The bathroom's a mess and my hands smell funny...

M

Matthew Allen

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Jun 2, 2007
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...but what a rush!:cool:

It's almost 3:30AM here and I just developed my first roll of film - Foma 200 in ID-11 1+3 for 13 minutes. The negs are drying now and they look pretty decent. Some are rather dense but this is down to considerable erring on the side of overexposure for my test roll rather than the developing I think.

In any case, I'm satisfied - it's a very cool feeling to have shot a whole roll and developed it less than 12 hours later.

Matthew
 
Matthew Allen said:
...but what a rush!:cool:

It's almost 3:30AM here and I just developed my first roll of film - Foma 200 in ID-11 1+3 for 13 minutes. The negs are drying now and they look pretty decent. Some are rather dense but this is down to considerable erring on the side of overexposure for my test roll rather than the developing I think.

In any case, I'm satisfied - it's a very cool feeling to have shot a whole roll and developed it less than 12 hours later.

Matthew
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Congratulations. I'm new to it too and I'm finding it satisfying.
 
The first roll is a rush I agree and pulling a film out of a camera and having results to look at within twelve hours may not match the review function of a digicam ... but it's a lot more satisfying!
 
30+ years of developing B&W film (and a few rolls of E-6 too) and I still get that feeling when it comes out of the tank...
It never gets old for me...Congrats on joining the club...enjoy...

You know the next step is printing...don't you???
 
"The bathroom's a mess and my hands smell funny..."

....not at all sure I want to hear the details.....

:D
 
Can't wait.:) When I get back to Edinburgh I'm going to be watching the local ads like a hawk for cheap or free enlargers and in the meantime there are a couple of darkrooms there that I'll be able to use if I can find the time. Oh the excitement...


Matthew
 
Congratulations Matt!

The small ads will have some real bargains. In Gloucestershire a couple of weeks ago, there was a guy selling a boxed Durst M601, timer, safelight, paper washer, everything for 20 quid!

Charlie
 
Congratulations on your first roll. I haven't been developing my own for very long, but find that it produces results I very much like. It also, for me, makes "real" (ie. non-chromogenic) B&W a useable proposition. I much prefer the results I get, but sending out to a lab that does silver B&W development (here in Sydney, at least) is now expensive and involves long delays. Developing myself gives me much more control and much faster turn-around. And its cheap!

As it happens, I've just developed a roll of Delta 400 (pushed a stop) in LC29 and scanned the results. The development worked well and the tonality and grain came out nicely :) Shame about the photographer, however :(

I'm sure you've done better...

...Mike
 
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Congrats on taking the step. I hadn't developed any film for a long time, and then got back in about six months ago. I still do it only once in a while as I just don't have the time I wish. But it is still fun just like it used to be. I wish I could do prints too, but that just isn't in the cards just now. I just scan some.

Keep enjoying it and if possible, try your own printing. It can be frustrating but is fun as well.
 
Thanks all for the kind words.:) Incidentally, if anyone else is contemplating doing this for the first time then there are some very useful videos on Youtube.

Jason Brunner's has a series on developing and some other quite entertaining things:

http://youtube.com/user/alternativecamera

And this video was good for checking that I was loading the film correctly:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=6SM5p_x4w7A&feature=related

I also found Roger and Frances Hicks' website very helpful, especially their page on processing:

http://rogerandfrances.com/photoschool/ps how process 35-120.html

Oh and the development time was from The Massive Dev Chart:

http://www.digitaltruth.com/devchart.html

Matthew
 
charjohncarter said:
Smelly hands! Buy odorless fixer and odorless stopbath. If you have a wife or girlfriend, they won't be complaining forever too.
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Exactly!

I use stuff from Clayton. Ordered from freestyle. Their stuff strikes a balance between value and quality (from my "research").

I'm new to developing myself, glad to see fellow self-motivated souls out there :)
 
charjohncarter said:
Smelly hands! Buy odorless fixer and odorless stopbath. If you have a wife or girlfriend, they won't be complaining forever too.
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Luckily :)rolleyes:) I'm young and unattached.

MikeCassidy said:
Wear gloves.
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I did for most of the process, but I still ended up with a few chemicals on me. Perhaps this is one of those times for more speed and less haste. Next time will be calmer.

minoltist7 said:
LOL :D
What would your mom said if caught you ?
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Don't go there. (The horror.....the horror...)

I seem to do my best work in the wee hours. My Dad has had a brand new Epson V700 sitting idle in its box for months now and last night I got it out and put it to good use. Here's a frame from the roll I developed, scanned with the Epson software and tweaked (including cropping) in Lightroom. What do you all think?

2413650465_8974b8fecb.jpg


Before you point these out: 1)My Summar is not cracked, that's a strange reflection and 2)yes, I know there's a drying mark - I can't be bothered to remove it.

In case you're interested, this was shot with an ME Super on a tripod with a Pentax M 28/2.8 mounted.

Cheers,
Matthew
 
The worth source of smell for me is a vinegar which I use for stop-bath.
It's tolerable for film processing, but quite irritating when washing prints. So I bought odorless stopbath from Foma (Fomastop). Ilfostop is good also, where it available
 
Matthew Allen said:
What do you all think?

2413650465_8974b8fecb.jpg


Before you point these out: 1)My Summar is not cracked, that's a strange reflection and 2)yes, I know there's a drying mark - I can't be bothered to remove it.

In case you're interested, this was shot with an ME Super on a tripod with a Pentax M 28/2.8 mounted.

Cheers,
Matthew
Click to expand...

Matthew, that is one seriously nice picture. I can't tell which one is the drying mark. Did you squeegee the negative before hanging? I didn't.
 
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