First time in the Darkroom

[Phillip P. Dimor]

I keep film developers in mostly glass bottles. Empty vodka, whiskey bottles, etc. work great. I don't worry about the light.

Paper developer, stop and fix go in plastic juice jugs (1 gal. Hi-C jugs, or those great 1 gal. cranberry juice jugs with a plastic strap handle around the neck.

I also like the keep the paper stop bath and fixer in separate containers from the film stop and fix. Keeps things cleaner. You can use nasty stop and fix on paper but I'd rather not use it on film.

Don't feel bad.. My first developing session at home was a disaster and I didn't get any usable results.
I used Tmax developer CONCENTRATE.. straight. My film came out a solid creamy white. It was weird.

Also dektol is fantastic, some day in the future when you're feeling adventurous you might want to give Ethol LPD (Liquid Paper Developer) a try. Get the powdered version. It makes 1 gal of stock (1:0) that you can mix from 1:1 to 1:5. Different dilutions will give you a cold or warm look. I don't use it for that though.. I use it because it lasts forever. Dektol once mixed up and in a tray doesn't last but maybe 3 sessions (for me atleast), LPD will last for months.. Plus it's cheaper than Dektol if you think about it. Great job though! Have fun!

 

[Phillip P. Dimor]

As far as breaking bottles go.. I've seen rubber-coated Kimax flasks and bottles. You could essentially get a can of rubberized spray undercoating (or that rubberized tool handle dip/spray) from Wally world and put a few layers on a bottle. At best it may bounce. At worst the shattered glass would probably be contained within the rubber.
Plus it would keep light out.

 

[Ole]

The undiluted developer stock solution once mixed wants to oxidize things. ...

Eh - no. Developer is a reducing agent, it wants to be oxidised. We want it to be oxidised by reacting with the silver halides in the paper, reducing those to metallic silver in the process.

The developer doesn't care, it just wants to reduce something else, so it can be oxidised. It's just as happy reducing oxygen to oxides, which is why it lasts longer if kept away from the oxygen in the air.

 

[fotch]

I don't recall ever breaking a glass bottle in the darkroom. I usually am either working over a counter top or a darkroom sink and if I did drop the bottle, would not go very far. Of course, when I use to use large 1 gal. glass amber jugs that gets stored under the sink or counter, I would use two hands, one on the neck and one under the bottom because I would worry about dropping them.

The plastic darkroom bottles that replaced them all have handles so less worry about dropping them.

I am going back to all glass (or close to it) so maybe old age will change my opinion on this. :munch: