Processing film in the middle of nowhere.

Hey, im pretty new to the world of B&W film and have only been developing my own stuff at home for a few months now. I'm about to embark on a long journey overseas and was wondering if anybody had any tips on how to develop film with the minimum equipment/chemistry, etc etc.

I will have access to a bathroom and will only have to tape up a few doors to get a completely dark room, but what about tips on how to wash my roll of film without a film washer, after the whole fixing process is complete? And what about this coffee and washing soda recipe I keep hearing about?

Any tips is greatly appreciated. I hope I posted this in the right category.

You might want to mail your film back home or just take it back with you undeveloped. That's one way of doing it. Otherwise, you could always look for a camera shop (if it all available where you're going) that has what you need. Or.. you could have it shipped from a store in the US to your destination possibly.

Otherwise, you don't exactly need a darkroom to develop film unless you're doing something esoteric. A changing bag and daylight tank (or even a towel under a door in a darkened bathroom) can be enough.

You might want to look into monobaths, which develop and fix the film all in one step. I believe there is a resident guru of that here on APUG and has posted a few formulas here in the articles section too. With only one solution to deal with, things might be a lot easier for you.

Washing film.. just put the tank under the tap, let it fill up, sit for a minute or two and drain. Repeat a few times, let it sit, etc. It's how I wash film even now after all these years. Ansel used a hose with a tube that he'd connect to the tap. The tube would go down into the film reel inside the tank. That's pretty simple and you could probably built it wherever you're going.

Perfectionists may balk, but I've processed lots of film, both rollfilm and sheets, in nothing more than a bowl or plastic container. Just need to do it at night under a blanket. On camping trips I've waited until dark, processing two sheets back to back in a black baggie, ("shake 'n bake") rinse, fix, and rinse again, and hang sheets from the top of the tent to dry. Even done cyano contact prints in the morning sometimes. I slip the processed negatives back into the film holders for safekeeping until I get home. I'll admit it's not for the anal retentive or the weak of heart, but it's really no big deal.

It's quite easy to carry small vials of HC-110 concentrate and undiluted rapid fixer. Just need to be close on temperature and time.

Kind of a hoot to be a minimalist.

hmm done the road darkroom thing quite a bit. I had a darkroom setup for 10 months in a Bangkok washroom and used to give out free cut up contact sheets (6x6) to my subjects.

I just washed normally and in the patterson tank with a hose and did lots of water dumps. The one thing you might watch out for pre soaking your film (possibly used bottled water if your in a non potable water area) I had some some issues when I pre-soaked the film to long in the local water before putting in my developer.

I would suggest you do tests to make sure your room is actually light tight (duct tape, black plastic bags and dark cloth help) and find out if you can buy the chemistry locally as shipping stuff overseas in your luggage is a PAIN IN THE A--. A bag full of powderd D-76, Fixer, Dectol and photo paper weighs a ton!! If you can ship things there first via post mail or buy them in local stores then do so, carrying a darkroom overseas is difficult. I also bought a cheapo enlarger that I used for my contacts, I ended up leaving the enlarger in Asia.

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www.gerryyaum.blogspot.com

As Phillip said, no darkroom is needed. You can process the film in any room, in daylight or artificial light. All the hardware you need consist in: a changing bag, 1 tank with 2 spirals, a hairdryer you can find on location, a timer, and several clips. Why 2 spirals? Because you can dry one with the hairdryer while the other, filled with film, is under the tap for washing.

Add to these some liquid developer and liquid fixer. Why liquid? Because you can dilute just the amount you need to process several films at a time.

For washing, you can take the spiral out of the tank in daylight, as the film is no more photosensitive. Take a plastic can that accommodates the spiral, and cat 2-3 holes on lateral at the bottom. Put all this under the tap and make sure that the water debit be larger than the water running through the bottom holes, so that the can might fill up. Get another can (without holes) filled with distillated water and washing aide for the last wash (you can reuse this 2-3 times).

Best luck!

I had the pleasure of meeting Roman Vishniac who was in his 80's at the time. I told him how I loved his prints and he invited me upstairs of the gallery to see a number of prints that were not mounted. He told me that when he was sent over to Europe in the 30's to photograph the doomed Jewish culture there before it was gone, he had to do everything in secret. The photos on the street were often grab shots, and the developing was done sometimes on dark nights while wading up to his middle in the river. He would even develop by inspection that way. When arrested (which happened often) he would luck into a sympathetic guard that would spirit away his valuable negs thus saving his monumental images for posterity. The fact that so many survived and that he did as well is a miracle. He later went on to become the premier photo-micrographer in the States during a long and fruitful career.

