One of the best ways to improve your craft of photography is by shooting film. Analog photography allows you to focus on what matters: creating good photos. Film cameras tend to be very minimalist, removing the clutter on modern digital cameras. Unless you are doing very technical photography, ¹ the shiny newest specs of a modern digital camera might just be a distraction to get in the way. The cost ² of each photo makes you think before you shoot, not just capturing everything and hoping for the best. ³

However, this advantage of film is also the main downside. While a little cost, both in time and money, makes you reconsider if the photo is really worth capturing, too expensive and it’s impossible to photograph anything.

One way to reduce this cost is to shoot black and white film. As a bonus, it also has the effect of improving your photography, even for color photos. It’s easy to fall back unto a colorful sky or vibrate subject to save a photo, but black and white forces you to look at lighting, shapes, and form to make an image great.

To make analog photography even cheaper, you can develop black and white film at home. Plus, its actually fairly easy, as long as you have a little bit of patience. I have been developing black and white film for over 5 years now, ⁴ and so far have never had a roll of film without pictures! ⁵ For an $100 initial investment, it quickly pays for itself, and produces better results than many industrial scale labs.

Supplies

0. Roll of black and white film
   • Exposed with pictures!
1. Film developer: Rodinal
   • Most B&W film developers would work, but might have subtle characteristics. Rodinal is the most common for stand development and has a long shelf life.
2. Fixer: Ilford Rapid
   • Any B&W fixer will work, this is a very common one that works well.
3. Development tank: Paterson
   • The standard tank used by most. Simple but works very well.
4. Large graduated cylinder
5. Small graduated cylinder
6. Film hanger
   • Either a purpose built film hanger, or a pants hanger.
7. Binder Clip / Clothespin
   • Used to weigh down the bottom of your film when drying.
8. Your Nicest Scissors
   • Make sure they are clean and sharp.

Optional

The above is all you need to get started, but here are some additional items which might make your life easier. When I started developing film I did not have any of these and still got great results.

1. Dark bag
   • A completely dark room, such as a closet with a towel over the door, can also be used instead.
   • Make sure there is no light entering, if you can see any light at all that’s too much.
2. Storage bottle
   • Collapsible air-tight bottle to store your dilution of fixer to be reused.
3. Stop bath
   • Optionally used to wash film after developing to neutralize all the developer.
   • Or just use water. I do not usually use stop bath and have never had a problem.
4. Photo-flo
   • Wetting agent used after final wash to reduce water marks when film is drying.
   • Helps especially for film formats larger than 35mm, not necessary for 35mm in my experience.
5. Film remover
   • A good bottle opener can also be used, or just your hands to pry the film canister apart.
6. Stirrer
   • Handle of wooden spoon also works.
7. Hypo check
   • Test if fixer is still good.
   • Add droplets into fixer, if no white clouds fixer is good to use.
8. Distilled water
   • If you have particularly hard water where you live, distilled water is ideal.
   • Also helps ensure the water is room temperature, compared to the tap.

Steps

Below are the instructions for a process called stand development, an alternative method to traditional film development. It involves using a very small amount of developer highly diluted ⁶ and letting it sit mostly undisturbed for an hour, instead of the usual method of agitating the developer every minute for 8-15 minutes. This produces very similar results but works for any film at any ISO (even if you pushed/pulled it). ⁷ This means you do not need to calculate any dilutions or development times, and can mix different film types at different ISOs in the same development tank at once. Stand development leads to a perceived increase the sharpness and larger tonal range, which comes at the cost of decreasing the contrast. For traditional development the only thing you need to change is the development dilution, time, and number of agitations.

1. Load film into reel

• Take film out of canister with film remover.
  • Must be done in complete darkness.
• Trim film lead.
  • Make it straight and easier to load into reel.
• Align the plastic triangle tabs with your thumbs.
  • Not to be confused with flat tabs on other side (they feel very similar in the dark).
• Pass film under the tabs until it passes the ball bearings.
  • This is by far the most difficult step so practice it a few times on an extra roll of film in the light until you get the hang of it. Then, try it with your eyes closed before doing it for real in the dark.
• Twist reel to load film into reel until the end of the film roll is reached.
• Cut film from canister
  • Twist a couple more times to load it all into the reel.

2. Load film into development tank

• Place reel onto tube.
  • Very import as this tube is what keeps light out of the tank.
• Place into development tank.
• Add funnel on top of tube and seal by twisting until clicked in place.
  • The development tank is now light tight and can be brought into the light.

3. Mix and pour developer

• Add 1 part of developer for 100 part water
  • eg 6 ml of developer and 600 ml of water.
  • Minimum of 5ml of developer.
  • Water should be close to room temperature at 20 ˚C.
  • Remember to mix dilution with stirrer.
• Pour developer into tank and close its lid.
• Agitate by slowly rotating and flipping tank for 30 seconds.
• Tap tank firmly on table to remove bubbles.

4. Wait 30 mins and agitate developer

• Slowly rotate and flip tank for 30 seconds.
• Tap firmly.

5. Wait another 30 mins

• Prepare fixer dilution while waiting.
• Pour out developer.

6. Water/stop bath rinse

• Fill tank with cold water or stop bath.
  • This is to neutralize the developer to prevent it from developing any part of the film more.
• Agitate by rotating and inverting tank for 30 seconds.
• Remove water/stop bath.
  • Stop bath is reusable, don’t pour down drain.

7. Pour fixer

• Keep fixer in for 5 minutes.
• Agitate for 30 seconds, then 10 seconds every minute.
• Remove fixer.
  • Fixer is reusable, don’t pour down drain.
• At this point you are safe to open the tank and check your film.
  • Your pictures should now be visible!
  • If unexposed area is not uniform from edge to edge, put back in tank and add more fixer for a few minutes longer.

8. Water wash

• Fill tank with water, invert 5 times, then empty
• Fill again, invert 10 times, then empty.
• Fill, invert 20 times, then empty.

9. Rinse with photo-flo (optional)

• Quick 30 seconds of swishing.

10. Hang film to dry

• Use clip to weigh down bottom of film roll to prevent it from curling up.
• Best to hang them in a dust free area such as the bathroom.

Conclusion

After your film finishes drying, you now have your own developed negatives!

All that is needed now is to scan the negatives or print them with an enlarger. Stay tuned for the next part where I go over my home made scanning setup using a digital camera. I also recently printed my first black and white photos in a darkroom, so a darkroom tutorial is also in the works.

Happy shooting!