Recommended chemicals for b&W and where to get them uk (beginner question)

[mark_clayton1]

I am a very new to the darkroom world and would like to know what

processing chemicals recommended and where to get them in the uk at

a reasonable price

[bj_bignell]

In short: Your choice of chemicals will depend on the film(s) you're using, how you're using them, and what you want from them. Some developers give higher sharpness but increased grain size, while others minimize grain at the expense of sharpness. Some will cause a loss of film speed, others a gain. If you're going to push-process, it's different again.

 

You'll probably have better luck if you post in the B&W Photo - Film and Processing forum. Also, look through the old posts there, and you'll find tons and tons of recommendations.

[chris_waller]

It depends on what you want and where you are. You can buy darkroom chemicals at Jessops and Jacobs if you live in or near a fairly large town or city. But increasingly I buy my chemicals by mail-order where the range of stock is much larger. You can try Arem Publishing, publishers of 'Mono', the journal of Creative Monochrome. They can be found at www.arempublishing.co.uk or 'phone 020 8686 3282. Or you can try Silverprint of London (www.silverprint.co.uk, or 'phone 020 620 0844). Or you can try 'Firstcall' of Taunton.

[basscheffers]

Borders on Oxford Street in London has a good collection of photography tutorial books, including mono in which the authors tell you what they use, a good plave to start. If you are nowhere near london, hopefully other branches have similar stock.

 

As for getting started, you could do a lot worse than simply ordering HC-110, which is a good general purpose developer that works fine with Ilford HP5, FP4 and the Delta films, is easy to mix and reasonably economic.

 

You still need stop and fix, but that doesn't influence the image much, so get whatever you fancy. To be honest, I haven't a clue what I fix in, the lab I do my work at (Photofusion.net) simply has two containers labeled "stop" and "fix"! :)