Rodinal and HC-110 go a long way and D-23 is super easy to mix yourself even using kitchen measuring spoons..

I've done it, and I don't like it. But sometimes you have to. If you can find a reliable local lab, have them do it. Otherwise, you can certainly do it in a hotel bathroom or even in a tent. You will need a daylight tank, a changing bag, something to measure the chemicals, and the chemicals themselves. A liquid developer like FG-7, HC-110, Rodinal, or Pyrocat-HD is more convenient here. So is a liquid fixer like Ilford rapid fixer or Kodafix. But a couple of problems arise. The first is leaks. Make sure thee bottles are well closed and then put them in plastic bags. Another is bulk. Carrying around a tank, changing bag, and chemicals takes more space than you probably want to take up in your luggage. Another problem is the suspicious airport security people. They are likely to make you leave it all with them. Washing the film presents a bit of a problem sometimes. It is often better to use a fill, wait 30 seconds, dump, and repeat 15 times method rather than continuous washing when you are working under these conditions. Hanging the film to dry is another issue. Sometimes you can just let it dry in the tank. Otherwise, you may have to rig something (like a piece of wire) to attach a film clip to the shower curtain rod or something.

ch3952 said:

... how to develop film with the minimum
equipment/chemistry, etc etc.

I will have access to a bathroom and will only have
to tape up a few doors to get a completely dark room,
but what about tips on how to wash my roll of film
without a film washer, after the whole fixing
process is complete

Click to expand...

For washing see the Sticky thread "Washing Film - BEST ..."
Best and Least water methods are discussed.

Most developers can be used one-shot. Some liquid concentrates
are for one-shot use only. Hold over chemistry is not a problem
with one-shot. I use developer and fixer in that manor.

The dry metol and sodium sulfite are all that be needed for D-23
or similar developer. Sodium thiosulfate by itself is a good one-
shot fixer. I feel safe going directly from developer to the one-
shot fix. Following the fix a PhotFlo rinse, squeegeeing with
eight blade film squeegee, then hung.

I'd carry a small capacity accurate scale for use with dry. Dan

You can also use two-bath film devs; they're not as temperature dependent as other devs.

I'm sure you know all about airport x-rays and what they can do to film, but be careful about carrying bags of chemistry and vials of liquid thru airports and customs; could cause you major delays.

i've done it

I was camping for a recent photo workshop, and wanted to use some panatomic x and plus f to exploit long shutter times when photographing water flow on a stream without fussing with a million ND filters, since it was a rainy day.

Shot the film, then loaded into a daylight tank in a changing bag. Heated up water on my camp stove, and dumped it into a 10l wash tub, to create a tempering bath not too far off 20C, since the day was no warmer than 6C. HC-110H to allow a sane time to develop the film by, since the B time was too short for the temperature of the water bath, and I was not going to process with wet hands at some insanely chilly temp.

Water bath rinse for the stop, Fix in superfix for a few minutes, Ilford wash method - wash water in 5 inversions, dump, 10 inversions on next batch of wash water, then 20 investions on the third rinse. Photo flo, then hang to dry from the top of the tent. Sleeve a few hours later once dry.

Mike Wilde said:

I was camping for a recent photo workshop, and wanted to use some panatomic x and plus f to exploit long shutter times when photographing water flow on a stream without fussing with a million ND filters, since it was a rainy day.

Shot the film, then loaded into a daylight tank in a changing bag. Heated up water on my camp stove, and dumped it into a 10l wash tub, to create a tempering bath not too far off 20C, since the day was no warmer than 6C. HC-110H to allow a sane time to develop the film by, since the B time was too short for the temperature of the water bath, and I was not going to process with wet hands at some insanely chilly temp.

Water bath rinse for the stop, Fix in superfix for a few minutes, Ilford wash method - wash water in 5 inversions, dump, 10 inversions on next batch of wash water, then 20 investions on the third rinse. Photo flo, then hang to dry from the top of the tent. Sleeve a few hours later once dry.

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I witnessed some of this! It was impressive, crazy but impressive.

I am absolutely amazed at all the tips Ive found here. Thanks for all the great feedback.

I've developed roll film while camping also. It was awkward but not too bad. My biggest fear was dust.

I can't wait for someone to chip in with a story about contact printing while camping! Seems do-able with a dark enough night, and a decent light source.

ch3952 said:

And what about this coffee and washing soda recipe I keep hearing about?

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Do a search for "caffenol" and you'll turn up all the variations, but, if you're really going someplace where you can't get developer or have film developed locally, and travel restrictions make bringing developer or powdered chemicals iffy, and you're planning to stay for a long time, then I'd try to make parodinal (search, and you'll find the formula), which is a better developer that can be made from common ingredients--acetaminophen (paracetemol, Tylenol), lye, and sodium sulfite. You could fix in plain hypo (sodium thiosulfate), which is also used for other things, such as balancing chlorine in swimming pools.

