I love 35mm film but want to develop and print my own film

[4season]

@Molli 's advice in #23 is particularly apt: Fewer good sources of info can be better than a multitude of well-meaning but confusing ones! This is old-school technology and the fundamentals haven't changed a lot, save that newer chemistry ("newer" being 1990s or thereabouts) is generally more eco-friendly, and less likely to smell like vinegar.

 

[Sirius Glass]

One thing that overwhelmed me when I was learning was times, dilutions, and temperatures. I've screwed up all of those and can safely say that for a beginner, don't lose any sleep over those factors, you can be way off on all 3 and still get an image on the negative. Of course they all have an impact on the amount of development that occurs, but paper grades and scanning software will make that an issue you don't have to worry about until you get the basic steps down

I chose XTOL because it is very forgiving and easy to us. Start with the stock solution and later you may want to change to replenished XTOL [add in 70ml per roll of film] for better grain, tonality and saving money].

 

[Paul Howell]

Although not an Xtol user, it is a very good developer, only reason I don't use it is because I don't buy in 5 liter sizes.

 

[Sirius Glass]

Although not an Xtol user, it is a very good developer, only reason I don't use it is because I don't buy in 5 liter sizes.

I store it in one liter packages and it seems to last for years if properly stored. The replenished XTOL lasts for years too.

 

[cliveh]

Asking advice on this site about how to develop and print film is not a good idea, as you will get hundreds of conflicting opinions and suggestions far removed from what you wish to achieve. I would suggest you enrol in basic analogue photography course at your local college.

 

[snusmumriken]

Don't try to weigh up conflicting advice. There is no 'best' way. Buy only sufficient basic kit to allow you to develop your films by one method, and progress from there year by year if you feel the need. Same with enlarging.

 

[MattKing]

Asking advice on this site about how to develop and print film is not a good idea, as you will get hundreds of conflicting opinions and suggestions far removed from what you wish to achieve. I would suggest you enrol in basic analogue photography course at your local college.

If you take one lesson away from this thread (and others) it should probably be that there are many ways to achieve good results.
When you read posts which include recommendations, note first the apparent enthusiasm and dedication. The details of the recommendation may also be helpful .
If you are able to locate an in person learning situation, I too would highly recommend it. If nothing else, your experience with it will make the myriad of other resources - books, videos, forums - so much more valuable!
One of the hardest things I find is imparting to people who are new to this how to weigh the importance of various factors: which factors are critical, which factors require reasonable care, and which factors allow for flexibility. When you start, you will tend to think everything is critical. In most cases, you can relax a bit more than that.
My specific recommendation is: go into this expecting to have fun. I still do, 50+ years in.

 

[Sirius Glass]

Asking advice on this site about how to develop and print film is not a good idea, as you will get hundreds of conflicting opinions and suggestions far removed from what you wish to achieve. I would suggest you enrol in basic analogue photography course at your local college.

You are wrong. Conflicting options provides various options and paths to try out. Just remember though that the only opinion which is always correct it mine. The rest are entitled to their opinions even though they are wrong.

 

[KitosLAB]

Свою первую черно-белую пленку я проявил 50 лет назад. Мне тогда было 6 лет. В этом нет ничего сложного. Но больше всего мне понравилось разрабатывать слайд. Понравилась подсветка после проявки. Это настоящее волшебство!

{Mod edit; translation according to Google: }

I developed my first black and white film 50 years ago. I was then 6 years old. There is nothing difficult in this. But most of all I enjoyed designing the slide. I liked the backlight after developing. This is real magic!

 

[Molli]

Свою первую черно-белую пленку я проявил 50 лет назад. Мне тогда было 6 лет. В этом нет ничего сложного. Но больше всего мне понравилось разрабатывать слайд. Понравилась подсветка после проявки. Это настоящее волшебство!

Магія - саме те слово! Здається, людина, яка запитувала, як це зробити, більше не зацікавлена.

{Translation: Magic is the very word! It seems the person who asked how to do this is no longer interested.}

 

[PinkPony]

You do like inflicting pain on the unsuspecting.

