Film development at home

2024 Author: Sierra Becker | [email protected]. Last modified: 2024-02-26 03:46

Every house has old photo albums that are carefully kept and proudly shown to guests. And there is a special nostalgic charm in this, which is not found in modern information keepers. Film printing has now been overtaken by digital printing, but it is still in high demand.

The chemical process in which a negative is obtained from ordinary black and white or color film is called film development. At home, developing film does not require any rare ability or lengthy training. It will only require accuracy and careful observance of all stages. The main thing at the same time is not to be afraid to learn this interesting process.

First you need to prepare all the materials and tools. A tank is a necessary thing, without which film development will not be possible. As a rule, all people who have previously taken photographs have it, so it can be easily borrowed from relatives or friends. You can buy a modern tank inspecialized store, but it will cost more. Developer and fixer will have to be purchased at the store, and instead of distilled water, you can boil ordinary filtered water. Vinegar of weak concentration can be used as a stop solution.

Next, film development begins directly. In a completely dark room, you need to unwind the film and insert it into the developing tank. It is worth remembering that the glare of light can finally and irrevocably “light up” all frames. We dilute the developer, following the instructions on the package, and fill it in there. After that, you can already work in a lit room.

During the entire time that the black-and-white film is being developed, every minute we scroll the tank clockwise. The development time may vary depending on the brand of developer, its concentration and type of film. The correct choice of development time allows you to achieve different contrast of the negative. But errors in the selection of parameters may result in the fact that the film will be damaged.

Then, pour out the developer and immediately fill in the stop solution to stop the development and wash the film. At the next stage, drain the stop solution, fill in the fixer and keep it in the tank for about 6 minutes. You can leave the fixer on longer to prevent the black and white film from darkening over time.

In order to wash off the fixer, you need to thoroughly rinse the film with distilled (or plain) water. Such a process usually takes 10-20 minutes, during which it will take time fromtime to rotate the developing tank and change the water. After that, gently wipe the film with a sponge and hang it on a rope, securing it with a clothespin, and dry it in a room (for example, in a bathroom), where there is the least dust. As a load, we fix a couple more clothespins at the bottom. Drying time at least 2 hours.

Thus, developing a film only at first glance seems to be a very complicated process, but if you try at least once, then it will seem that you have always been doing this. After all, this is a very exciting process, as a result of which a film developed by oneself is obtained.