Question About My Workflow

[appletree]

So I read through a lot of threads on here and wow is there a ton of information on here. (Still have more searching to do though as time goes on). A novice here that has found a love in photography over the past few years, currently shoot 35mm and 120...wanting a 4x5 camera. Apologize in advance if some of my questions are noobish and/or make little sense. Trying to learn more and more about everything...currently reading through a few books.

Curious if anyone would be willing to take the time and see if I am doing things correctly/missing some critical steps. Sort of how I have been doing it for 2+ years and often (every few months) go on developing sprees at the house.

Lets take a very common example: Tri-X 400 developed in D-76 diluted 1+1, shot at speed.

-Mix chemicals, heat up water for developer, mix developer (then refrigerate to drop temperature down)
-Fixer and hypo are straightforward for mixing
-Distilled water is used for developer, hypo bath, and final wetting agent bath

• Load film, using gloves since I am sometimes not the best in the dark. For 120 cut off the tape at the end, snip the corners of the film, feed into the quick loading thing and fill my patterson reel...2 of 120 or 3 of 35mm.
• Perform an initial rinse - 3mins
• Developer - 9:45mins (agitate for the first 20-30 seconds, then each 30 seconds afterwards, knock sides for any air bubbles)
• Stop bath (1:19) - 30secs
• Fixer bath - 5mins (minimum time, agitate the same as developer)
• Open tank and check film to make sure everything looks normal
• Hypo clearing agent bath - 2mins (agitate every so often, no science)
• Wash - rinse for 4mins (I bob the reels up and down, spin around, dump water every 30 seconds or so...)
• There is a stickied thread regarding wash and it confused the heck out of me. Not sure what I am looking at in the photos or the conclusion of the results...I have realize that a lot of people around here are very technical in photography.
• Wetting agent (about 2 drops) - 30secs

Once complete negatives are removed and with my fingers clean and damp squeegee off negatives (gently) before hanging to dry.

Additional, more specific, questions are re-using chemicals. I never re-use my developer. Although I have started using my fixer for 2-3 rounds of developing (if within the same few days). Stop bath is re-used 2-3 rounds as well. Hypo is used for 2 rounds then disposed of as well. Are these correct? I imagine they are not because I am just shooting from the hip on these.

I make sure to write dates on the packages when something is purchased, also when it is opened/mixed. I store developer, fixer, hypo, in amber glass bottles, filled to the brim. Any half empty bottles are utilized first upon my next developing session.

Have had good results, IMO, and thoroughly have enjoyed developing. Just wanting to make sure my habits are indeed good practice habits.

Thanks to anyone willing to pitch in some advice, criticism, suggestions. I am still in my infancy for photography. Have just graduated into enlarging/printing and am unbelievably excited to get back into the darkroom (only one session at the local lab and the lady there gave me a crash course on printing).

 

[David Brown]

• Fixer bath - 5mins (minimum time, agitate the same as developer)
• Open tank and check film to make sure everything looks normal
• Hypo bath - 2mins (agitate every so often, no science)

Hypo IS fixer. Not sure what you're doing here, unless you mean a hypo-clearing agent.

Once complete negatives are removed and with my fingers clean and damp squeegee off negatives (gently) before hanging to dry.

Don't! Just hang the negs up to dry - don't touch them.

Otherwise, you're fine. Just read and follow the instructions.

 

[Sirius Glass]

So I read through a lot of threads on here and wow is there a ton of information on here. (Still have more searching to do though as time goes on). A novice here that has found a love in photography over the past few years, currently shoot 35mm and 120...wanting a 4x5 camera. Apologize in advance if some of my questions are noobish and/or make little sense. Trying to learn more and more about everything...currently reading through a few books.

Curious if anyone would be willing to take the time and see if I am doing things correctly/missing some critical steps. Sort of how I have been doing it for 2+ years and often (every few months) go on developing sprees at the house.

Lets take a very common example: Tri-X 400 developed in D-76 diluted 1+1, shot at speed.

