film photography

[Ltdave]

ive probably mentioned all of this before. ive told a lot of people lately and honestly im beginning to forget who i told so ive already mentioned, feel free to skip right on by.

i started processing my own film in a high school photography class. i had access to the hs darkroom during class and before school. the benefit of 'finding' an extra key to the darkroom.

when i went to college, i had access to the schools darkroom in the fine arts building while the building was open but i soon found myself the photo editor of the college newspaper. having a girlfriend who's brother owned a hardware store who conveniently over looked the "Unlawful to duplicate this key" warning, made me a couple of sets to not only the darkroom, but the college newspaper (restricted to one or two other staffers) and the student center building (completely restricted to the the student government president and the newspaper editor in chief).

after i enlisted in the Air Force i had access to the darkrooms at both of my assignments 24-7 via keys to the building.

all that said, ive never had a darkroom of my own. i picked up an enlarger at the beginning of the year along with a bunch of other darkroom gear and ive bought what i didnt have in the package of 'stuff'. i havent started building the darkroom yet but ive been using the bathroom to process film and it is SO MUCH FUN! i forgot how much fun i used to have 30-40 years ago when i was doing work in the darkroom.

so far, ive only processed 2 rolls of 120 from my YashicaMat 124G and i just did 2 sheets of 4x5 from my Graflex Crown Graphic. that was try development and if youre not familiar with it, you have to stay there, in the dark, until the development, stopping, and fixing is complete. all told about 10 minutes per sheet. having never done tray development for film before, i only wanted to do one sheet at a time.

i need to get my backside in gear now and get the 'room' up. my father in law will be coming to visit in June and hes a plumber so hes going to plumb in my sink. ive got water and drain right where i plan on the sink.


so anyway, sorry if i just blathered on. im really enjoying all of this and for what i have in chemicals, i would only have been able to process the 2 rolls. the chemicals are resilient enough i can do a bunch more rolls...

 

[Levina de Ruijter]

That is so cool, Dave. I can totally understand your excitement and the pleasure it gives you. How will you digitise the images, so they can be posted on a forum?

 

[Kuma5]

I enjoyed developing film. Prior I'd worked in a print shop developing half tone plates for the presses, that darkroom time was fun. That was until I developed dermatitis from the chemical contact. Miss those days to some extent.

 

[Ltdave]

I enjoyed developing film. Prior I'd worked in a print shop developing half tone plates for the presses, that darkroom time was fun. That was until I developed dermatitis from the chemical contact. Miss those days to some extent.

i imagine continued contact would do that. ive been wearing nitrile gloves because it takes a lot it seems, to get the smell off my hands. and since ive been doing this before going to bed, i dont want that smell on my sheets, pillow or blankets

That is so cool, Dave. I can totally understand your excitement and the pleasure it gives you. How will you digitise the images, so they can be posted on a forum?

i need to come up with a light table of sorts (nothing fancy) so i can photograph them, then in LrC, you can 'invert' the curves. i guess. ive not played with that yet! i still need to get images. i think i have a way to do so.

i dont know if i could scan them on my regular scanner or not. wouldnt hurt to try i guess but they wont be RAW format then...

 

[Ltdave]

That is so cool, Dave. I can totally understand your excitement and the pleasure it gives you. How will you digitise the images, so they can be posted on a forum?

4x5 films (or Filims as i remember my grandpa saying it)

 

[Cathy_B]

This is amazing, Dave! My dad was a hobbyist photpgrapher back in his college years and he never misses the chance to say how much he enjoyed developing film and everything. He's one of those film folks that ever liked digital, ig I know I'm too lazy for film photography and Photoworks' film grain effect was the closest I got to it, but there is something enchanting in it for sure.

 

[Ltdave]

got a simple $15 or less LED light table from the 'zon. ive got some film to set up and scan. the 35 i just processed last night, i can run through my film scanner (cheap Kodak negative/slide scanner)...

its a shame, im back to work this week. lots of fun stuff to do!

 

[gjl711]

I spend a good many years in a darkroom. My dad started off on the kitchen table and later he and a neighbor friend built a darkroom at the neighbors house. I spent years developing but once I went digital, I never looked back. From what I understand, these days with all we know about the toxicity of the chemicals and how toxic they are to wildlife, especially silver based fixer, I would think that the disposal has to be planned for. In the old days we just flushed it down the drain but you can't do that anymore, you have to collect it all and bring it to a chemical disposal firm for proper disposal.

 

[Ltdave]

I spend a good many years in a darkroom. My dad started off on the kitchen table and later he and a neighbor friend built a darkroom at the neighbors house. I spent years developing but once I went digital, I never looked back. From what I understand, these days with all we know about the toxicity of the chemicals and how toxic they are to wildlife, especially silver based fixer, I would think that the disposal has to be planned for. In the old days we just flushed it down the drain but you can't do that anymore, you have to collect it all and bring it to a chemical disposal firm for proper disposal.

developers can be poured straight down the drain but they recommend NOT if you have a septic field because those use anaerobic micro-organisms to break down waste.

depending on locale, some want fixer to be handled separately but at the extremely low volume most hobbyists are going to be doing, it might take an awfully long time before there's enough collected to even be taken at a recycling center. stop bath and fixer can be used over and over and over before their base chemicals break down enough to stop working. im still working on a 1/2liter for the film ive done and from what i remember from way back when, ive got another 12-20 rolls of 35mm to go before it starts to lose effectiveness.

considering home brew stop bath can be had with 2% white vinegar to water or 4 teaspoons of citric acid to 1 liter of water, there really isnt anything in that thats hazardous. same with fixer. sodium thiosulphate you can add white vinegar for an acid fix or an ammonium salt for rapid fixer. the stop bath and fixer are simple acids to neutralize the base of the developing solution. developer can be made at home with Tylenol, Sodium Sulfite, and Sodium Hydroxide. all non-hazardous chemicals readily available.

 

[kf095]

These days film and else prices intend to keep it for fun.
Two rolls, two sheets are already valuable spending....

I never had any DR or access, in 2010 I decided it is now or newer.
Went for bulks instead of rolls, it was very affordable.
Can't say developing was fun, just time consuming routine.
Printing was even much more time consuming, but worth it.

I liked film gear much more than digital. Leica cameras were affordable. Well under thousand usd for working M.
With M4-2 I never been caught by dead battery. And no meter, no electronics film M is the fastest to respond camera I ever owned. It is ready always. Except changing film. For kilometres of film I exposed over ten years and with mostly manual focusing I missed focus only few times. Not landscapes, but I'm walking on streets and exposing film on situations lasting few or less seconds. Like I'm walking and my subject is walking, running...

The main thing I discovered and it became as my way to get keepers - machine gunning is not productive.
Now after I quit film after teen years of using it most, not digital, I still shoot like I did it with film.
Frame count is never more than three rolls per event, day.