Whatever you wish to use for techniques get them practiced at home first. Getting to the middle of nowhere is an adventure. Having photos of your adventure is wonderful! Do not go on this adventure and try something unfamilar to the extent that it can be avoided. Practice makes perfect. Try out in techniques your backyard or the park the way you think you will have to do them on location..

optique said:

I can't wait for someone to chip in with a story about contact printing while camping! Seems do-able with a dark enough night, and a decent light source.

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I've done this a couple of times in the last two summers. I've coated Crane's card stock with cyanotype and cut to 4x5 before heading out for camping. Just something fun for my daughter to do. Last summer I had her find some birchbark and we coated it and let it dry overnight while I developed the negative, then we contact printed it the next day. Birchbark isn't an ideal material for printing -- a little more fragile than card stock -- but it's still kind of cool.

Besides cyanotyping, I have done contact printing in the bathroom at work on Ilford 5x7 paper. I put together this little kit consisting of a 5x7 tray, a piece of glass and fibreboard from a 5x7 frame, a couple of spring clips and concentrated developer and fixer, which I just mix up in the tray. I turn out the lights, put glass over the film to hold it in contact with the clips and then held my flash unit overhead and popped it a couple of times. I've not done this while camping, but it would certainly work.

ch3952 said:

Hey, im pretty new to the world of B&W film and have only been developing my own stuff at home for a few months now. I'm about to embark on a long journey overseas and was wondering if anybody had any tips on how to develop film with the minimum equipment/chemistry, etc etc.

I will have access to a bathroom and will only have to tape up a few doors to get a completely dark room, but what about tips on how to wash my roll of film without a film washer, after the whole fixing process is complete? And what about this coffee and washing soda recipe I keep hearing about?

Any tips is greatly appreciated. I hope I posted this in the right category.

Click to expand...

If you don't have to, don't. Maybe you must, to see if you got a shot right or something. Otherwise, breath deeply and wait until you are home. If your long journey involves multiple stops, you have the problem of moving developers, too, in this age of paranoia.

You might be able to find an old Ansco Daylight Developing tank. Not loading, developing. I have one, NOS, never used it. You put the cartridge in its spot, attach the leader to a crank. You pour in the developer, and after cranking all of the film out, you reverse the cranking action to expand and contract the roll of film.

Just don't do what I did many years ago: I needed to change film in the King's Chamber in the pyramid of Cheops and left the exposed roll in the sarcophagus.

Ever since 9/11 and everything getting x-rayed a million times on flights I've been developing my film in hotel bathrooms.
Very simple to do. All you need is:

- Changing bag
- Film retriever or bottle opener
- Developing tank
- A few empty bottles (mineral or spring water) for the developer and fixer.
- Piece of string and clothespins.

Jobo makes a small tank that takes a single roll and can be loaded in daylight without a bag.
It's brilliant.

There are four approaches to this:

A) Find a camera store at your destination and buy developer, fixer concentrate, Photoflow or chemicals.

B) Bring your own commercial developer and fixer. HC-110 was apparently developed with photojournalists in mind.
A bottle of 110 will go a looong way. Same for Rodinal. A large bottle will develop a lot of film. Photographers
Formulary sells fixer in powder form or someone here will have a recipe.

C) Bring your own chemicals and mix as you go.

D) FedEx everything home and develop on return.

In all cases you are going to have to live with the fact that you will end up being wasteful. You may not always be able to take your recently mixed fixer etc with you as you move around from one location to another.

Solution A is the most convenient, if you are in a big city and can find a store that sill carries film goods. So, far this has been my approach.

Solution B is great if you like HC-110 or Rodinal. I'm not sure how good HC110 is for push processing and Rodinal works best with slow films, unless you like grain. Tri-X in Rodinal is not everyone's cup of tea, but Plus-X looks brilliant. Apparently you can mix XTOL as a highly concentrated mixture and then dilute it accordingly. So, in theory you could reduce your volume from 4 liters to maybe 1 liter. I've heard of people making batches that were double strength (2 liter vs 4 liter). There probably are several other developers out there, that people can recommend.

Solution C would be my ideal pick, but frankly I'm worried about airport security spotting a few bottles of chemicals in my bag and subjecting me to an intrusive cavity search. I would be even more worried if I was traveling to Asia, where some countries have extremely severe rules for drug smuggling. Misunderstandings happen and I only speak English and German. Note that most of the chemicals are a white powder and you would also be carrying a scale. You don't have to be paranoid to see where this could lead.