I recommend the same. The Hewes reels are really easy to load and film does not stick to the reels due to increased air moisture (such as sweating slightly in a changing bag).

I was always terrified of loading onto plastic reels in my hot darkroom in the summer or in a changing bag. Sometimes it became impossible to get the film onto the plastic reels and I lost frames at the end of the film.

 

[pentaxuser]

The OP joined us on 17 Oct 2022 and has not been back since that day. So he might have read all the responses up to #16. Maybe we need to look at the advice given to him up to that point? Essentially in his first and only post he is asking for advice on how use his Leitz enlarger. By #2 he gets told to ditch that enlarger, others suggest that he gets Hewes reels and stainless steel tanks. OK those posts are balanced by others' who have different views but he may think he has joined a forum where no -one agrees but one in which we do enjoy a debate

I wonder how long it was before he may have heard enough to simply abandon us?

If he has abandoned us, does that matter? If he can't take us as he finds us then that's his problem, isn't it or is it only his problem?

With newcomers do we need to ask ourselves such basic things as: What are they asking us to provide? What is their level of knowledge and skill and then addressing that initially. Then we see how things progress and try and ensure that the newcomer is keeping pace with what we are telling him

pentaxuser

 

[Pieter12]

A quote from John Szarkowski:
”The decisive moment is easy. The hard part is loading the film on the reel.”

 

[aparat]

With newcomers do we need to ask ourselves such basic things as: What are they asking us to provide? What is their level of knowledge and skill and then addressing that initially. Then we see how things progress and try and ensure that the newcomer is keeping pace with what we are telling him

pentaxuser

That was a very thoughtful and insightful comment. I agree with your sentiment. Some of the more advanced photographers may find it difficult to address a complete beginner without overwhelming them with detail and debate. How does one convey basic knowledge to help such a person? I guess I'd start by imagining being in their shoes and go from there.

 

[runswithsizzers]

That was a very thoughtful and insightful comment. I agree with your sentiment. Some of the more advanced photographers may find it difficult to address a complete beginner without overwhelming them with detail and debate. How does one convey basic knowledge to help such a person? I guess I'd start by imagining being in their shoes and go from there.

In my experience, it is almost impossible for an expert to imagine being in a beginner's shoes. After a couple of decades of practicing any craft, a certain amount of fundamental knowledge becomes so ingrained that it happens at a subconcious level. We forget what it was like to be the new kid, and we simply cannot see the process from an innocent point of view.

The best person to train the new guy is not the crusty old expert, but the person who was himself the new guy just a year or two ago. They are experienced enough to know the fundamentals, and can still remember the hard parts about learing the job.

At one place I worked, we had a saying about training, "See one, do one, teach one." I think the process of teaching something you have just learned provides additional learning. If you have to explain a process to someone, you will understand it better yourself.

So I suggest that some of the old experts should step back, and let some of the newer members try to help the total newbies. A person who is still in the learning phase will probably be more helpful than you think - and (hopefully) more empathetic than the crusty old experts that dominate forums like this one. ;-) The moderately informed should not worry too much about the quality of your advice - if you are wrong about something, I'm sure the crusty experts will correct you, probably more than once. In fact, they will probably correct you even if you are correct, but that is life on the internet.

 

[Sirius Glass]

In my experience, it is almost impossible for an expert to imagine being in a beginner's shoes. After a couple of decades of practicing any craft, a certain amount of fundamental knowledge becomes so ingrained that it happens at a subconcious level. We forget what it was like to be the new kid, and we simply cannot see the process from an innocent point of view.

The best person to train the new guy is not the crusty old expert, but the person who was himself the new guy just a year or two ago. They are experienced enough to know the fundamentals, and can still remember the hard parts about learing the job.

At one place I worked, we had a saying about training, "See one, do one, teach one." I think the process of teaching something you have just learned provides additional learning. If you have to explain a process to someone, you will understand it better yourself.

So I suggest that some of the old experts should step back, and let some of the newer members try to help the total newbies. A person who is still in the learning phase will probably be more helpful than you think - and (hopefully) more empathetic than the crusty old experts that dominate forums like this one. ;-) The moderately informed should not worry too much about the quality of your advice - if you are wrong about something, I'm sure the crusty experts will correct you, probably more than once. In fact, they will probably correct you even if you are correct, but that is life on the internet.