-Mix chemicals, heat up water for developer, mix developer (then refrigerate to drop temperature down)
-Fixer and hypo are straightforward for mixing
-Distilled water is used for developer, hypo bath, and final wetting agent bath

• Load film, using gloves since I am sometimes not the best in the dark. For 120 cut off the tape at the end, snip the corners of the film, feed into the quick loading thing and fill my patterson reel...2 of 120 or 3 of 35mm.
• Perform an initial rinse - 3mins
• Developer - 9:45mins (agitate for the first 20-30 seconds, then each 30 seconds afterwards, knock sides for any air bubbles)
• Stop bath (1:19) - 30secs
• Fixer bath - 5mins (minimum time, agitate the same as developer)
• Open tank and check film to make sure everything looks normal
• Hypo bath - 2mins (agitate every so often, no science)
• Wash - rinse for 4mins (I bob the reels up and down, spin around, dump water every 30 seconds or so...)
• There is a stickied thread regarding wash and it confused the heck out of me. Not sure what I am looking at in the photos or the conclusion of the results...I have realize that a lot of people around here are very technical in photography.
• Wetting agent (about 2 drops) - 30secs

Once complete negatives are removed and with my fingers clean and damp squeegee off negatives (gently) before hanging to dry.

Additional, more specific, questions are re-using chemicals. I never re-use my developer. Although I have started using my fixer for 2-3 rounds of developing (if within the same few days). Stop bath is re-used 2-3 rounds as well. Hypo is used for 2 rounds then disposed of as well. Are these correct? I imagine they are not because I am just shooting from the hip on these.

I make sure to write dates on the packages when something is purchased, also when it is opened/mixed. I store developer, fixer, hypo, in amber glass bottles, filled to the brim. Any half empty bottles are utilized first upon my next developing session.

Have had good results, IMO, and thoroughly have enjoyed developing. Just wanting to make sure my habits are indeed good practice habits.

Thanks to anyone willing to pitch in some advice, criticism, suggestions. I am still in my infancy for photography. Have just graduated into enlarging/printing and am unbelievably excited to get back into the darkroom (only one session at the local lab and the lady there gave me a crash course on printing).

With tabular films such as Delta and T-Max you may need more time in the fixer. Especially if you are getting a blue or purple stain showing up.

Always use PhotoFlo or an equivalent for Black & White film. Just hang the film, do not use your fingers or a squeegee.

 

[mfohl]

Sounds about right to me, but I do things a little differently.

I mix my developer using regular tap water.
I don't prewet.
9 1/2 for C220 negatives, 10 or 10 1/2 for pinhole or Holga.
You said hypo bath, but you meant hypo-eliminator. Fixer is hypo.
Final rinse in distilled water, then Photoflow (mixed with distilled water)
I reuse stop and fixer many times.

If you're happy with your negatives, that should be enough.

Keep it up

 

[jp498]

Pretty good. When you mix the fixer up, process a scrap of film in it (let it go clear). Test it again every few uses. When it takes twice as long (under the same conditions) to go clear, it's time to retire the fixer. You can get a lot of rolls out of it. Any chunks or crud in the fixer and it's time for it to go too, even if it's not all used up.
You should rinse between fixer and hypo clear.
If you use a fixer like tf4/tf5 you can skip the hypo clear step and just let it rinse. You can skip it with Kodak fixer too, but just need a longer rinse. I rinse about 25 minutes by do an initial exchange of water, then changing the water every 4-5 minutes. no big rush.
You should not need to squeegee and could scratch negatives doing that. If you want them to dry extra fast, squirt them with clean high-proof alcohol. Walmart 91% rubbing alcohol works for me.

 

[appletree]

Hypo IS fixer. Not sure what you're doing here, unless you mean a hypo-clearing agent.



Don't! Just hang the negs up to dry - don't touch them.

Otherwise, you're fine. Just read and follow the instructions.

My apologies. Editted that, I meant hypo clearing agent. Had no idea hypo=fixer, but the name "hypo clearing agent" makes more sense now.

And I use to not touch the negatives, but I was getting water droplets drying on the negatives. I generally throw the shower on before hanging them up to build up a little steam in the bathroom to knock out any dust.

 

[appletree]

Great, thanks for all the advice everyone. Will halt touching and messing around with the negatives in the future. I wasn't ever doing it to speed anything up, just to try avoiding drying streaks.

For fixer I use Ilford rapid fixer or the two part Kodak fixer/hardener. Just noticed they sell a powder version of Kodak, and might use that...the Ilford I always found so much more convenient when making it.

PS: I only pre-wet when developing 120.

 

[gone]

Here's my drill. If you have 35mm film, clip the leader, round the edges a little and start it on the reel before you put it in the bag. I don't use gloves on this part and wonder why you do. Most people pop the top off the canister and fish the film out but I leave it in there and take the film out a little, walk it onto the reel, pull it out, etc. This works best for me, everybody has to figure out what works best for them. If it's 120 film, obviously you will have to put everything in the bag first, then load the reel. I generally develop one roll at a time, because if anything can go wrong, it will. Be careful not to squeeze the reels together when you're walking the film in, and I generally only walk only one side of the reel to get the film wound in, and not both at the same time.