D is very convenient, but expensive if you have to do this several times. I'm still not sure how many packages FedEx x-rays.

ch3952 said:

Hey, im pretty new to the world of B&W film and have only been developing my own stuff at home for a few months now. I'm about to embark on a long journey overseas and was wondering if anybody had any tips on how to develop film with the minimum equipment/chemistry, etc etc.

I will have access to a bathroom and will only have to tape up a few doors to get a completely dark room, but what about tips on how to wash my roll of film without a film washer, after the whole fixing process is complete? And what about this coffee and washing soda recipe I keep hearing about?

Any tips is greatly appreciated. I hope I posted this in the right category.

Click to expand...

Film developing tank with reel, changing bag, can opener (35mm only), one small and large graduated cylinder, some liquid developer and fixer, a couple of small empty bottles watch. Put the reel, can opener, film inside the changing bag, zip up and crack open the cartridge, spool the film on the reel, pop into the tank and put on the lid. Mix your developer and fixer for one shot use, use a water stop. For washing, use one of the low wash techniques. When you film is completely dry, spool it up and put it inside the original film can, label the can however you like.

If I'm traveling through a city, I'll pick up liquid chems there. Find the photo shops online, and confirm what they have. It is ALSO easy to buy some stuff online and have it delivered.

The other HOT TIP is to make a local contact via APUG. While it might cost you a considerable amount of wine, you might end up traveling to a well equipped lab !

Other than that, string and clothespins.

I would strongly recommend buying your chemicals in the country you are visiting

Customs Officers jobs are to keep questionable stuff out of their country - there are not there to assist.

If Customs have a question about the stuff you are carrying their default answer is - No

Most photographic chemicals have some level of toxicity and so if they investigate your bags and are in a grumpy mood you will have to surrender the stuff.

D F Cardwells’ advice is good - pick up the Chemicals when you get there - in a large city - search on the internet before you go and e-mail in advance of what you want so they at least have a chance to order it

Better still is the advice to locate a fellow APUGer in the region - the local APUGer may well be able to advise as to what is available - which may be completely different to what you might choose to use.

I travel extensively and getting stuff into and out of countries is our biggest headache - most stuff goes through without a hitch - but about 20% of the time we hit problems and that is with all the right paperwork.
We source as much stuff as we can locally to avoid the headaches as much as we can - even though up front it seems more expensive - it just isn't worth the aggravation long term.

Martin

David A. Goldfarb said:

....You could fix in plain hypo (sodium thiosulfate), which is also used for other things, such as balancing chlorine in swimming pools.

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I suspect that pharmacies have sodium thiosulfate. I don't know if you'd need a prescription, seems doubtful that you would. I don't know if they still use it to treat warts, but it was commonly used for that in the past. Photographers rarely had warts on their hands.

Martin Aislabie said:

I would strongly recommend buying your chemicals in the country you are visiting

Customs Officers jobs are to keep questionable stuff out of their country - there are not there to assist.

If Customs have a question about the stuff you are carrying their default answer is - No

Most photographic chemicals have some level of toxicity and so if they investigate your bags and are in a grumpy mood you will have to surrender the stuff.

D F Cardwells’ advice is good - pick up the Chemicals when you get there - in a large city - search on the internet before you go and e-mail in advance of what you want so they at least have a chance to order it

Better still is the advice to locate a fellow APUGer in the region - the local APUGer may well be able to advise as to what is available - which may be completely different to what you might choose to use.

I travel extensively and getting stuff into and out of countries is our biggest headache - most stuff goes through without a hitch - but about 20% of the time we hit problems and that is with all the right paperwork.
We source as much stuff as we can locally to avoid the headaches as much as we can - even though up front it seems more expensive - it just isn't worth the aggravation long term.

Martin

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Most developer and fixer concentrates are mildly corrosive, corrosive enough that they have to be shipped as Class 8, dangerous goods. This means that to ship them by air, requires an IATA dangerous goods form, which needs an emergency spill responder contact to be specified. Certain dangerous goods are not permitted on passenger aircraft, so carrying such materials in luggage could be illegal.

There are three options, first is contact your supplier and see if these materials are available in that country, if they are, buy them there, if you have some left when your done, give it away, or dispose of it, by whatever method is required by law in that country.

If they are not available there, then they may be available in the next country over, and a short bus or train trip, can get you what you need.

You can also arrange with your supplier to ship them for you, a company like Kodak regularly ships chemicals around the world, so they already have the process in place to legally do so and they know the regulations. It could be shipped to a post office, courier office or even a photo shop there, for you to pick up.