Develop your own film, it’s easy.

There are several different processes for developing film. The most popular is called “C41” and this is the process used for normal colour films and also for some special black and white films (eg Ilford XP2, Fuji neopan 400CN & Kodak cn400) designed specifically for sending to the high street developer.

The next two most popular processes are slide film or “E6” which is a positive process (as opposed to the negative process of C41) and normal black and white processing.

It is possible to carry out C41 and E6 processing at home but it is slightly more difficult requiring alternative chemicals, a higher temperature and more accurate temperature control.

So basically we are looking at normal black and white processing and there are quite a number of these standard films that you can buy for example.

Fuji Neopan Acros 100
Ilford Pan-F, FP4, HP5, Delta 100, 400 & 3200

First chose the film that you want to use, insert it into your film camera, take the shots and retrieve the film from the camera.

Right, now we have an exposed film we need to carry out several steps:

Until you get to step 17 you are handling the undeveloped film and the film needs to be in the dark. The only stage that needs to be carried out in the dark is stage 1 see later in the text.

Extracting the film

1 – Extract the film from the film canister and fit the spool into a light proof developing canister. (See below)

Preparing for the wet process

2 - Safety... Put on your gloves, prepare your area, safety glasses are recommended (but I doubt many people use them).
3 – Measure out the required amount of developing fluid, Fixer, Stop (if required) and Wash (if required)
4 – Get these chemicals to the correct temperature.
5 – Look up the required times for each of the chemicals and any special instructions (such as agitation) and make a note of these.

The wet processes

Development stage

6 – Reset your timer.
7 – Start the timer and pour the developing fluid into the developing tank.
7 – Agitate the tank as per the recommendations of the developing fluid manufacturer EG. Constantly for the first 60 seconds then invert 3 times on each minute.
8 – As the time approaches for the end of the development start to pour the fluid out with 10 seconds to go.

Stop stage

9 - Reset your timer.
10 – Pour in the Stop fluid
11 - Agitate the tank as per the recommendations of the stop fluid manufacturer.
12 – As the time approaches for the end of the stop process start to pour the fluid out with 10 seconds to go.

Fix stage

13 - Reset your timer.
14 – Pour in the Fix fluid
15 - Agitate the tank as per the recommendations of the fix fluid manufacturer.
16 – As the time approaches for the end of the fix process start to pour the fluid out with 10 seconds to go.

Wash stages (1 or more from the following)

17 – Wash the film in running water for around five minutes.
18 – Wash the film again with secondary cleaning fluid such as Hypo Eliminator.
19 - Wash with wetting agent.

Finally

20 – Hang the film to dry for 1-2 hours using a weighted pair of film hanging clamps.
21 - Wet squeagy and run along film to reduce amount of liquid still on it.

Job done, you may now cut the negative strip up into 4-6 frame pieces ready for use.

The above process works but there are various alternatives, which include:

A - The removal of the STOP stage (9-12) and replacing it with another washing process to wash out the developer solution.
B – The removal of parts of the washing process (17-19) – I have not used a second wash process. I normally wash for 5 minutes in running water then use a couple of drops of washing up liquid as a wetting agent in a litre of water as the final wash
C – The STOP and FIX processes are not as time critical as the developer process so long as you process these steps for at least as long as the manufacturer states.
D – Temperature and concentration affect the development time. By increasing the temperature or concentration the development time reduces.
E – By using a reduced concentration you reduce the cost of processing AND increase the time. By increasing the time you reduce the percentage error of things like agitation and total development time. This can make the process as a whole less liable to error.
F – You can keep the chemicals at a constant temperature using a water bath ie a large tray full of water at the right temperature with the chemical pots in each. (the B&W process is not as temperature critical as E6 & C41. For E6 & C41 holding the chemicals at the correct temperature is critical)


Mixing your developer fluid.

Developer can be bought as a liquid or as a powder. The powder method is used in order to create larger amounts but for either of the methods you need to create a supply of standard strength solution. Using ID-11 powder as an example a 5L box will create 5 litres of this working solution. The working solution can be stored in light and air tight containers for a while maybe a year (see specific information on your chemicals). The concentration of your developing fluid affects the development time. I personally use the reduced concentration of chemicals referred to as 1+3 this is 1 part of the working fluid added to 3 parts water. This reduced concentration of developer fluid should only be kept for a short time so should be mixed as required.


STOP and FIX fluid

These can often be re-used but you need to refer to the manufacturers instructions.


Removal of the film from the canister to the development tank.

This is something which does appear to be complicated but is in fact quite simple. It is worth trying it out using some old ruined film in daylight first so that you get the feel of it but the process is not difficult and only takes a few moments.

Film is very light sensitive! The environment has to be TOTALLY devoid of light for this to work without fogging the film etc. A developing bag is safest. If you wish to use a dark room it must be dark even after sitting there for 10 minutes to acclimatise.

You will need

• a TOTALLY dark room WITHOUT a safe light or a developing bag.
• Something to open the film can
• Scissors to cut the film.
• A developing tank.

The process is quite simple and for this example we will assume a bag.

1. Place the scissors and can opener into the bag (I use some £1 ikea scissors with a bottle opener on them).
2. Place the developer tank into the bag.
3. Place the film(s) into the bag.
4. Zip up the bag’s inner then outer zips.
5. Stick your hands into the arm holes.
6. Locate the bottle opener in the bag and the film can
7. Pull the lid off the can
8. Slide the film out of the can on the spool.
9. Cut the leader part of the film off and round the corners by cutting off a couple of mm diagonally to each corner of the remaining leading edge.
10. Feed the edge of the film onto the developing spool.
11. Feed the film onto the spool by rocking the top and bottom back and forth which pulls the film through.
12. When the film is on the developing spool fully you need to cut the film from the film’s original spool.
13. Place the developing spool into the developing tank and make sure it is completely closed.
14. Now you can remove your arms and unzip the bag.

From: "Talk Photography" blog