Noob to developing film

Hi all, I'm thinking of starting to develop my own film, I'm fed up of waiting three to four weeks to get back flim from my so so prints.
I've read a few post and looked around and will some likely go with the starter kit from nova darkroom, is this a good idea or am I better off get stuff bit by bit second hand?.
next up, when loading film, a bit of 35 and 120 onto the reels will touching the film leave finger prints? Would I be better using gloves, I'm use to doing delicate work wearing thin latex gloves and I know that I'll have to practice loading before trying for real so starting this way may not be to much of a hardship or am I worrying over nothing.
Any other advice welcome

Welcome to APUG!

Look at Dead Link Removed
Go through each of the subjects
Download the PDFs and read them.

Kodak has similar publications, but I can locate Ilford's faster.

I picked up new Hewes reels to be sure that they were not bent or out of alignment.
Look for new or used steel tanks. There is a lot of good used equipment available that you can get for not much money.

You should not NEED gloves for loading film. After the film is processed, handle the negatives by the edges only or use gloves.
Nothing beats practicing loading film before doing it for real on the reel [The puns are intentional, so do not feel punished.].

Steve

Welcome to the club! Obviously you are going to get tons of advice of what works best for us, as this is the internet, and consensus will be hard to gleam, but with that said, I highly recommend Hewes stainless reels. I have a Patterson tank gathering dust, but others love em, there is no correct tank system, just what you prefer, possibly after trying both is what it took for me, but everyone is different....

I recommend no gloves you need to feel the film and it's positing to ensure a propped load, learning how to load without touching the film too much will come with experience.

Have a great time, you will have a blast either way (plastic or stainless systems).

If wearing gloves, as far as I know the standard would be using the cotton gloves which you find in any photography shop.

As a beginner, gloves can be useful if you use a changing bag to attenuate the problem of sweating hands inside the bag. I bought a pair, but I find I can do the loading job without gloves in relatively short time.

Not touching the film is not difficult, but you should practice with some roll and load and unload it several times.

OMG!!! OMG!!!
Andy agreed with me!
Andy agreed with me!
Andy agreed with me!
Andy agreed with me!

I am going to pour a good strong drink for all three of us!
Just kidding about the first five lines.

Steve

He!!

Welcome.
I couldn't recommend doing your own developing etc more strongly.

It is the way to go.

Thanks so far, forgot to say going to start with b&w

Roverman said:

Thanks so far, forgot to say going to start with b&w

Click to expand...

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I Came To That Conclusion, Quite Rapidly !

Ron
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There is soooo much good info you need right here but I will say this..

Pick 1 film (or one 100ish speed and one 400)
Pick one developer.

Learn those well.
Stick with the same combos so when you do try others (after some experience) you will easily discern the differences.

Roverman, where are you located?

Just north of the border in Annan, dumfriesshire, Scotland

Probably to far to drop by and see if any on my surplus tanks would help. There must be someone on your side of the Pond to point you in the right direction.

Ilford rocks!

They have great support for the stuff and offer tons of info for their products.

I use the following:

ID-11 Developer (mixed stock) (Lasts about 20 rolls of 35mm in a 1 liter bottle)
Ilfostop (has the dye indicator)
Ilford Rapid Fixer (Lasts about 16 rolls of 35mm, but you can check it with hypocheck)
Ilford Washaid

I shoot a lot of Ilford HP5, Tri-X, and Delta 3200

I also use LPL steel reels. I've used gloves and just bare hands. If you just grab the film by the edges it's not a problem. If you think you might need to do a lot of touching, you might try gloves. However, I do feel a little disconnected with what I'm doing when I've got gloves on.

Just in case the extra perspective helps, here is the link to the Kodak version of the "Getting Started" information:
http://wwwtr.kodak.com/global/en/professional/support/techPubs/aj3/aj3.pdf

There are a quite a few good sources for this info. Here on APUG, ROL and JBrunner have very useful links on their websites, including some videos.

Th ere are also some excellent beginner's books, like Horenstein: http://www.amazon.com/Black-White-Photography-Manual-Revised/dp/0316373052

Also make sure to check out the massive dev chart (just look on google). It will help you get started with developing times for most films and developers.

Roverman, I wish I would have taken the train down to see you when I was in Prestwick in November for a week. It would have been nice to see the sights down there.....is everywhere you point a camera in Scotland like a picture post card?

I just started the of home developing deal too. I have adopted the keep it simple system like Brucemuir stated.....100 and 400 should be your two film speeds and keep it to one developer and see what happens. If you can get ahold (cheaply of course) steel and plastic reels, try putting a developed rool of film into each so you can see for yourself how easy or what your technique is that you will use to slide the film in the reel. Start searching this forum for more information on suggestions and results others have had with different reels. Starting out, learn to use "a" reel and forget about it.....as you will observe researching, people can go nuts over the differnces in reel types.....I am not that confortable yet with all this to even make an educated comment other than practice and be consistent.

If you have a local photo shop that stocks chemicals, go with them. Support your local guy so he can support you. Oh, again, if you can, keep exacting records of what you shoot, how you shoot it, and how you developed it incase you need some help or advice from here (or your local guy).....take your time, get all your equipment together, make a dry run if you need it for confidence, then just do it for real. There is not one person I can find that didn't find extreme satisfaction with themselves developing their own film.

If I had the guts to do color negative film, I would have had prom pictures out late Saturday night instead of sometime this Wednesday night, plus 20 miles each way and alot of wasted time that I could have been developing and having FUN!!

Welcome to developing.....your going to LOVE it!!!

Bob E.

Another enthusiastic recommendation for Hewes reels.

An easy way to load 35mm is to use a leader retriever [or program your camera to leave the leader out, if it is of that sort, or don't rewind it all the way if your camera is motor-free]. Cut the leader off square and pull a little bit of the film out of the cassette. Hook the film on the Hewes reel 'fingers'. You can now turn out the light (a footswitch is a great help here - so you can turn out the lights with your hands full) and roll the film on to the reel. Why you get to the end, snip the film off at the lip of the cassette. Even if you hook the leader in the dark, keeping the film in the cassette makes life easier and lessens the chance of damage - and if things go all pear shaped you can wind the film back into the cassette and turn on the lights for a reality check.

Give the film a slight bow by guiding the edges of the film gently with your fingers as you wind the film on the reel.

Everyone here has been posting great info. I, too, recommend you stick to the same films and developers at first until you learn how they come out really well. Much joy can be found in the darkroom. Best of luck and have lots of fun!

Welcome to the club! I've started developing my own black and white film about two years ago and I haven't stopped. My hobby/addiction grew and now there is an enlarger in a dark corner of my garage. It's fun stuff for sure! You're going to have a blast.
I'd recommend you stick to one film and developer too although I don't. Well I kinda do, my go to developer is R09 which is a Rodinal clone. I'll shoot what ever kind of film I can get my hands on and I tend to experiment so the only constant in my process is the developer.