Developing Sux

Film Photography & Darkroom discussion

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jahiasad
Posts: 1
Joined: Fri Feb 24, 2006 11:19 am

Developing Sux

Post by jahiasad »

I'm taking photo 1 classes at a college in Orlando and we're learning the developing of B & W film. Developers,stop baths,fixer,what the hell? What does 3 degrees of the development temp mean? 68 degrees so bath and fixer need to be 65 degrees?

I have Kodak D76 developer,Kodak indicator stop bath,rapid fixer,hustler rapid bath,photo flo ,a small developing tank,a 72 oz beaker and don't know what in the world I'm doing.

Teacher's not helping much either. How do I mix this stuff,what temperatures,how long,do the chemicals have to sit overnight yadayadayahh?

Terry Beal
Posts: 5
Joined: Mon Jan 30, 2006 3:14 pm

developing your first film

Post by Terry Beal »

A useful source of information is the Ilford website www.ilford.com. In the products section of their website at the bottom of the film section there is a pdf file " developing your first film" and it gives useful advice to a beginner. Most of your Kodak materials have equivalents with Ilford. D76 is close to ID11.

Hope you enjoy dabbling in the wet side.

Terry

Ornello
Posts: 882
Joined: Thu Jan 19, 2006 9:49 am

Re: Developing Sux

Post by Ornello »

jahiasad wrote:I'm taking photo 1 classes at a college in Orlando and we're learning the developing of B & W film. Developers,stop baths,fixer,what the hell? What does 3 degrees of the development temp mean? 68 degrees so bath and fixer need to be 65 degrees?

I have Kodak D76 developer,Kodak indicator stop bath,rapid fixer,hustler rapid bath,photo flo ,a small developing tank,a 72 oz beaker and don't know what in the world I'm doing.

Teacher's not helping much either. How do I mix this stuff,what temperatures,how long,do the chemicals have to sit overnight yadayadayahh?
It would not surprise me if your instrauctor rushed through some things.

The processing tempertures should all be the same, and that temperature should be 68F/(20C). If it is not, you have to adjust the time slightly in development.

You should know what people had to go through in the days of the wet plate, before 1878. They had to carry a tent....

http://www.buzzle.com/editorials/2-28-2005-66367.asp

leecrump
Posts: 4
Joined: Fri Jan 06, 2006 11:59 am

Post by leecrump »

1st - GETTING FILM FROM CANNISTER INTO THE DEVELOPING TANK
You will need a changing bag. This is looks like a black t-shirt w no head hole and two zippers across the bottom.
[/url]http://www.adorama.com/BLCBS.html[/url]
You will also need a film leader retriever to coax the film out of the cannister [url]http://www.adorama.com/HAKAFP4.html[/url].

1 - Pull first 3" of film out of cannister with the film leader retriever. This is difficult to get the hang of. I suggest you get some beer (no more than two!), sit down, read the instructions that came with the film extraction tool, and paitently try to get the hang of this.
2 - cut off end of film at 90deg to leave a square end
3 - cut a small (~2-3 mm) 45 deg notch off both leading corners of film
(this will make loading the film onto the developing reel a world easier!)
4 - load the first 2 inches of film onto the developing reel.
5 - place partially loaded developing reels, cannister and all the lids necessary to close the cannister in the changing bag. Zip up the bag. Put hands in the bag "sleeves".
6 - At this point, AND NOT BEFORE, load the film onto the reels. loading film onto the developing reels can be difficult. You may want to sacrifice a roll of film and try doing this out of the bag to get the hang of it. If you can find a roll of film a fellow student has botched up this is even better and cheaper to practice on.
7 - When you get to the end of the film roll simply give a good yank to rip the end out of the cannister.
8 - Seal the loaded developing reels in the developing cannister.
9 - You may now remove developing cannister from changing bag.
<continued>

leecrump
Posts: 4
Joined: Fri Jan 06, 2006 11:59 am

Post by leecrump »

2nd- DEVELOPING THE FILM

Read the instructions for your Kodak chemicals.
[url]http://www.kodak.com/global/en/professi ... &lc=en[url]

1 - Mix chemicals int the following order; Developer, Stopbath, Fix, Rapid bath*, PhotoFlo.
The reason behind this is that you do not want to contaminate the Developer with the stopbath, the stopbath with the fix, etc.
I suggest mixing the chemicals in 32oz bottles.[url]http://www.adorama.com/DKDCS.html[/url] (the picture is right but the discription is wrong. Check w Adorama before ordering).
The stopbath, fix and photo flo are reusable (refer to kodak documentation). The Developer is not.
I suggest you find out how much water is required to cover the developing reels in your tank and mix only the required amount of developer for each run. (3.25g D76/1oz water = stock solution) Put 32oz bottle & funnel on postage scale (get from office supply, digital is nice). Zero scale w bottle & funnel. Slowly pour D76 powder until scale reads required gram weight of D76. Add water to required volume & shake.

2 - Get the tempature of the D76 solution & refer to the kodak documentation of adjusted developing time. (The reason for this is that the chemical reaction that develops the film happens faster at warmer tempatures and slower at colder tempatures.)

3 - Pour D76 solution over film

4- start timer

5 - gently agitate developing container for first 30 sec

6 -gently agitate developing container for first 10 sec of each min.

7 - pour out / dispose of developer solution

8 - pour in stop bath

9 - agitate for 30 sec

10 - pour stop bath back to 32 oz bottle

11 - pour in fix

12 - gently agitate developing container for first 30 sec

13 -gently agitate developing container for first 10 sec of each min for 10 min

14 - pour fix back int 32 oz bottle

15 - remove reels from developing tank and gently rense for 5 min

16 - immerse reels in photoflo

17 - remove film from reels and hang to dry in relatively dust free enviroment (bathroom)

* I have never heard of "hustler rapid bath". You are on you own on this one bub.

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