How To Develop Film at HOME
One of my greatest joys is receiving my processed film back from the lab. Nothing beats the anticipation of seeing that email pop up and examining your scans for the first time. It’s magical to relive the events immortalized on the roll of film, but what if you didn’t have to wait? What if you could develop and scan your film at home? No more waiting. In this blog, I want to share a brief overview of my entire process for processing black and white film at home.
Step 1: Chemicals
I use Ilford liquid chemicals to develop my film - Ilfosol-3, Ilfostop, and Rapid Fixer. Each one requires a specific dilution to get your film looking right. Otherwise, you could over or under develop, not stop the reaction correctly, or worse, wash the emulsion right off. You don’t have to be a chemist. You just need to be able to do a little math - or read my recipe (pdf download).
(you can also click on the image to zoom in or download)
With this recipe, you’ll be able to develop using the Paterson Super System 4 or the Stearman Press SP-445 which are my primary at home developing tanks.
Make sure you keep your chemicals at or as close to 20ºC as the development will work best.
Step 2: Development Times
Developing times are all dependent on some personal taste and standardized systems. Once you get really good and understand what you are doing, you can begin experimenting, but if you’re just looking to get “correct” times, nothing beats the recommendations of the decades (centuries) of film processors who came before.
I use this website: https://www.digitaltruth.com/devchart.php
With it, you’ll be able to choose your film stock, your developer, and temperatures. From this information you’ll be able to time out your developing process easily - no guesswork involved.
If you decide to use Ilfostop as part of your process (some just rinse a whole bunch after the developing), I generally stop the reaction for 1 minute - agitating the entire time.
I use Rapid Fixer for 3 minutes. Seems to be a good length. I have no reason to experiment here.
Step 3: Load Your Film Tank(s)
This step is by far the most intimidating of the entire process. Getting your Stearman or Paterson loaded up in complete darkness -unless you have access to a darkroom with a red safelight- can be challenging and occasionally frustrating. There have been times I’ve gotten so tangled up in a roll of 35mm film that I had to cut my film to get it onto the spool. Be patient and practice a lot in the light with scrap film before you decide to try it out in the dark.
Step 4: Development
Having your chemicals, times, and film ready to go, it’s time to get everything developed. Development is a five step process. Steps 1-4 must be in complete darkness, but step 5 can be in the light.
Initial wash with fresh cool water (1-2 min.)
Develop with Ilfosol-3 Solution (time varies)
Stop with Ilfostop Solution (1 min.)
Fix with Rapid Fixer Solution (3 min.)
Final rinse with fresh cool water (1-2 min.)
As an optional step, once you’re final rinse is complete, fill up your tank with water and add a couple drops of Kodak Photo-flo 200 to help the film dry clean and resist water droplets.
Step 5: Drying
Hang your film to dry on a clothesline with clothespins (wood or plastic). I usually use my bathroom tub so any drips land there and are easily rinsed. If you’re processing roll film, you can even use a dedicated film squeegee to squeeze extra water off it.
Be patient here. Last thing you want to do is add fingerprints on the film surface while it’s still drying or start scanning too soon and get water on your flatbed surface.
Step 6: Scanning/Digitizing
Step 6 could be replaced by printing if you have access to a darkroom. This would nearly double the length of this blog, though, so we’ll stick to the digitization of film. We can all admit nothing beats posting a film photo on your profile with those analog film related hashtags, and talk about bragging rights when you can say you developed this roll yourself.
Anywho…
There are two methods:
Lightbox and high res camera - This works best with a macro lens as you will be able to get the most detail out of your image. Try to use a “normal” focal length if you don’t have it and fill the frame with the negative. Then in your editing software, you’ll have to swap the negative into a positive.
Flatbed scanner - I use an Epson V850 and Silverfast 8. This combo is great to get scans ready for all your digital needs. If I were to print these digital files, though, I would likely use the included wetmount, but for my purposes (YouTube and Instagram) I find the film holders work just fine.
Conclusion
Obviously, a complete tutorial could be made on this topic. This is a bit of an “overview” to keep my blog from becoming too heavy, but it’ll get you going, and along with a video I made, you should be able start developing, processing, and scanning black and white film at home!
-Jude