I did it! I just developed my first film!

[silverscape]

I can't believe it! I finally did it! I just developed film for the first

time!

 

The film was Plus-X 125, 35mm film. The pictures are nothing special, I was

just taking pictures around my neighborhood. I just wanted to see if I could

even do it!

 

I used powdered D76 developer and fixer. They were old chemicals that a

friend gave me, but they were still sealed. Some of you saw what I wrote

about this in my last post. The powders were still white and seemed okay. I

can't even describe how excited I was after I opened the tank and saw that

there were actually IMAGES on the film!! I had never done this before. Even

if the pictures don't turn out right, I'll still be so excited that I actually

developed film myself! Now it doesn't seem like such a mysterious process

that only photo labs can do. I'm so used to just handing over my film to

someone else and then waiting an hour or 3 days or whatever and magically

seeing it transformed into a packet of pictures and negatives. But now, I

opened the tank and there the pictures are, right in front of me! I feel like

I just cracked a code or something. Like I just learned an arcane secret.

This is so cool. :)

 

It's probably still too early to say this since I don't really know how the

pictures will turn out yet, but I was amazed at how EASY it was! It was so

much easier than I thought it would be!

 

Right now, I still have the film hanging up to dry. Now I just have to figure

out how to get the pictures from it. I don't think I'm ready to make prints

yet. I was thinking that I could just put the negatives on my scanner, and

then invert the colors? If worse should come to worst, I guess I could just

take the negatives to the lab at Walmart to make prints for me...until I learn

to make the prints myself. That might be worth it just to see the look on

their face when I say I developed the film myself. :)

[hillary_charles]

Congratulations Chris!

 

It almost seems like magic, doesn't it? Both of your ideas for getting prints are workable. When you do begin to print, seeing the picture appear in the developing tray will be equally magical.

 

I love your enthusiasm! Keep it up.

[michaelging]

After 36yrs,tens if not hundreds of thousands of rolls, I still get a kick seeing that there really is a image on the film.

[jeff bishop]

Wait until you pull the first roll of transparencies out of the tank; and see them in full color.

 

The biggest thrill I ever got processing film was seeing my first transparencies from 4x5 film.

[cliffmanley]

I love to hear the sound of "WOW"

 

Now, help keep film alive and show all of your freinds how to do it. Maybe get together and build a darkroom. It's all uphill from here.

 

Find a friend close by with a film scanner, till you get one of your own. I'll bet anyone on here would be proud to scan your first film and put it on a CD for you. I don't know where you live, but I will do it if you want to send them to Florida.

[jon_b.1]

Congratulations! I share your enthusiasm about seeing the images on the film, it is quite a thrill. When I first started developing my own I could not believe how easy and cheap it is. I learned it from a Library book. Oh, the money I had spent at photo labs! So far, I've developed hundreds of rolls and only screwed up 2 or 3...over-used fixer. Next I want to get an enlarger and start printing.

[mharris]

Chris, the monkey is on your back now. There's no turning back, you're going to have a blast.

[tibz]

Try walmart-they'll be a bit off. You'll have to get actual black and white printing. Tell them it's black and white film and they might be able to do it right. For film scanners just tell the scanner it's a black and white negative and it should get it correct.

[doug grosjean]

Also, don't cut it before anybody scans it. Some scanners like it all in one long strip.

 

Congrats, BTW. Very cool, BTDT and it's still a thrill. About as hard as baking a cake, isn't it?

[craig_supplee]

Too cool! There's no turning back now. You're in it for the long haul. Nothing quite like seeing that developed film peel off the reel is there. Congratulations.

[gene m]

Thumbs up, kid.

[russ_britt3]

No need to scan....get a cheap enlarger and make a real print. You will really be amazed how easy that is. You will never go digital again. Good luck, ps enlargers are real cheap on e-bay now.

[Andy Collins]

Great job, Chris! Your enthusiasm about your cameras is really wonderful to 'see' and it's catching. Sometimes I think it becomes easy (for me, at least) to focus on the next camera while not really fully experiencing the ones you already have, and remembering the excitement you felt when you first got them. It's nice hearing about your Argus, your new slr, and now your pictures you're developing. I have a feeling you're just getting started in this classic camera stuff, so I look forward to hearing more about your discoveries.

[russ_britt3]

Chris pick up a copy of Fred Picker`s book (ZONE VI Workshop) you will get a lot out if it right now....again good work....

[silverscape]

Thanks, guys!

 

I guess I should be posting this in the Film and Developing forum. But now I'm thinking I really want to try making some prints. I have a lot of questions! What's the process for that? Is it basically the same thing, exposing the photo paper, and then putting it in developer and fixer? Also, what kind of light do I need? I know I have to have a red light, but does the room have to be completely sealed from regular light? How sensitive is paper? My friend had given me another powdered developer chemical for paper. I think it's D-19, and also Dektol. They're still sealed. He gave me a bunch of photo paper too, but it's old. Can you still use expired paper? It's Kodabrome paper, and also some other kind that says F2 Bromide Paper. On the directions, they all say to develop with Dektol, but it doesn't give any information on what the developing time should be.

