Paper Negative Development?

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Hey, gang. I've never done any sort of film photography (aside from using a couple polaroids and snap and shoots when I was very little) and I'd like to start getting into film. I love vintage and antique stuff, so I want to get into film photography. I'd like to start off with making my own pinhole camera. I was wondering, if I use photo paper instead of film, would I only have to use a stop bath (and possibly fixer) as opposed to all 3 and a developer? Sorry if I come across as ignorant. Quite frankly I am.
 

Donald Qualls

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You'll need a developer (ideally a print developer or universal type diluted for prints), stop bath, and fixer, plus some means to wash the negatives. The good news is, the same chemicals will also suit for the contact print positives.
 

Daniela

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Welcome!
You need developer, stop bath and fixer for both film and paper. I personally just use water instead of a stop bath, even if that tends to exhaust the fixer faster (supposedly). Now, there are a lot of members here who know the chemistry behind this in and out, so go with their suggestions! :smile:
 

koraks

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Welcome to Photrio, @Darth Musturd !

As the others said: you need a developer and a fixer, and a stop bath in-between is a good idea too, although in a pinch you could leave that one out.

When working with paper negatives, there are some things you need to keep in mind:
* The image you produce in a camera will be a negative, just like on film. So highlights will be dark on the image and shadows will be light/white. To get a positive, you either contact print the negative onto another piece of paper, or scan it and invert it digitally.
* Paper is a lot slower than film. Pinholes are slow to begin with because they pass so little light, so combined with paper, which is several orders of magnitude slower than film, you're easily talking about exposures of many seconds or minutes in daylight.
* Paper is a bit of a high contrast material, which means it's more challenging to nail exposure right than it is with film. On the plus side, you can develop it under an appropriate safelight and it's generally fairly quick & easy to shoot another image if one fails, so you can adjust your exposure almost on the fly - as long as you have access to a darkroom while testing.

There are many more ins & outs to this. A lot has been published on working with paper negatives, so it's worthwhile to spend some time reading about them here and elsewhere online. At least accumulate enough knowledge to get started, by which time it'll be easier to do further troubleshooting because you'll have specific troubles to shoot :wink:

Have fun!
 

Sirius Glass

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Welcome to APUG Photrio!!
 

koraks

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You'd get a positive alright, and still need a developer, stop and fix, and it will still be very high contrast. The material will be much rarer and more expensive. But it does cut out the step of making an inverted image from a negative.
 
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