development times of 68 degrees F or below, with slower ISO films (<200) in common solvent type developers. 15 or 30 seconds too little or too much in a solution at 78 degrees and above (this is logarithmic folks!) can shift the density of the negative N-1 or N+1 which can amount to a whole stop of under or overexposure and even etch away detail from some highlight areas or bury the details of shadow areas a full zone down. So timing is important... o_O

 

I suspect the OP won't be processing at 78F as he is just starting out and will likely stay in the 68F range, like most of us do most of the time. Water at tap temp in most places will be perfectly fine for film (though I always use stop bath for prints). Perhaps we can better tailor this discussion if the OP can provide additional details about his working environment.