How I survived the darkroom and came back with the goods (well, most of them)

[telenous]

After lurking for quite some time in the darkroom forum, I took the decision to wet my ankles with some of the chemistry. I read very carefully about the various stages and chemicals, the importance of timing and about how easy the whole thing really is. So, last week I ordered everything and a couple of days ago everything was with me.

I am now in the very pleasant position to announce that I have my first two rolls developed and scanned 🙂

Not everything was a bed of roses of course, not for me anyway. I will not tire you with the details of what went wrong in my first attempt - suffice it to say that the meatball pasta I was preparing, at the same time as I was developing my first roll, was delicious, all the while the hair blower is not necessarily the best way to dry the reel for the Paterson tank (it may melt the delicate plastic) and I can confirm that the wetting agent cannot be used to develop film. At all. 🙄 :bang: 😱 😱

The second attempt went better (see photos at the end of this post). Of course that was expected because it couldn't go worse. And so, a roll of Ilford Delta 100 I developed in DDX came out mostly right. Photo 1 is from it. In Photo 2 you can see where things went wrong - there's a dark patch in the middle. I suspect I left it a little longer in the developer? There was no meatball pasta this time roung but perhaps I got my times wrong. Anyway most of the frames came out as expected.

By the third roll, I was feeling a little bit like a veteran. Photos 3-6 (posted next) are from a Neopan 400 developed again in DDX. The entire roll looks fine to me (but please excuse any dust or scratches - the photos are fresh from the scanner and they are not PSed).

The Darkroom forum has a wealth of information and I am really, really grateful to all those RFFers who frequent it for their spot on advice in various threads. Although I never asked a question directly I always knew where to turn for help.

Many thanks!

 

[telenous]

And here are another two photos, this time from the Neopan 400.

 

[telenous]

And another two (again Neopan 400):

 

[ben lloyd]

Good stuff, you'll want to be enlarging next!

I can't see what the problem is you talk of in the 2nd photo (St. Giles), "a dark patch"?

 

[ben lloyd]

though it does look like there might be a "dork bar" on the right...

 

[telenous]

Thank you, Ben. I really don't know, the mysterious dark patch made its appearance in a couple more photos I took outside Covered Market. It looks as though a small piece of the frame has been completely obliterated but I don't know if it was the developing or the fixing that did it.

 

[ben lloyd]

Whereabouts on that picture are you talking about? Or am I mistaking the problem for a person walking past?!

 

[telenous]

No, no you are not mistaking it. I guess you are right, this is someone walking past, although there are a few dark patches in a couple of the other frames. I will scan them and post.

 

[ben lloyd]

If it isn't someone walking past, my first thought would be incorrect loading onto the spool, this can cause the film to touch itself, where this happens no development takes place, then fixing causes it to be totally blank.

If this is the case, the crescent, that might be flare from the lamp above it, is also a typical trademark of a small crimp whilst loading.

 

[telenous]

Thank you Ben - that also makes sense. I am so fresh in this that I wouldn't be surprised to have messed with the loading. In the other two frames that I have detected the dark patches, they are much smaller, they definitely look like areas where development went wrong.

 

[Ash]

yea second pic is a person. Otherwise great shots. Get yourself an enlarger and a paterson orbital, you can do the semi-darkroom* work like me 😀

(*I'm printing without safelight, with my brain as a timer, no filters other than a red filter on the enlarger, the room is blacked out with bedsheets and towels, and I can't see the print develop since I'm using a daylight developing tank!)


It's downhill from here Telenous 😀

 

[willie_901]

Alkis,

Congratulations!

I resumed B&W development just recently. I really enjoy it,

By the way, what 50mm M lens do you like the best?

Keep up the good work.

Bill

 

[popstar]

Now you're gonna get the developing bug. The first few rolls are always tense, wondering if you've got the process right. But once you've done a few rolls, it's likely you'll start to become eager to see what you have. I usually have a few shots I think might be OK, and there are a lot that I'll know about once the film is developed. The feeling of opening the tank and taking a roll out for drying and seeing properly developed images is one I hope never gets old! 🙂

It seems that the Neopan went really well for you. Those look especially good. Congratulations on taking the plunge!

