Thanks to all! My first roll of home-dev is done.

[jblachly]

I have spent the past two weeks reading extensively on photo.net, APUG, and flickr. Thanks to posts dating back literally 10 years (in the case of greenspun.net cum photo.net) and especially to wonderful individuals like J. Brunner of APUG, I developed my very first roll of B&W this weekend.

It went off without a hitch. Delta 400 in HC-110 B for 6 minutes at 71 deg F. I was loaned/gifted all materials ; the local photo shop gave me a bottle of HC-110 which expired in 2008. My total outlay was about $5 for a roll of film and $8 for a bottle of Photo-Flo (supported my local shop).

Here is a gallery; keep in mind when I scanned on Sunday I didn't know how to control the white point in Vuescan (I do now), so now I am getting much better scans straight out of the scanner. Some of theh files in the gallery have had levels tweaked, and others not. Overall I think I got some good PRINTABLE (I am not printing -- yet ) negatives which scanned well and had good dynamic range, with good shadow detail and no blown highlights. I am very pleased with the sharpness and grain as well:

Gallery:
http://blachly.org/james/delta400-1

Thanks again to everyone who has posted over the years -- you don't know how far in the future someone may read your post and gain that one interesting tidbit to fill in the gaps.

James
(also my first post to APUG)

 

[PhotoJim]

Welcome - and congratulations! Isn't film fun? Developing it yourself is pretty cool.

 

[Gim]

The whole process is pretty cool, eh. Welcome to APUG.
Best,
Jim

 

[fschifano]

I'd say you've done quite well, much better than I did many years ago when I started. Of course, there was no internet back then. My family's house phone was a party line, and color television didn't exist. All I had was a little cheat sheet and some skimpy instructions from Uncle Louie.

 

[Nikanon]

The dog jumping off the dock is very Cartier-Bresson

 

[Christopher Walrath]

Wirelessly posted (BBBold: BlackBerry9000/4.6.0.167 Profile/MIDP-2.0 Configuration/CLDC-1.1 VendorID/102 UP.Link/6.3.0.0.0)

Way to go, James. Welcome to the forum.

 

[MattKing]

James:

Well done.

I particularly like the photo of the older woman and the baby (grandmother and grandchild?). The expressions are joyful, and in terms of technique, the highlight details and gradation appear excellent.

Matt

 

[George Collier]

Hey James - the sharpness and grain look great (in the detail image) for that film and developer, and for my money a fine combination / look to begin working.
The printing will tell you about development time and contrast.

 

[Kevin Caulfield]

Welcome to the dark side and congratulations.