r/AnalogCommunity • u/DrearyLisper • 1d ago
Darkroom My first attempt to develop B&W
My first attempt at developing black and white film turned out to be a great success (you tell me). The hardest part was loading the film onto the spool in complete darkness—I had to redo it a few times. But after that, it was just a matter of measuring the chemicals and timing everything right.
What I loved most is the opportunity to get the negatives on the same day I shoot, instead of waiting seven days for lab processing.
Really happy with how it turned out—especially for a first try!
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u/theclassicgoodguy 1d ago
You don't even have to load the entire roll in complete darkness. What I do is: extract the film lead from the roll (not the entire film). Load the first few centimeters on the reel in daylight,turn off the lights and then finish loading. Cut the film from the roll, close the tank. Much easier.
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u/DrearyLisper 1d ago
Yeah, it makes total sense. Don't know why majority of tutorials suggest to open canisters with the opener tool. It gets messy so quickly inside of a dark bag.
Ordered lead extractor, so will try it in similar way to what you described next time.
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u/photoman12001 1d ago
It’s definitely helpful to do this as suggested. I also try to carefully rewind the film so the leader is still hanging out of the cassette and doesn’t need extraction. Another great change I made was ordering Hewes metal reels to replace the plastic ones. They are SO much easier to load. My plastic ones were binding up a lot with both 135 & 120. The reels are pricey but if you’re developing more than a few times a year I think it’s totally worth the cost
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u/MezzanotteBebop 1d ago
I learn to develop film on metal tanks and Hewes reels. Tried to get my own gear after that and went cheap with patterson… i ended up frustrated and spending more money on hewes reels afterwards it is totally worth it.
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u/gilgermesch 1d ago
This is the way! Using a lead extractor can sometimes be fiddly and scratch the first few cm of your negatives. It's good to have one though, in case you accidentally rewind all the way. Another tip: bend the leader of your exposed rolls a couple of times - that way you don't mistake them for unexposed rolls.
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u/PanSaczeczos 1d ago
Well done! Negatives look great and 7th is worth printing, isn’t it?
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u/DrearyLisper 1d ago
I signed up for Darkroom 101 course in UAL, hopefully will be able to print it myself soon!
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u/DrearyLisper 1d ago
Omg, didn't expect to receive so much attention to my post. Thanks a lot for your replies and support!
Going to try developing sketchy Delta 100 and 3200 (I feel I ruined them due to wrong metering) and share more of my experience!
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u/storinglan 1d ago
Used the simplicity kit for the first time a couple of weeks ago. So much fun! Great pics
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u/alasdairmackintosh Show us the negatives. 1d ago
It's always a great feeling when they come out of the tank and you can see your images. And even after (ahem) quite a few years on my part, it still feels good ;-)
I think they might be a tiny bit overdeveloped. The dense parts of the negative look very dense to me, though it's always harder to tell from a picture. Not a big deal, but if you come to print them in a darkroom you might find the highlights are pretty white. I would check time and temperature.
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u/RebelliousDutch 23h ago
Good job!
Developing your own rolls is a bit scary, but in a good way. It’s quite a rush seeing a perfectly developed roll come out of that tank, knowing you did all that from loading through shooting to developing. Definitely something to be proud of.
And as you found out, it’s actually not that difficult. I did it right on my very first try. If you can follow basic instructions, it’s not all that difficult.
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u/infocalypse 2783 of 10000 1d ago
These are quite nice scans. Ultimately a good scanning workflow is harder to achieve than developing.
For irregular developing I'd recommend either HC110 or Rodinal. Both have extremely long shelf lives so even if you're only developing once or twice a month, you're not going to have your chemistry expire on you any time soon.
Both are also good at pushing, pulling and stand dev which is a bit off topic but if one has to commit to a particular developer it's nice to know they're a swiss army knife of different applications.
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u/Vexithan 1d ago
The fact that Ilford sells chemicals in the same packets I buy applesauce for my kids in distresses me 😅
The shots look great!
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u/TheRealAutonerd 1d ago
Congratulations, and those are some good looking negatives. It's not a bad idea to buy a cheap roll of film and practice loading the reel in daylight.
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u/Due-Cockroach-518 1d ago
These look great - what did you use to scan them?
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u/DrearyLisper 1d ago
I used my digital Nikon with 105mm macro lens.
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u/codyblue_ 18h ago
how are you keeping the negatives flat while scanning? Seems no matter what I do part of the image is always blurry because it's not flat.
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u/real_human_not_ai 1d ago
Forget about developing, how did you scan those? I struggle getting good scans at home and so far couldn't justify the investment in an entire DSLR scanning setup.
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u/DrearyLisper 1d ago
Well, no surprise here. I used my Nikon DSLR to scan.
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u/chlomoney888 19h ago
Can i ask what other materials you needed to scan? I’m new to developing as well, and am using a cheap Kodak scanner and feel that i lose a bit of quality as a result
I looked into using my Nikon DSLR to scan as well but got intimidated by the set up required!
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u/JayM34 3h ago
Well done!! They look so clean with lots of contrast, pretty sharp.
Keep experimenting on the chemical ratio, developing times, film types, everything, there is no immediate formula for your work, you have to find it by experimenting with all the variables that are involved in developing film and prints.
Excellent job for this first time, keep it up, you're on a good path
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u/diligentboredom Lab Tech | Olympus OM-10 | Mamiya RB-67 Pro-S 1d ago
Nice! well done, the negatives turned out really well!
The next thing to do is to buy chemicals in "bulk" so your costs are less.
Those simplicity film developing kits are great for the first few rolls, but they're VERY expensive on a per-roll basis.
Have a look into buying these:
Ilford Ilfosol 3 (Developer)
Ilford Ilfostop (Stop Bath)
Ilford Rapid Fixer (Self Explanatory)
Ilford Ilfotol (wetting agent)
They will be the same chemicals as the ones in the simplicity sachets, so they will be very familiar, but they're sold in larger quantities that will last you longer and save you money in the long term!