My D76 is used straight up, so my times are different (Tri-X gets generally 7 to 8 minutes at 68 degrees, and I shoot it at ISO 200 or more usually 250 ). I pour in my developer and give it gentle, swirley inversions for 30 seconds initially, tap it on the counter firmly, then 2 swirley inversions every 30 seconds thereafter, and giving it a rap on the counter every other inversion cycle. No inversions the last minute. Pour it out, in w/ the Kodak stop bath. 10 seconds of gentle, swirley inversion, tap it firmly on the counter, and let it sit for 30 seconds. Pour out the stop bath, in w/ the Kodak Rapid fixer, 30 seconds of swirley inversions, rap it on the counter, then 2 inversions every 30 seconds w/ a rap on the counter now and then. This gets 5-6 minutes, then is poured back into the fixer stock solution bottle, the air is squeezed out, and back under the sink. Everything is marked as for when I first mixed it up, and I will dump the fixer generally after 2-3 months. or if the clip test shows it's time sooner than that, which usually doesn't happen. Obviously all chemicals are kept away from light (I use the brown plastic bottles from Freestyle) and kept under my sink at temps no higher than 75 degrees if I can help it. Bottles are squeezed in order to have the fluid at the top to eliminate air.

While you're letting the tank set between inversions you will have to decide whether to put it in your cooling bath (the other side of my double sink is filled w/ cold water to get the chemical temps down) or leave it out on the counter. I usually just leave it out unless it's really hot in the house, in which case I put the tank into the cold water bath, but don't let it get too cold or you will throw off your development.

Then fill the tank w/ water and dump it. Do this 10 times. Then I run a little hose from my water spigot in the sink, and thread it down to the bottom of the developing tank and let it run for 30 minutes at least. Next, pour it out and pour in the Photo Flo. I follow Kodak's directions, which is 5 ML for every 16 OZ of water (distilled water is used for everything, and the developer is poured into the gradient w/ a funnel, a paper coffee filter, and some clean little river rocks inside to help w/ the flow). W/ the Photo Flo in, I give it 2 inversions, rap it on the counter, and let it sit for 30 seconds. Pour it out and once the film is extracted, whip it like a whip several times to flip the excess water off. Hang in the bathroom for an hour to two, depending on the humidity. Since I learned the "whip it" trick, which I learned on a post here, it dries MUCH quicker than before. You're now ready to cut, sleeve and print.

There is absolutely no one way to do all this, but if you do it this way it will work, and it will work every time.

 

[appletree]

Very interesting and detailed. Thanks for the advice and information. Will look into the "whip it" you allude to. Had no idea fixer could be used so many times...I really shouldn't need to be buying so much of it!

Also, wow, mind blown...never thought of loading 35mm outside in the light (well starting to load it that is). I don't use a bag, but my 100% dark closet. With 35mm, its difficult (no gloves unless loading the film, since they catch on everything), as I use pliers to bend the canister open and fish out the film. A bit rudimentary, but one always has room for improvement.

 

[jp498]

Very interesting and detailed. Thanks for the advice and information. Will look into the "whip it" you allude to. Had no idea fixer could be used so many times...I really shouldn't need to be buying so much of it!

Also, wow, mind blown...never thought of loading 35mm outside in the light (well starting to load it that is). I don't use a bag, but my 100% dark closet. With 35mm, its difficult (no gloves unless loading the film, since they catch on everything), as I use pliers to bend the canister open and fish out the film. A bit rudimentary, but one always has room for improvement.

I use a bottle opener to open a 35mm cartridge.

 

[appletree]

And I call myself an engineer. Sometimes I wonder about myself, haha. Thanks for the tip, been doing it that way for 2 years...although probably only ~20 rolls of 35mm. Might be infinitely easier than gnawing at the canister in the dark with pliers.

 

[Sirius Glass]

I use a bottle opener to open a 35mm cartridge.

+1

 

[Mark_S]

+1

I too use a bottle opener to open 35mm cartriges, but I have a question. It seems that when I started doing darkroom work, I opened the canisters by squeezing the cartrige and pushing the end off with my thumb, then I could reload and reuse the cannisters. If memory serves, I was using Ilford FP4 then, and this was in the early-mid 1970s. There was a blue star shape on the film boxes. Today this technique doesn't work - did they change the way that they make the cannisters as well as the logos?

Today I do very little 35mm work, almost everything is 120 or 4x5 so this is not something that I think about too much.

 

[MattKing]

They started crimping the ends on to the cassettes, in order to prevent accidents.