Darkroom chemicals

JeremyLangford

JeremyLangford

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When it comes to having your own B&W film darkroom, how many different chemicals do you need? (Besides water)

At my school, for developing the negatives we use Developer, Fix, and HC110.

And for developing prints we use a Developer and Fix.

Do you guys use the same chemicals that I use at school?

Are there developers or fixes that develop and fix the negatives, and the final prints with the same chemical?

Does this mean that there is 5 chemicals needed in all for a B&W film darkroom?
 
It's good practice to use a stop bath between develop and fix ( if you don't you should use a water buffer ).

To stop streaking on negative a dip in fotoflo wash aid helps - just before hanging.

Most Fixers are used for both film and paper ( at different dilutions ).
Stop bath is common to both.
 
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JeremyLangford said:
When it comes to having your own B&W film darkroom, how many different chemicals do you need? (Besides water)

At my school, for developing the negatives we use Developer, Fix, and HC110.

And for developing prints we use a Developer and Fix.

Do you guys use the same chemicals that I use at school?

Are there developers or fixes that develop and fix the negatives, and the final prints with the same chemical?

Does this mean that there is 5 chemicals needed in all for a B&W film darkroom?
Click to expand...
HC110 is a film developer. Besides that, you need a paper developer and a fixer. The fixer is the same for film and paper but might require different dilutions. The stop bath can be replaced by water with or without some acetic acid.

There are no magic combos that develop and fix the film or paper in one bath only.
 
JeremyLangford said:
When it comes to having your own B&W film darkroom, how many different chemicals do you need? (Besides water)

At my school, for developing the negatives we use Developer, Fix, and HC110.

And for developing prints we use a Developer and Fix.

Do you guys use the same chemicals that I use at school?

Are there developers or fixes that develop and fix the negatives, and the final prints with the same chemical?

Does this mean that there is 5 chemicals needed in all for a B&W film darkroom?
Click to expand...

I meant HCA instead of HC110
 
Are these the chemicals requiered for almost every B&W film darkroom? And if so, do you have to buy 2 different kinds of developers and 2 different kinds of fixes?

Negative
1)Developer
2)Fix
3)Water
4)HCA
5)Water

Print
1)Developer
2)Water
3)Fix
4)Water
 
For printing you should certainly use an acidic stop-bath, else you will probably notice slightly uneven development and will certainly shorten the life of your fixer. I have also always used a stop bath for film too (because I print, I have the stop-bath available anyway), but apparently some people don't and still manage to produce consistent results.

So you have a list like...

FILM:
Developer - HC110 (in your case)
Stop bath - either "real" stop-bath, or a water rinse
Fixer - usually the same product as for paper-fix

PAPER:
Developer - various brands and characteristics (probably already chosen to match the paper available on your course)
Stop bath - acidic stop-bath to make a clean halt to the developer activity
Fixer - usually the same product as for film-fix

Note that the concentration of fixer for paper is generally half that of the film fixer, and also that you will typically need more of it for use in the paper-dish. This means that you can probably develop and fix your batch of film, then dilute that same fixer to make your prints. Read the instructions on the capacity of the fixer and the storage life of the dilute solutions very carefully of course.

EDIT:
As I was typing the above, your last post showed up. I suggest that you don't need to use a hardening-fixer unless you are using old-style materials which need special handling. A modern non-hardening fixer is frequently not going to contain hypo (sodium thiosulphate), so the HCA is pointless. Proper washing is very important and a wetting-agent for the last rinse of the film is likely to be useful (this depends on your local water supply to a large extent).

All this stuff is in all basic textbooks and probably in all your course texts too.
 
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EmilGil said:
There are no magic combos that develop and fix the film or paper in one bath only.
Click to expand...

There is (was?) Tetenal's Monotenal - a monobath combined ultra-fast developer and fixer.

I tried it only once as it was expensive and the results not great.
It is best suited for novelty tricks and classroom demonstrations.
 
I keep the following chemicals for film processing:

Film Developers:
Kodak Tmax Developer
Agfa Rodinal

Fixer:
Ilford Rapid Fix

Wash Aid:
Perma-Wash

Drying Aid:
Kodak Photo-Flo

For prints, which I stopped doing 5 yrs ago due to allergies to the chemicals, I used:

Developers:
Ilford Universal (for normal papers)
Kodak Selectol-soft (warm-tone papers)

Stop Bath:
Kodak Indicator Stop

Fix:
Ilford Rapid Fix (same stuff used for film)

Wash Aid: (only for fiber-based papers...RC doesn't need it)
Perma-Wash (same stuff used for film)

Toners:
Kodak Rapid Selenium Toner
Thiocarbamide Sepia Toner (home-made from a published formula)
 
I do black and white darkroom work for a living, so I keep lots of chemistry on hand. I use Rodinal, HC-110, Microphen, Xtol, D76, and Diafine for film developers regularly enough that I try to always have them on hand. Clients sometimes ask for other developers, so I might have other things at any given moment. For paper developers, I mostly use LPD; but I also keep some Dektol and Selectol Soft around for graded paper printing.

I use distilled white vinegar as stop bath, and I always keep both an acid and an alkaline fix on hand. I generally have hardener too, for things that might need or benefit from it's use- though mostly it's not really neccesary these days. (If you use hardener, make sure you use a wash-aid!)

There's always Selenuim in my darkroom, and a few other toners and bleach on hand, too- but most of the fancy stuff can be tricky to keep or is too expensive to have stiting around, so I only buy them when I need them. Finally, I run all film and fiber prints through Perma-wash, so I always keep that around, too.

One other thing which is nice to have is a de-humidifier. This not only keeps the moisture in the air down, it produces distilled water which I use to mix a lot of chemistry- just a handy tip.
 
I also believe in stop bath and Perma-wash for both film and paper.

I think consistency important, if you using making sure your temp&times are exact, and you agate exactly the same to get your highlights where you want THEN you want your development to stop fast.
 
Negative:

Developer
\
Water (stop bath, I don't use stop bath with negs, just a water rinse for 2-3 minutes)
\
Fix
\
Rinse
\
Hypo Eliminator (2 mins agitation)
\
Rinse
\
FotoFlow
------

Prints

Developer
\
Stop Bath
\
Fix
\
Rinse in a print rinser
|
 
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