When do you process?

I'm curious about when most folks do their darkroom work,
When do you do your processing?
- early morning?
- in the evening after work?
- late at night?
- on the weekend?
- when on vacation?
- during mid-day?

Thanks!

Timeless_Analog said:

I'm curious about when most folks do their darkroom work,
When do you do your processing?
- early morning?
- in the evening after work?
- late at night?
- on the weekend?
- when on vacation?
- during mid-day?

Thanks!

Click to expand...

Combat/War photographers did it in the
past with HP5 in extreme situations.
Allways when it was nescessary to have
darkroom work.
This could have been a tent in the middle season in afrika at highnoon.

With dirty water (not able to drink) and
it has gone good with HP5.

No need to heat developer to 90F due to
get short times with push processing in
african climate.

AND today : ".....we feel weak...the darkroom is still waiting? "

with regards

when my basement gets dark at night.

best season is winter, shorter days longer nights.

Usually on the weekend, though I may develop film in the evening.

hi timeless

i process film whenever i can.
all times of the day / night

I like to process in the evenings. Darkroom is on the shady side of my house in the afternoon, temperature is just right. Don't have to worry about walking out to look at tests and getting blinded by high sunlight.

When I'm not at work...

When I am at work...

More during the sumer than autum ( what you call fall) as the light is so harsh in the bright sunlight, thats when I do most of my printing, retired now so no work pressure, films I usually develop soon after they are exposed

Winter time I process after five PM because it is dark. Summer time I load after 10 PM and process at any time I have time.

Brady Eklund said:

When I am at work...

Click to expand...

Actually, I do too sometimes with my media art students!

When I get in the mood.

Technically I could take my films and tank to work, as I work in laboratories I have access to water and chemicals.....even darkness....but my chances of getting 30 minutes uninterrupted are zero including my lunch break.

So I process films at home, either in the evening after work (and after I've cooked, and washed dishes) or on a weekend. On a good evening I can do four 35mm films in two batches including drying.

Growing family.

When I have an hour or I stand develop. Also, my scanning rig crashed and needs a tuneup so I have a backlog of film waiting to develop. With C-41 I wait a while until I have about 20 rolls and then develop over a course of a week. Darkroom is for long winter nights.

For film I usually do it on the weekends, but if I have a huge backlog I will also process in the evenings after work, as needed. I rarely process only one or two rolls at a time - it's not worth the effort I need to do to get my kitchen ready for film developing. If I can, I prefer to develop in the spring (May) or fall (October/November) as that's when the tap water is as close to room temperature that I can get. In the summer the tap water runs at 28-30 degrees Celsius at its coldest setting. In the winter, it's much colder and will tend to swing between the temperature I want and 10 degrees. For prints it's usually on the weekends - I can start anytime, depending on how long I want my darkroom sessions to be.

That said - I'm extremely busy during the school year, so most film and print developing gets pushed to holiday periods - I get almost 5 months off altogether, so I'm not complaining.

When my arthritis drugs kick in. So, not very often. Mostly afternoons.

This year, I'm trying to shoot all summer and develop/print all winter. With weddings (primarily digital or 4x5 b&w) and family obligations tying up most weekends, developing during the summer is almost impossible, 4x5 withstanding. My darkroom in former bedroom upstairs that is climate controlled; meaning that in the summer it is tropical and in the winter approaches arctic.

When there is no daylight. If there is daylight, i should rather be out photographing or exploring, or mowing the lawn (keeps the family more content).

Any of those times according to what's convenient and what fits the need. Most often in the evening.

After supper and before bedtime.

Tim Stapp said:

This year, I'm trying to shoot all summer and develop/print all winter. With weddings (primarily digital or 4x5 b&w) and family obligations tying up most weekends, developing during the summer is almost impossible, 4x5 withstanding. My darkroom in former bedroom upstairs that is climate controlled; meaning that in the summer it is tropical and in the winter approaches arctic.

Click to expand...

Yes, like parts of my house, and those way overpriced, so-called climate-controlled self storage facilities! Nothing like rooms being controlled by climate...

Lots of good input here.
I'm trying to find a balance. It seems I never have time to process with the competing family activities; sports, concerts, homework and trying to get the youngest in bed by 8PM. Then there's the endless home activities; lawn mowing, home & vehicle maintenance, parents that need support, etc. so I'm trying to find a way to incorporate the film development and darkroom printing into my routine. In the end it's all about priorities. Yesterday I got up an hour early and developed 3 rolls in an hour before getting ready for work. Printing takes me longer, I have best success getting up early on a Saturday and printing to about 10AM or so, then going outside to take care of the chores.

No kids here, and as long as I provide food first my wife is OK with me processing films in the evening

But still things like mowing the lawn, a busy social life and an aging mother do take time away from hobbies. Printing is done in the winter when it's dark...my enlarger lives at my mother's house and the usual trade-off is that I do some chores for her and she lets me darken the spare bedroom for a couple of evenings printing.

I'm in the "When I have time" group as well, along with "When conditions are suitable."
- When I have the time if a fairly obvious one, typically done at some point on a weekend. It has often been a Sunday afternoon kind of thing when weekend chores were handled Saturday morning, then the afternoon and Sunday morning (Plus whatever times were handy during the week) get to be used for photography if suitable.

The "When conditions are suitable" have also had to account for other people in the house where I've been living. Taking over a bathroom for a solid block of time when others are likely to want to use it is 'kind of a jerk move'. But for me one of the biggest factors has been whether or not the temperature and humidity is playing nice. I'm currently loading reels in a changing bag, and don't have an air conditioned location to do so. This can make it annoyingly hard to down right nearly impossible to do effectively if my hands begin to sweat more than the tiniest amount.

I also much prefer to process film early enough in the day that they can hang and dry completely before I head to bed.

I have a backlog that I really should have processed weeks ago, but I sadly haven't had the block of time free to get them done and have let myself become distracted by other things. Such is life.

A new place here in the next month or two will hopefully make things far easier. I'll be changing up how I store my gear once I get into a new place, and probably putting together some drying cabinets. I'm hoping that it will make things far easier for 'conditions to be suitable', as it will mean less setup and tear down time - Just go to the 'processing station', take the gear out of the purpose built cabinet by the counter, load film, measure chemistry, process film, hang film, wash everything, and then place directly in the equipment drying-storage cabinet.

One thing that can help is to remember that you don't have to develop your film immediately after loading the reels and tank.
I load film in the (easily darkened) bathroom, and develop film in the kitchen.
On a reasonably regular basis I'll load the reels and tank at night, and then develop the film (usually) the next day.
Be sure to label the tank - painter's tape and a Sharpie work well. I prefer to add some tape to "seal" it closed as well. Just something to prevent inadvertent opening.