A Cry of Help from a young photographer!

Hi! I have a couple questions about black and white photography and i just learned it this past summer. fortunately i fell in love with it!
I have a few questions about film developing:
What do u use for stop if u dont hav the chemicals available?
If film turns purple and nothing shows up, does tht mean its a blank film?
please if anyone has any tips comment!!
also i am looking for used darkroom equipment if u kno anywhere i could get a semi-cheap enlarger please tell me!! thank you soo much!

If you don't have the chemicals available, what do you use for developer?
Enlargers are very very cheap (or free) on the used market. Enlargers are everywhere. Try eBay to get a feel for what price range you're in. Omega, LPL, Bessler, Meopta, and many more. They'll all do the job well.

Hello and welcome. Many people here at APUG use just water as a stop bath.

i do hav the developer and fix just not stop

The idea of a stop bath is just to stop the developer...well, developing. Water actually works just fine for all intents and purposes. The reason an acidic stop is so common is because the fixer is usually acidic too, and it can help maintain that. That's my understanding of the process, anyway. So you can use water, vinegar diluted 1+5 (one part vinegar to five parts water) works too, or buy a simple bottle of indicator stop bath. It's cheap and will last you ages, I'm only on my second bottle after a few years.
Purple is the colour of the base on some films, so if it's clear apart from the purple base, yes it's blank. Check for edge markings though, there should be words printed along the outside of the roll.

Personally I just use water for the stop bath. Check out craigslist for darkroom gear, apparently there's plenty available these days.

Like Kevin said, and use water.
Good luck in the enlarger hunt.
For me it's still amazing to see the print appear in the developer.

Stop Bath is usually acetic acid at about a 1.5% strength. Vinegar is acetic acid at about 4% or 5% strength. So you could dilute 1 part white vinegar plus 2 parts water to make a stop bath. Something like 4 oz vinegar + 8 ounces water would be 1+2.

Or you could just use water alone as Kevin has said.

If the film is purple it may mean it isn't fixed. Having nothing show up could either be from not developing the film (e.g., forgot to put developer concentrate in when mixing the developer) or from severe underexposure (e.g., too low light, film was misloaded and didn't wind through the camera, shutter broken on camera, lens cap on, etc.).

Look at your film. If you can see the numbering and manufacturer's name near the perforations, that means your film has gone through developer. If it isn't there, it means the film was fixed before it was developed (like maybe the graduates got mixed up in sequence or you forgot to add developer, etc.). If the film is purple and milky or opaque looking, it means it has not been adequately fixed. If it is transparent and purple, it probably was fixed OK but not washed long enough to remove the purple antihalation dye that normally disappears with proper film processing.

Welcome to APUG!!

Blank film -- if you develop it and there is nothing on it there are two posibilities. 1) if there are the frame numbers on the film, then the film was never exposed (maybe the film did not catch on the take-up reel and never was advanced thru the camera.) or 2) no frame numbers -- the film was not actually developed (no developer used, or perhaps fixer was used first instead of developer.)

Enlargers -- Craigs List!

now I'M confused lol...i've seen 3 different ratios to dilute vinegar stop...does it make a huge difference? i know you can use water to stop film..can you use it for prints too??

Oh, I got all my equip. off freecycle (pretty much had everything but chems and paper)...or my dh did..was my xmas gift....but there's another place you can look

From my experience, if it's purple and kind of opaque, thick looking, it needs more time in the fix, or the fix is too weak. If the film is transparent it's serious under exposure, serious under development, misloaded film, or you put the fix in first.

As for stop, I've always used water.

Good luck!

youngphotofreak94 said:

Hi! I have a couple questions about black and white photography and i just learned it this past summer. fortunately i fell in love with it!
I have a few questions about film developing:
What do u use for stop if u dont hav the chemicals available?
If film turns purple and nothing shows up, does tht mean its a blank film?
please if anyone has any tips comment!!
also i am looking for used darkroom equipment if u kno anywhere i could get a semi-cheap enlarger please tell me!! thank you soo much!

Click to expand...

For film developing you need 3 things as a minimum chemistry wise, a developer, a fixer and water. A stop bath is not really needed, just plain water can be used, as with the longer development times for film, it's not as critical to stop development immediately. Stop baths are commonly used for prints using development by inspection, with much shorter development times it's more critical to stop development immediately.

If you get a blank film, it's for one of 3 reasons:

1) You processed a roll that was not exposed properly.
2) Your developer has expired to the point it didn't work at all anymore, or became contaminated.
3) You mixed up the developer and fixer.

Have a look at your film, if the rebate - that is the writing on the top and/or bottom looks right, then the problem is the film was not exposed properly.

If the film is clear, edge to edge then either your developer was not working or you mixed up the steps.

If you use a concentrate developer, only mix it for use immediately before use, when you open a bottle you should put the date opened on the bottle, and check the manufacturer directions of how long it is supposed to last once opened. Some will last as little as 3 months, some like Rodinol will last decades. A developer concentrate can last a long time, but diluted for use, it can die within an hour.

You should always have three containers for working solutions, these should be marked, so they can not be mixed up, a good way to do this is to use coloured electrical or duct tape, on the containers or coloured paint, do the lids too, this way you don't get the containers confused. When you set them out, always put them in the same order, for example left to right. This way you don't really need to think about it, it becomes automatic after a while.

The purple colour is a dye used by the film manufacturer, it's usually removed during processing, especially if you use an acid fixer.

Hi there. Try using the APUG advanced search page, and be sure to highlight the section you want to search;

(there was a url link here which no longer exists)

There are years worth of answers just waiting for you to search them out

Murray

thanks for all the great help!
another question: what's a cheap idea for a blackout curtain??

I've used black bin liners in the past, as well as a black PVC shower curtain from IKEA. But when I went looking for a second one, IKEA had (of course) stopped selling them...

youngphotofreak94 said:

thanks for all the great help!
another question: what's a cheap idea for a blackout curtain??

Click to expand...

At Wal-Mart (at least near me), you can get a thick black cloth for about $3 a yard. It looks like felt but it's some sort of eco-friendly synthetic. I hang it double-thickness on a temporary curtain rod in front of the door. Not sure how well it would work for a window, or a doorway that receives direct sunlight.

Cheapest would be black polyethylene from Home Despot or similar source. I covered my basement windows with it, but in daylight it needs 2 layers.

A fabric store like JoAnn Fabrics sells stuff that is indeed called "curtain blackout" material. It is used by hotels to make rooms dark for wayfarers. It is either white or cream (and so reflective of safelights and makes the darkroom relatively brighter unlike dark fabrics) and opaque in a single layer. I've purchased it for $3-$6 per liner yard, 54" wide.

thanks again!!