 

I'll look for an enlarger. But I was reading something about contact prints. What's the process for doing that?

[michaelging]

Go to Craigs list and look there for a enlarger in your home town. Bessler,Omega,are good brands.

[david_m]

It's quite a big step to go from just dveloping to enlarging. For enlarging you need an enlarger, an enlarging lens, a negative carrier, a timer, a focus aid, developing trays, a dark light and another set of chemicals. Don't let me put you off. But I have found scanning the negative, retouching on a computer and printing on a printer is a much more flexible and cleaner solution, at least for me. And colour is just as easy as black and white. You definitely cannot say that about enlarging in colour!

[patrick_lewis2]

Good job! I still remember processing my first film. Then I made a contact print. I keep it for memories' sake. It's a good feeling. Printing is a little trickier, just because you have to deal with contrast, exposure, and stuff, but it is all worth it when you get "the print".

 

To Jeff Bishop, there definately is something magical about pulling slides out of the tank. I think the great sacrifice involved helps one appreciate them more (I refer to my own setup of a cooler in the sink and various bottles of chems heating to "precisely" 100 degrees, then agitating the tank and returning it to a pool of warm water). Much easier to take slides to a lab, but good to know that you COULD do it yourself when the digital empire outlaws it.

 

Go film.

[michael_dimarzio]

Hey totally cool! It is so great to have fun, man, keep it up, one of life's adventures! I'll make this post one of these days!

[mischakoning]

Another addict born :o)

 

I developed my first film only a few years back and it _is_ addictive, first 35mm, then 120 rollfilm and now large format negatives. It still feels like magic everytime I pull a film out of the watering bath and see there really are images on the film. Highly addictive indeed.

 

Recently someone gave me two enlargers, bought paper and chemicals and now I'm just waiting for some time so home printing can start. It's great to have fun with such old-school things, isn't it?

[roger_randle]

I will add my congratulations - developing is the crack cocaine of photography - instantly addictive. I still get that buzz I got thirty years ago when I did my first. OK it's only chemistry but it still seems like alchemy to me. Well done!

 

Roger

[chuck_foreman1]

Chris,

 

I'm loving it too ! You're enthusiasm is biting me to do just what you're doing!!

I did film and enlarging about 20 years ago then I got married,kids and moved to europe. I started here (in the forum) a year ago ..trying to get back in to it and you're kickin'my butt!!

It's inspiring!

Most of your questions can be answered by reading on the net.

Yes, the enlarging process is the same as film; develop/stop/fix

The old paper may not be as sensitive as it once was but it will reveal images. The D76 you mixed up can be be used for paper too. Read the dilution table. It will do bromide paper OK, I assume you can still buy Dektol, this was the Kodak standard paper developer. Also the stop and fix for film can be used for paper. The room does have to be light tight. If a little light comes through the cracks it will definitely fog film but probably not paper depending of course where in relation to the paper it is. A darkroom red or orange light

can be used with paper but not film. Most enlargeres have a red filter. So you compose the image in easel, move filter in place, load paper (critical phase) move filter away to expose paper, then the 3 steps; the deveoper, the stop and then the fix. wash and dry!!

I used to love doing this... I had a nice place to realize this and I listened to late night jazz radio in the dark room!! Good times..

my little EU apartment will/is not conducive to an enlarger. I will be shopping a new film scanner. Tipps Anyone? I brought my tank and also 15 year old chemicals up from the cellar yesterday!

Thanks Chris!!

[charles_stobbs3]

I started by swishing a roll of 620 through trays and printing with a contact print frame, moved on to a tank and an enlarger, and then to the biggest thrill of - oepning the little yellow box the mailman had left and seeing all those Kodachrome slides. Keep moving forward, Chris.

[jeff bishop]

Enlargers are easy to come by. I've picked up a number of them over the last several or so years. When I came across a Bessler MX45 I got rid of the others. Gave them away. If you advertise on Craigslist, there's probably someone who will give you an enlarger. Like any true photographer, they would rather see it getting used than tossed in a dumpster.

[patrick j dempsey]

Awesome! You will find that you can scan at home on your flat bed scanner and get better results than 1hr scanners. Their machines applies severe corrections to images which are under exposed which often ruins images that COULD be saved. I've just started learning about using my flat bed scanner, but it's pretty simple. The flatbed scanners with 35mm film scanning strips are pretty cheap. Scan in "color negative mode" to get the most out of the scan. (B&W mode on scanners gives you a very limited gray palette). Turn off all of the automatic color and contrast corrections. Use at least 1200 dpi and whatever the maximum color resolution it will scan at. Once it's scanned you bring it into PS and you can lower the saturation to kill the color cast and then play with your histogram control to bring out the full contrast of the image. You can also play with the histogram on the scanner and get better scans. If your negs are underexposed, adjusting the histogram on the scanner can often bring out amazing detail that usually just gets turned into digital noise by the 1-hr machines, or gets turned into posterizing with simple contrast control in PS.