self-developing 101- supplies

As many of you might know I am a big time film fan, in particular because I adore being a part of the entire process, from camera to negative to print.  I have been self-developing b&w film for over two years now, more so now than ever, since I have begun working with the wondrous 120 film (there will surely be a post coming soon declaring my utter love).  Recently I have gotten a few requests for advice on how to get started doing your own self-developing so I've decided to start a tutorial here on the blog on the basics of doing self-developing. 

As a disclaimer I will say that I am surely no expert.  I merely can walk you through the steps and methods that I've learned and that work for me, as a starting point to finding your own ways/methods.  Also, let me clarify that this developing is specifically for black & white film.

So, with no further ado, I give you the first installment of Self-developing 101: The Supplies Edition, everything you need to get started:

1.changing bag- it's basically a giant slippery t-shirt with no neck and two zippers at the bottom.  The one I have is I think the 27x30 size. I wouldn't advise getting one any smaller, you need to be able to move around freely in there.

2. developing tank- everyone you talk to will give you different opinions about the best kind.  Personally I think that whatever you learn with will be your preference, it's that simple.  My plastic tank isn't the fanciest or the best but I will say that I bought a fancy stainless steel one when I switched to 120 film and I HATE it.  Other people swear by them.  In my humble opinion, I'd go with a plastic tank- they're cheaper and another nice thing is that they can fit either 2 rolls of 35mm or 1 roll of 120.

3. three plastic containers- doesn't matter what kind you get, I just got something cheap at the corner store.  It IS important, however that they have measurements on the side and that they hold at least 25 oz. 

4. 1 gallon plastic graduated mixing pitcher

5. funnel

6. bottle opener that has a rounded edge

7. plastic spoon

8. 1 1/2 oz graduated 'shot glass'

9. photo thermometer- it is important that you get one specifically for photo so that it is designed to read temperatures high enough.  I had a digital one but at first but it gave me a lot of issues so I switched to the analog type and am very happy with it. 

10. digital timer! (sorry, I forgot that in the picture)- this is a must. 

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And now for the chemicals you will need:

First of all, you'll need two 1 gallon containers pictured here (though only one of them needs to be light blocked) and one 1 quart container.

In terms of the chemicals, you can really use any brands/types you'd like. Here I am including what I use and what is usually the most cost-effective and easy to find.

Powdered chemicals:

1. 1 gallon D-76 developer

2. 1 gallon Fixer

3. 1 1/4 gallon Hypo clearing

Liquid chemicals:

1. 16 oz. bottle of Indicator Stop Bath

2. bottle of Photo Flo (you might want to get a smaller bottle than I have pictured here- it will last you forever!)

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So that's all you need to start!  The next installment of the tutorial will talk you through mixing the powdered chemicals.  You need to do this at least the night before you begin developing because they mixed at specific temperatures and need time to cool down.

Hope that's helpful! If you're ready, here's step two: mixing chemicals and step three: loading the reels and final step: developing the film!.

-cmv

Comments

[melissa]

hooray!! i feel like we're getting a behind the scenes peek at a magic show!

[Rachel]

Thanks so much for this (and future)tutorial posts. I've always wanted to get into self-development for black and white but had no idea where to even start (I kick myself for not taking the time for a photography class during all. these. years. of school!). This should be very useful and may give me that push to try something new!

One request though...as I live in a very small town in the middle of nowhere (about 2.5 hours from an actual 'city'), I'd have to buy materials online. Could you share any online shop(s) you recommend or have purchased from before? Also, I know you work with 120 film now, but do you have a 'favorite' 35mm black and white film? It's hard to find much besides the stuff that can be developed as if it's color...which I don't particularly care for. Thanks Claire!

[Mary de B]

I haven't done darkroom stuff for a decade, but one thing you abbbbsolutely need is a properly ventilated room! I found those chemicals would give me a headache every time. I love the idea, and I really like the whole printing process, but couldn't hack the fumes!

[Lindsey]

Yeah! I LOVE this tutorial! I can practically smell that darkroom smell.

[Rebekah]

I am very intrigued to see how this works! I always thought setting up a home darkroom was a huge process. I might give this a try with my old film camera. I'm having flashbacks to the Brady Bunch episode with their home lab.

[cmv]

hi all!
Thanks for the feedback and I thought I should reply here, in case this might be helpful to more of you.
1. Let me clarify (sorry I didn't do that before) that this self-developing process is only to develop negatives. To actually print negatives into photographs you'd actually need a darkroom. The nice thing about developing your own negatives is that you can scan them and create digital images that way, or you can always pick and choose your favorites to be developed in a lab (or by yourself, if you happen to have darkroom access)
2. As for film, personally I think that you really can't go wrong with Kodak Tri-X. That is pretty much exclusively what I've used so far. It's very readily available in photo stores, quite cheap and also very forgiving in terms of exposure. Ilford HP5 is also very good and standard, as is TMax (also by Kodak)
3. As for websites, I have the luxury of living in NYC where we have some of the most amazing photo stores-- but all of them have online versions so I can certainly recommend them:
My favorite: http://www.bhphotovideo.com/
or there's http://www.adorama.com/
One of my photo professors also recommended this to me: http://www.freestylephoto.biz/index.php

Hope that helps!

[Tricia Vetrone]

Thank You..I have beeen looking for this simple type of basic information on developing. I have some experience from high school and college photography classes but have forgotten most of it. I just needed a brief refresher course. This is perfect.