 

[Bryce]

Telenous-
Welcome aboard! I also taught myself to develop and print by reading posts online as well as books. I was given most of my darkroom by a co-worker who was going to send it to thr landfill if I didn't take it. Got me started at least!
Later I took some night classes at the local university. I haven't been sorry about any of it.



Ash-
You're a tough guy! Where there's a will, there's a way. Howcome no tray developing and no safelight? Surely a safelight is easy enough, just need a light socket (I use a table lamp, available nearly free from a second hand store). Maybe you don't use tray development for space reasons? Sounds like a good solution to me.


Both of you, and anyone else thinking it might be for them- try it, keep doing it, and help me keep our suppliers in business!

 

[MadMan2k]

Congrats. I like the one of the Ferrari and the street.

I want to start developing my own also, probably after I do a few more computer jobs for friends and can get the equipment I'll try it.

 

[Honus]

Alkis,

I'm proud of you, mate. Keep at it and don't be afraid to make mistakes. Your initial results look very promising.

It's magic when you pull a roll off of the real and the negs have juuuuuuuuust the right density to them.

 

[amateriat]

Looking good, Alkis. From here on in, it really does get easier, and more enjoyable.

I started souping my own film again early last year, and it was truly fun returning to it. Since I'd done it in the distant past, there wasn't much of a learning curve, but I was still overly cautious about everything. The first session went so well I ended up processing twice as much film as I'd planned to that day. Even went on the 'Bay a little later and got myself a wall-hanging electric film dryer (since I tend to process four rolls at a time, often eight rolls a session). I won't be going back to wet-printing, however: no room for it. (Trying to figure out what to do with my Omega B22 outfit as I write this.) The beauty of souping your own film, of course, is that it takes little space and gear to make it happen, unlike wet printing (even minimalist-daredevil style, as described elsewhere in this thread). 😉

Keep it up, and I hope to see more!


- Barrett

 

[rover]

Great stuff, keep it up.

Maybe we can get a dedicated Traditional Darkroom forum if this trend continues.

 

[Ash]

Ash-
You're a tough guy! Where there's a will, there's a way. Howcome no tray developing and no safelight? Surely a safelight is easy enough, just need a light socket (I use a table lamp, available nearly free from a second hand store). Maybe you don't use tray development for space reasons? Sounds like a good solution to me.


Both of you, and anyone else thinking it might be for them- try it, keep doing it, and help me keep our suppliers in business!

Yep it's taken a summer of complaints and whining to get the point across to my parents that I need a darkroom. And there they were thinking that my cameras, film in the fridge and freezer, and a changing bag and 2-reel tank was 'taking over the house with camera stuff' !

There's a safelight around somewhere from my mum's setup (which is where I stole the trays from) but I had an earful about chemical burns in the carpet if I even THOUGHT about developing the prints upstairs!

Also I'm out of pocket now, so no safelight for the moment - I'm more worried about all the light escaping from the top of the dome on the enlarger ---> not sure it's fogged any prints yet, but I'm learning to be REALLY fast getting the paper under something opaque after exposure 😀


Also I try and buy everything from Peter Gilberts (anyone who comes through Swindon MUST go in and buy something!) since he's the last of the classic camera shops!


Rover, a Trad-Darkroom forum would be really great, to seperate out the different threads, but I think this might just be a little boom that may die down - no point splitting up Darkroom/Film/Photoshop just yet 🙂

 

[kully]

Great stuff. I remember starting this developing thing in the spring - making dinner whilst trying to work out 10% off 11.5 minutes and 1:4 of 650 ml.... Madness.

The things I've learnt are:

- Have the radio on
- Have the window open for the Fixer fumes
- Have all the chemicals ready at the beggining
- Don't make sandwiches at the same time because no matter how hard you try they always end up tasting of fixer.
- Don't try and load plastic reels which are not completely dry.

Now I just need a way of setting up an enlarger in the loft (I have no water going up there, otherwise it is ideal).

EDIT: I just read your blog Ash - you have given me some inspiration.