How does this sound for starting B&W development?
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Bob Helmond
Member
The plastic daylight developing tanks are easy to load, but if you can find any Nikkor or other brand stainless steel tanks, they WILL last your lifetime and that of all your successors until someone steps on a reel dropped in the darkroom.
There are stainless tanks that are capable of 1, 2, 4 or 8 rolls of 35mm. How much will you be shooting?
The only other required equipment would be 4 graduates in the appropriated size(one each for developer, stop bath or water rinse, fixer and hypo eliminator), a thermometer (preferrably glass, since a bi-metallic if dropped will not tell you that it is broken or off calibration), and a gallon or half-gallon pitcher for the required changes of water after the hypo eliminator.
I recall seeing someone posting that a thermometer is not necessary, but look up "reticulation" and perhaps find samples of it. Reticulation is caused by fixer that is colder than the developer.
Here's what happens: The film's emulsion is very soft due to the alkalai of the developer, when cold, acidic (hardening) fixer comes into contact with the emulsion it shrinks up resulting in a picture that appears made up of thousands and thousands of little worms. Interesting effect if that's what one seeks.
So get a thermometer, and you will always get repeatable, consistant results AND maintaining a constant temperature throughtout the process through the final rinse with wetting agent will give the optimum grain pattern of which the stock is capable of producing.
Do not, however, overlook the drying process. If not done properly, you will be dismayed by the white spots on you final prints (digital or analog.)
One effective method to a clean drying atmosphere is as follows.
If available use the bathroom (or is it the loo?) Close the door. Turn the hot, hot water on in the shower or tub and get the room steamy. The fog will weigh down any airborne dust and take it to the floor, leaving the atmosphere dust-free for clean film drying. After hanging your film close the door gently and leave it vacant for at least a half hour. Touch the bottom of the roll, and, if bone-dry, take it down. Worked for me for forty-plus years.
Developer? D76 diluted 1:1 is a near-standard, or HC-110 is great and convenient, too. Rodinal is great if that is the "look" you like. It's well-defined grain yields negatives with great detail, but beware of your agitation. Do not agitated more than once per minute and do so gently or you will get over-developed edges resulting in lightening of the image on the long dimensions of the print. (It results from the developer gushing through the sprocket holes in the film.)
Good luck, and just know that you will be in control of exposure and development, the two most important technical processes of photography.
There are stainless tanks that are capable of 1, 2, 4 or 8 rolls of 35mm. How much will you be shooting?
The only other required equipment would be 4 graduates in the appropriated size(one each for developer, stop bath or water rinse, fixer and hypo eliminator), a thermometer (preferrably glass, since a bi-metallic if dropped will not tell you that it is broken or off calibration), and a gallon or half-gallon pitcher for the required changes of water after the hypo eliminator.
I recall seeing someone posting that a thermometer is not necessary, but look up "reticulation" and perhaps find samples of it. Reticulation is caused by fixer that is colder than the developer.
Here's what happens: The film's emulsion is very soft due to the alkalai of the developer, when cold, acidic (hardening) fixer comes into contact with the emulsion it shrinks up resulting in a picture that appears made up of thousands and thousands of little worms. Interesting effect if that's what one seeks.
So get a thermometer, and you will always get repeatable, consistant results AND maintaining a constant temperature throughtout the process through the final rinse with wetting agent will give the optimum grain pattern of which the stock is capable of producing.
Do not, however, overlook the drying process. If not done properly, you will be dismayed by the white spots on you final prints (digital or analog.)
One effective method to a clean drying atmosphere is as follows.
If available use the bathroom (or is it the loo?) Close the door. Turn the hot, hot water on in the shower or tub and get the room steamy. The fog will weigh down any airborne dust and take it to the floor, leaving the atmosphere dust-free for clean film drying. After hanging your film close the door gently and leave it vacant for at least a half hour. Touch the bottom of the roll, and, if bone-dry, take it down. Worked for me for forty-plus years.
Developer? D76 diluted 1:1 is a near-standard, or HC-110 is great and convenient, too. Rodinal is great if that is the "look" you like. It's well-defined grain yields negatives with great detail, but beware of your agitation. Do not agitated more than once per minute and do so gently or you will get over-developed edges resulting in lightening of the image on the long dimensions of the print. (It results from the developer gushing through the sprocket holes in the film.)
Good luck, and just know that you will be in control of exposure and development, the two most important technical processes of photography.
Juan Valdenebro
Truth is beauty
Stick with one only film and one only developer for months at least. Here's what counts: meter the light in the same way always, write data, and develop the same scene with 2 or 3 different developing times. Bracket your scene and print only contacts first with the enlarger time just reaching pure black in the film base on paper. That's the ONLY way for us to see if we need more/less exposure/developing. The goal is knowing how much development is needed by different contrast scenes. Forget scanners and photoshop.