Film development marathon

lauffray · Nov 30, 2015

This weekend I finished developing 32 rolls from a recent trip, plus 15 rolls I had shot in my hometown since summer. Will start putting together a series for this soon, in the meantime making lazy contact sheets from iPhone pictures of my light table

Vilk · Nov 30, 2015

hey, the effort is well understood on this end of the rainbow, trust me. i would go through more after every trip until, in a textbook face-palm moment, i threw my tank in the duffel bag one day and started processing wherever i happened to be at the moment (4-6 months on the road every year). eventually, even that was not enough, i wanted to shoot more than i cared to process, so i did the unthinkable and never looked back (or did i? i'm here, reading this after all) anyway, bottom line: try taking the tank with you next time... the "endless" lab sleeves, stored in a tin cookie box, are a bit more efficient on the road than the flat 6x6; you can cut and re-sleeve when you're back

(i was google-streeting down rue st-paul just 10 minutes ago, thinking to drop by around xmas, shoot some snow on cobblestone )

lauffray · Nov 30, 2015

I did look into it for this trip, the cost of chemistry was prohibitive though. I don't mind these volumes too much yet, it's not often I have this much to process.

If you decide to drop by shoot me a message
Last December was unseasonably snowless though

Vilk · Nov 30, 2015

i used to pack my ID-11 with me... after throwing out the moronic shoebox-size packaging

crossing fingers for some fluffy white stuff... not too cold tho', we hates cold

Rich Ullsmith · Nov 30, 2015

I dunno . . .I don't see any empty beer bottles or films cannisters laying about . . .this scene looks staged . . .

lauffray · Nov 30, 2015

Rich Ullsmith said:
I dunno . . .I don't see any empty beer bottles or films cannisters laying about . . .this scene looks staged . . .

I'll upload pictures of the casualties later

ColColt · Nov 30, 2015

That's some serious shooting! Years ago we went on a tour of the East Coast from TN to VA and onward to PA, MA, NY and finally into Canada. I don't think I had but half that amount and I used 35mm and 120.

DWThomas · Nov 30, 2015

Yeah, in a way seeing that is pretty inspiring. Although if I shot that many frames in 120 I might have to put an addition on the house! :confused:

mooseontheloose · Nov 30, 2015

I've never seen film canisters being used as film clips before...

Nige · Nov 30, 2015

mooseontheloose said:
I've never seen film canisters being used as film clips before...

spotted that too!

lauffray, do you process them like that (in a rondinax or similar)?

rrocco · Nov 30, 2015

Wow! Nice job. How many rolls did you do at a time? Also, did you know the iphone has a function to invert your images so your negative contact sheets can be viewed as positives? On my i phone you push the home button 3 times quickly to set the inverted screen (push 3 times again to undo it).

hoffy · Nov 30, 2015

Agghhhh, my OCD is yelling at me....... "Look at all the potential of dust".

Good work!

CropDusterMan · Nov 30, 2015

I love marathon developing sessions! You can get into such a wonderful groove. My last one was following
a snow storm that hit Yosemite...although I find that shooting Blad and 6x9 vs 35mm keeps me a little
more disciplined when I pull the trigger...when I have the 35 in hand...I shoot much more.

Have fun.

BradleyK · Nov 30, 2015

mooseontheloose said:
I've never seen film canisters being used as film clips before...

Really? I've been doing that since day one with my Kodak canisters (Tri-X and, later, TMax3200) My Ilford canisters, however, back in the days of HP5, were always reused for bulk film loading.

Nige · Dec 1, 2015

BradleyK said:
Really? I've been doing that since day one...

Please explain how you do this. Do you re-tape the film to the spool and reinsert into canister? because you can't leave it attached in normal developing tanks. Just trying to understand.

ManicPixie · Dec 1, 2015

Oh wow. Impressive. I now have the urge to shoot about a dozen rolls so I can have a mini development marathon.

lauffray · Dec 1, 2015

Thanks for all the interest

The trick with the canisters started when I was a student and too cheap to pay for proper clips. I don't open the canister, I leave a little of the leader out when rewinding, so I just pull out the film and cut it at the end of the roll to develop and then just reinsert the tip of it after washing to let it dry. It was almost necessary to do this back when I used those crazy curly TriX films, but HP5 not so much

I have one of those big tanks so I was doing 7 rolls at a time, all in all 32 rolls that night

As for the pictures of the casualties I promised, alas it seems I had already taken out the trash that night, sorry

lauffray · Dec 10, 2015

Part two, after development, printing !

bence8810 · Dec 10, 2015

rrocco said:
Also, did you know the iphone has a function to invert your images so your negative contact sheets can be viewed as positives? On my i phone you push the home button 3 times quickly to set the inverted screen (push 3 times again to undo it).

Yes you can do that but after you took the photo and set the phone back to normal mode with the 3push, the image you took goes back to being a negative.

Would be cool if it stayed like that.
I use the iPhone's above mentioned function to quickly examine the shots on a light table though - pretty cool!

Ben

Fr. Mark · Dec 11, 2015

I'm missing something about inverting to positive from negatives. My phone won't do that. What version are you using?

lauffray · Dec 11, 2015

Fr. Mark said:
I'm missing something about inverting to positive from negatives. My phone won't do that. What version are you using?

I don't have that either, you can go to accessibility in settings and set it to invert colours, or get the app I have called filmScanner it's basically a camera with inverted colours

BradleyK · Dec 11, 2015

Nige said:
Please explain how you do this. Do you re-tape the film to the spool and reinsert into canister? because you can't leave it attached in normal developing tanks. Just trying to understand.

Real easy: Post-development (after the film has been removed from the reels), crush the (empty) metal film canisters by hand (the tops will usually pop off) until they are almost flat. Then use the flattened canisters as a sort of "paper clip" to weight down the film to prevent it from buckling or curling as it dries. Once the film is dry, remove the "canister clips" and place them in your recycling bin.

NB23 · Jan 8, 2016

bence8810 said:
Yes you can do that but after you took the photo and set the phone back to normal mode with the 3push, the image you took goes back to being a negative.

Would be cool if it stayed like that.
I use the iPhone's above mentioned function to quickly examine the shots on a light table though - pretty cool!

Ben

You can always printscreen the image. You basically save it as you see it on the screen. Wouldn't that be a solution?

LarsAC · Jan 8, 2016

lauffray said:
I don't have that either, you can go to accessibility in settings and set it to invert colours, or get the app I have called filmScanner it's basically a camera with inverted colours

I use an app LB Loupe, which has settings for BW or color inverted display of the camera view on my iPhone.

Lars

Jim Jones · Jan 9, 2016

Plastic clothespins from Walmart have holes in the handle tips that permit convenient threading on a string. They also work well as substitutes for weights to keep drying film from curling.

I used to have up to 80 rolls of 35mm B&W film to develop after a photo trip. An 8-roll tank reduced the labor. Presoak is strongly advised with such a large tank.

Film development marathon

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