Chemicals between Film and Paper (Help please)

Hi there,

I have been developing my own film in my bathroom for the last couple of months whilst waiting for my darkroom to finish. The fated day is fast approaching (just waiting for the rain of wonderful SE England to leave my basement!) that I will be able to start printing to paper, and I have some questions RE:Chemicals:

1) What chemicals can I use for development of both film and paper prints? I believe that the developer is dependent on individual developers, but what about fixer and stop? Also would Ilford wetting agent (for the final wash) be usable for both? Would this even be necessary for prints?

2) So far I have kept my fix/stop for film development (B+W) for about 2 months and made a set amount of developer for each development. Can I create a bulk amount (say 2 liters of each), filling the bottles with marbles to keep air out, so that I don't have to mix every time? What about with E6/C41?

Thanks for any help!

Dear kaantuncel,

1) Use separate chemicals for paper. Use Ilford Multigrade to start as your developer. Heck, just buy the appropriate Ilford products and be done with it. ;>) You can always experiment with other products later.

2) Don't spend a lot of time worrying about keeping your chemicals forever. Make photographs. Make lots of photographs. It's the only way to get good at it. If you are losing chemicals to time you are simply not making enough photographs. A small note though, Dektol seems to last an awfully long time when mixed with distilled water.

One last thing. Film and paper are expensive. Chemicals are cheap. There is no point in spending a day or more of your time, exposing a bunch of film and then scrimping on chemicals.

Have fun!

Neal Wydra

Developer - you will need a different film developer to print developer and the concentrates should be kept in air tight containers with minimum air to surface. I would suggest old plastic drink bottles you can squeeze to minimise air content.

Stop – An indicator stop bath is a good idea (dilute about 50:1 and it has a yellow colour and turns purple when depleted). You can use the same stop for both film and paper and don’t have to worry about storage method.

Fix – You can use the same fix for both film and paper, but at a different dilution. Use say Amfix and dilute 1:4 for film and 1:9 for paper. Again storage no problem and will keep for ages.

Use whatever paper developer you feel is right. I use photographers formulary 130. It is a few different dry chemicals you mix yourself. I find it to be the best developer I have ever used. Gives me the best tones. Is can be used a stock 1-1 and 1-2 depending one the contrast/tones you want. I use it at 1-1. For a fixer I use photographers formulary tf4. I use it for both film and paper. Very good product. It comes in a liquid and is very easy to mix. It lasts a long time and is very effective.

cliveh said:

Fix – You can use the same fix for both film and paper, but at a different dilution. Use say Amfix and dilute 1:4 for film and 1:9 for paper.

Click to expand...

Second vote for Amfix - A third of the price of most other fixers and just as good. A 5l can is £11.72 (1l £3.83) from Silverprint.
Stop, not essential (you can use plain old water) - I usually suggest a teaspoon of citric acid per litre of water (get it from Boots or a large supermarket, look under wine/beer brewing).

Great helpful hints but I do wonder if APUGGERS who drop by the wine/beer department might get a mite...distracted.

What better way to get the creative juices flowing

For clarity:

Yes, it is fine to use the same type of stop bath and fixer for both film and prints.

But,

If you are going to re-use stop bath and fixer (recommended in particular for fixer), don't re-use film fix later on prints or print fix later on film.

And at least with fixer, you may need to use different dilutions for film use and print use.

Everything you need to know to get started is on Ilford's site: Dead Link Removed

My 2 cents

My 2 cents …

Just like cjbecker, I use Formulary's PD-130 diluted 1+1 and TF-4 fixer. The only paper developer that beats PD-130 (IMO) is Amidol, but Amidol is difficult to work with (and it only keeps for a few hours after the working solution is mixed). What I usually do is do everything with PD-130 and at the very end, when I have a final print, I will do a couple of additional 'final' prints using Amidol. 9 out of 10 times I end up selecting the ones developed in Amidol, but the difference is not huge.

For film, Rodinal 1+25 or 1+50 is my standard. I like PMK also but the difference between PMK and Rodinal (IMO) is not big enough to justify the additional hassle of working with PMK (vs. using Rodinal)

I keep my TF-4 fixer for paper and for film separate.

My format: 8x10
My film: HP5+ and FP4+
My paper: oriental FB