I disagree. I can learn something from everyone.

 

[MattKing]

In my experience, it is almost impossible for an expert to imagine being in a beginner's shoes.

I'm going to disagree in part.
It is difficult for someone experienced in the craft to see things the way that beginners do, but it is possible.
The expertise you need, in addition to the knowledge of the craft, is expertise in teaching!
And as trying to do this through the internet is incredibly difficult, expertise in internet teaching is also important.
I am way better at teaching in person than I am on the internet. But I've been known to be helpful. And I certainly know others who are helpful as well.

 

[Sirius Glass]

There are on line videos, some are better than others. Plus there are some good books out there.

 

[M-88]

Seems like OP is immediately gone after their very first post.

Oh well, it's still good to read all these opinions, sometimes I get to learn something useful.

 

[Timo Schön]

Hi,
Getting into development and printing can be rough at first but it is a very rewarding thing to do. I personally startet with just a small patterson tank (can hold 2 rolls of 35mm or 1 roll of 120) with the standard reels but it all comes down to preference. At first you will have to practice a bit since getting the film on the spools can be a pain in the ass but you will get the hang of it. There is a website called Massive Dev Chart where you will find "instructions" on how to develop A LOT of film / developer combinations. Watch some YouTube videos if you do not have anyone to explain all the things in person. Also it is easier to start out with black and white so probably take a look at that first
I am still relatively new to this and there are a lot of people on this forum who are much better at all of this but as someone who does this for twoish years now the best thing I can tell you is to just get started, expect some frustration, make mistakes and learn from it. Get through your first ten rolls maybe and it will become easy

 

[pentaxuser]

You are wrong. Conflicting options provides various options and paths to try out. Just remember though that the only opinion which is always correct it mine. The rest are entitled to their opinions even though they are wrong.

Your are now a newcomer with little or no knowledge of film processing but from the very beginning of your need to know about "how to do it", conflicting options are seriously what you need??

pentaxuser

 

[VinceInMT]

In my experience, it is almost impossible for an expert to imagine being in a beginner's shoes.

Like MattKing, I disagree with that statement. As a retired high school teacher, doing that very thing is what we, as teachers, do. I taught drafting (traditional and CAD), computer programming, and a variety of other tech-related subjects and breaking down my knowledge into bite-sized chunks and, more importantly, knowing the order in which to present them is what I did everyday for decades.

I will also share that in the craft of teaching, the most learning will take place when the teacher checks for student competency incrementally (hopefully at least daily), known as formative assessment, rather than dumping lesson after lesson and then checking knowledge at the end, summative assessment. Of course, in a forum like this, that type of teaching is more challenging to accomplish.

 

[aparat]

@VinceInMT Agreed. I admire true experts who can talk about complex topics in an accessible way that most people can understand. There's a fantastic series on YouTube out of the North Hennepin Community College in Minneapolis, MN. The professor is very knowledgable, has a sense of humor, and an ability to teach film photography that's easy even for absolute beginners to follow.

 

[VinceInMT]

@VinceInMT Agreed. I admire true experts who can talk about complex topics in an accessible way that most people can understand. There's a fantastic series on YouTube out of the North Hennepin Community College in Minneapolis, MN. The professor is very knowledgable, has a sense of humor, and an ability to teach film photography that's easy even for absolute beginners to follow.

Some of my former students now work in the tech sector and they’ve told me that a common interview task is to take a complex concept and explain it to a 5-year old.

 

[MattKing]

Some of my former students now work in the tech sector and they’ve told me that a common interview task is to take a complex concept and explain it to a 5-year old.

And then, of course, the 5 year old will figure out a better way to do something than the teacher ever thought of!
There is a great bit in Robert Pirsig's "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance" where the technical writer father struggled using a product manual until his teenage son showed him how to fold out the diagram in the way that the writers intended.
Everyone knows that if there is something you can't figure out on your cel phone, you just need to find a 14 year old!