first time developing, few questions

[weetsie]

so i did some developing for the first time ever the other day and im very happy with the results.

i used the kodak 6 bath E6 kit and developed a roll of velvia 50.

now, first problem i had was working out how long to use the first chemical for, "first developer"

it says in the instructions 6-7minutes and next to it it says you can vary this time from 5:30 to 8:00 minutes but once you have chosen a time you should stick with it within +/- 5 seconds.

can someone explain what that means?

ok second question, the last chemical to be used was the "final rinse" and after that step it said to dry the film.

i used the final rinse and then opened the drum but it was completely full of foamy bubbles so i washed the film with water, should i have just hung the film up and dried it with the foam on it?

and finally my pictures came out a little under exposed, is it possible to tell if that was done in the camera or in processing?

here is one of them:

 

[shadowfox]

it says in the instructions 6-7minutes and next to it it says you can vary this time from 5:30 to 8:00 minutes but once you have chosen a time you should stick with it within +/- 5 seconds.

can someone explain what that means?

I think it means that 6-7 (+/- 1:30) minutes are the recommended time. You have to decide/choose what works for the given exposure, which of course depends on the camera.

One of the benefit of developing yourself, is the ability to tailor the development time for each of your cameras.

How? by calibrating the development time against the camera's meter.

This involves developing a test roll that contains nothing but a test subject in a very controlled lighting environment. Develop this for 6:30 min. And look at each frame, find the perfectly exposed one. That should give you a clue on how far or how close the chosen time is with that specific camera's meter.

Then you can adjust accordingly.

In the end, you'll end up with a note that looks like this:

Camera 1 - 7 min.
Camera 2 - 6:30 min.
...
and so on.

That's why a lot of people have one camera dedicated for shooting slides.

Hope this helps.

 

[payasam]

When I shot slide film, Will, I used the same cameras that I used for other kinds of film, and I metered in the same way. The films (E-4 and then E-6) were processed by labs who didn't know anything about my cameras. Yet I got correct density and tonality in the results. This suggests the existence of what I'll call a "standard standard".

 

[shadowfox]

Sure, Mukul. But the "standard standard" is no doubt derived from some kind of statistical info that your lab may have come to discover having processed a lot of rolls.

Otherwise there will be a global "standard standard" (like 5:33 minutes for all Velvia 50, every time, any where on earth) which everyone will be using and will know about. But yet we do not have such a thing.

I am simply pointing out that one of the benefit of self-developing is that you can be as meticulous as you would like to be.

 

[weetsie]

makes sense, ive started this next roll at +0.3EV and i might try 6:30 on top of that this time.

 

[batterytypehah!]

Well done! First time ever, and right into E-6? Pretty cool.