Film Processing

Processing Your First Black and White Film

1. Your darkroom (kitchen, bathroom or cupboard) needs to be completely blocked out to stop light from entering. For windows use thick card cut to shape and held in place with blade canvas tape. …see full text

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Processing a Film Easy

Even if you have never developed a film before, you are unlikely to find it very difficult. You do not need a specially-built darkroom, and once you have loaded the film into the developing tank, the rest of the process takes place in daylight. …see full text

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Black and White Film Processing

Loading – Assemble the Developing  tank  ‘set’  making sure you have all of the following: Tank, Body, Centre Column, Spiral, Lid Cap…see full text

PDF: Black and White Film Processing

 

Black&White Negative Developers

It is important that you match the correct type of developer with your particular film being used or for specific results. For example, if push processing and you would like to keep grain to a minimum, you must use a fine grain ‘speed enhancing’ developer, such as Ilford Microphen. Other developers available include ‘low  contrast’ or ‘soft working’ developers such as Kodak Technicol. Other developers are known as ‘high acutance’ developers, where acutance is a measure of the contrast at sharply delineated boundaries of light and dark tone. High acutance developers, such as Agfa Rodinal, emphasize grain structure and should usually be restricted to fine grained films. …see full text

PDF: Black&White Negative Developers

 

Special Brews

Choosing the right film developer can considerably influence the quality of your black and white phtography…see full text

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Push Processing

Push processing can help you shoot in very dim light. Sometimes the light on a scene is so dim that you cannot use a fast enough shutter speed even at the widest lens aperture. Pushing the film lets you shoot at a film speed higher than the normal rating by, in effect, underexposing the film. …see full text

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How Chemicals Affects Film

What  developer  does.  Even  after  film  has been  exposed  to light,  the image is latent,  not yet  visible.  Developer  chemicals  take  the  film to  its  next  step  by  converting  the  exposed crystals  of silver  halide in  the  film  emulsion  to visible metallic  silver. …see full text

PDF: How Chemicals Affects Film

 

Black and white negative errors

Your film may contain negatives that, at first sight, seem successful but reveal problems when you come to enlarge them. Check dry, processed film through a magnifier if there are signs of spots or slight variations in density. …see full text

PDF: Black and white negative errors

 

Assessing Black &White Negatives

When your length of film is dry, cut it into convenient,  easy-to-view strips of five or six negatives, and examine the results, The negatives on these pages and pp. 74-5 will help you to identify some common, but  at  first puzzling,  faults. …see full text

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Image Quality

‘Image quality’ is a term which is applied to the ability of a film, negative or positive, to render fine detail. It is not a term which makes a judgement about the value of a photograph in respect of  its content or ability to communicate a visual message. It is a purely technical reference. …see full text

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