Srtiwarti,
hi, it is a good question you ask especially if you are unfamiliar with how things work in the darkroom.
The graduates are reuseable for years on end, and if wash them really well after each use you can keep them fairly new looking. there are several types of graduates, from plastic to stainless steel. i have been using plastic graduates for years, which I think hold a Litre or is Liter of water equivalent to 70 ounces of liquid.
As far as my process here is what I do:
1) I label all of my graduates one for Prewash, one for Developer, one or two for the Stop bath, which is water, and one for fix. I do't really know how much this matters, but I prefer to make sure that the same chemistry continously goes into the same graduate as before, as they tend to leave a little residue no matter how well you wash them.
2) I mix all the chemistry that I am going to use ahead of time, including to make sure the temperature is at 68 degrees or little lower as the water tends to warm up a little while it sits there.
3) Prewash: I use permawash, I pour into the graduate as so i can measure according to the amount I need to use for developing. I pour it in the tank and agitate it for minute. I pour it back into the graduate and later back into my stock solution of permawash. A stock solution is about 125 ounces of water 3 ounces of permawash, according to the label on the bottle. the pre-wash, so i have been told, helps to prepare the film for the developer, it makes the film wet, which allows the developer to immediately affect the film. I am not sure if this true or not, but I have noticed that the development seems to be more even, compared to when I do not use a prewash.
4) Rinse: I then rinse the film of any residue from the permawash using water. I will continously agitate the film for one minute.
5) Developer, There are many ways to agitate your film with developer depending one what kind of results that you want. Here is my method, and agian i encourage you to experiment as there are so many possibilities.
Once all the developer is in the tank I will agitate my film not too soft, but not too harsh, it is so subjective that this difficult to describe, and many people on this forum all have their own technique. Basically if you do not want too much contrast then agitate lightly, or if you want a lot of contrast agitate the film quickly. or if you want it somewhere in between. One thing I do is to make sure that the canister is completely upside down before I turn rightside up and vice versa. Also if you know that your underexposed your film then I would agitate it a little more quicly or vice versa.
I usually agitate my film for the first minute, then 10 seconds at the 30 second mark. so when the big hand is at the 12 and 6 I start my agitation cycle for 10 seconds--I still use analog for film processing timers--I just liek the aesthetic and the sound of the clock ticking--it is a very sensory process for me.
Once the time is up, pour and pray your film came out. I pour it down the sink, as most developers can not be reused.
6) Again, I rinse with water, but before I pour the water in I check to make sure the temp is 68 degrees or 20 degrees celcius. I use a digital thermometer, one made specifically for the darkroom, also purchased from B&H or the Kodak thermometer that is about $30.00-40.00 USD, but I broke too man of those, and the seem to have become more expensive.
7) After the second water rinse or stop bath procedure, I pour the fix in, and use the same agitation--one minute for the first minute then every 30 second mark for 5-6 minutes if my fix is fresh. if it is a little exhausted then maybe 10-12 minutes.
Once I am done, I pour the fix back into the graduate as it can be reused for a while. I use one of many fix check to see if it is still usable. If it isn't the fix indicator will make a small area of the fix cloudy.
8) I then wash again in water for about a minute, then permas wash it for about a minute or two with continous agitation, then wash it using film washer for about 10-30 minutes.
I hope this helps, if you have any questions, I will do my best to answer them for you. I would encourage you to experiment if you have time especially with different developers, and please remember this is only one method to process film. Even if you vary your temperature to 75 degrees you can process the film for less time, and still yield interesting results--For the aesthetic that I am after in this moment of time i like the 66-68 degrees.
Ansel adams book the negative he also has the camera and the print.
And then another really great series are the technical pocket book series the editor is Sidney F. Ray. There are a total of six in the series---the ones I would recommend are:
1) Chemistry and Processing and Printing and enlarging. Just pick and choose what you think might applies to you, but I have found them useful. The other series are excellent, but a little too technical for my interest.
I hope this helps . . . once you processed some film, plese post some results.
