Experience

There is no substitute for..................

In the initial stages of your quest to produce a good set of negatives with your first film, you are starved of knowledge and information and read everything you can lay your hands on. This is counter productive and becomes confusing as different people have their own method of arriving at the same result. Pick one practitioner with a simple method and stick with them, forsaking all others until you know what results will be obtained when you pull the film from the developing real.

The more straight forward the method the less things need to be checked when something go's wrong. What people do not tell you is that film processing is very forgiving and if you don't quite get the time right, the temperature is not spot on or you forget to invert the tank the right amount of times it will not make a vast difference to the final outcome. Possibly they will be slightly thiner or denser than normal but what is normal in your case? It is not until you have processed a number of films that you will truly know. Once you know what to exepect you can then personalise the method to get the negatives that suit your own taste.

Timing development

You should always base your process time on the latest information available for your usual developer. Then be prepared to use these figures as a guide or starting point. You should check each set of negatives carefully, if they are starting to look dark/dense then you will need to adjust the process time by say twenty per cent. If they are looking thin/light then a slight increase in process time is needed. It is a good idea to stick to one make of developer and film until you understand what it is capable of. By doing so, you will be able to extract every detail from the negative that was originally captured. With experience comes knowledge.

The Thermometer.

This is one of the most important pieces of kit in the darkroom. As already mentioned temperature is one of the main controlling factors in the processing of your films and prints. It is important that you have good quality thermometers that are graduated to at least half a degree but a quarter of a degree is better and one that has a thicker line at the vital 20 degrees C. It is a good idea to have a thermometer for each of the chemicals you use in the processing of your films and prints as it will stop cross contamination.Also there will be no hold ups if you break one. It is recommended that you keep to one type, preferably alcohol as it is safer than mercury. If a mercury thermometer breaks it will contaminate the chemicals it comes into contact with and fog any prints that are being processed at the time.

Fine grain developers

The production of fine grain in a negative is dependent on, in the first place, speed of the film and the choice of developer. The object is to keep the structure of the grain in the emulsion as small as possible so that it does not show up in the enlargments. Fine grain developers are best suited to films of medium speed about 125 ISO and above.

Some of the best known fine grain developers: Ilfords Microphen and ID11, Tetenal Ultrafin, Kodak D76, PMK Pyro is a staining developer that produces a fine grain and for the new grain techologies: Kodak HC110 and T max, Ilford LC29 and Tetenal Ultrafin plus, just to name a few.

Single shot developers.

One shot developers do what they say on the box! They are for single use and have a quality advantage over reusable ones, also removing the worries about usability. I know this may sound wasteful in these times of rising prices, but what cost do you apply for peace of mind when developing those precious negatives.

The advantages:

1. Fresh developer each time.
2. Ensures constant quality.
3. Consistant developing times.
4. No need to use replenisher.

In most cases these days most developers can be used as single shot, in the case of PMK Pyro and RO9 it is the only way.

Trouble loading a plastic spiral.

The plastic Paterson type of spool can be difficult to load. A common problem is the little metal balls that grip the film get stuck. Dont try to force the film through, if you do it will kink the negative leaving a half-moon shape. It can make the frame(s) useless. You will need to part the spiral and start again. A pain I know! Be gentle when removing the film, there is a chance of damage.

Damp or wet spool will not load, so make sure it is completely dry before use. Sweaty, damp or sticky fingers will make it difficult as well.

A too tightly rolled up 35mm film in its cassette can take a set that makes it tricky to load. So when rewinding the film back into the case dont over wind it after you hear it has released itself from the camera spool. With practice it is possible to leave a little bit of the leader poking out.

Wet side of the darkroom.

On this side of the room you will have laid out your developing dishes in the following order: developer, stop-bath, fix, print washer and/or sink. These may have heaters under them or you can have a slotty laid out in the same way. Obviously this will take up less space.

Typical wet side layout

This is where you keep your chemicals, it is also the place that the solutions are poured out and back into their storage containers. The height of this table needs to be right so you can work comfortably in the standing position. It is a good idea to store these chemicals under the table if there is a leak it will go on the floor and not drip into your working dishes ruining your prints. For safety reasons it is not a good idea to lean over your dishes to retrieve items from shelves above while your working as you may knock the contents of the dishes over yourself.

Remember that these chemicals need to be treated with care and you should follow the safety advice recommended by the manufacturer.