How to Develop Film At Home: Step-by-step

The easiest way to develop your own film at home on a budget

Photo by Markus Spiske from Unsplash

I am a huge cinephile. I love film, and everything that encompasses it. Naturally, I got into film photography, shortly after discovering my dad’s old Canon EOS Rebel XS, a super lightweight film camera that was just what I needed for my purposes. What were my purposes? Well I’d tell you if I knew, but honestly, like any filmthusiast, I just thought it would be a really cool experiment playing around with a film camera.

Of course, a film camera in and of itself provides nothing more than the satisfaction of focusing deeply on a subject, noticing every detail within the frame, and clicking a button before hearing that music of a shutter snapping and moving onto the next frame — it is pretty satisfying. But without developing your film, it’s impossible to reach the phenomenon that is to stop time and produce a physical piece of your memory. For this reason, film development is just as important as the art of photography itself.

Everything You Need To Develop Film At Home: Step-by-step

This tutorial will go over developing your own 35mm film at home. Before starting, however, it’s worth making sure you’ve got all the necessary materials. Here is a story I wrote about everything you will need to develop film at home, without breaking the bank, and without needing to be a professional with a whole lab at your disposal. If that’s all ready then let’s get started!

1. Organization & Setup

Organization is key to improving your chances of success. So here are a few things you should do before you start pouring anything around. Prepare two stations:

• “Darkroom” station
• “Mixing” station

Darkroom Station

Prepare a setup where you will load the film. Remember, your developer tank is your “darkroom” but you still need an actual darkroom-like environment to load the film into the tank. Your setup can either be in your bedroom with the aid of thick bedsheets, a desk with a darkroom changing bag, or an actual darkroom that doesn’t have any access to light (if you’re choosing a closet, make sure to seal the ends of the door with tape and cover any safety lights). In any scenario, you must pick a spot where you can guarantee a place where you can safely take out the film from your film canister, cut it appropriately and wrap it onto your spiral into the tank without overexposing the film.

I use my bed as my darkroom station, where I load my film onto my tank under thick, black bedsheets. Use multiple sheets to be safe.

Mixing Station

This is where you will do all the chemistry-lab-stuff like heating your chemicals, pouring liquids in/out of your tank and ultimately the place where you will be developing your film. This place is typically your bathroom or kitchen. Make sure it’s somewhere you can safely splash, wash and rinse all kinds of stuff, and (important!) a place where you can place your bottles full of chemicals in heated water to warm them up, as well as another place where you can rinse and pour things. Ideally, you’d have a bathtub to fill up with water and a bathroom basin to rinse off with, or two kitchen sinks, one for each purpose.

Fair warning, things might splash and spill while pouring, mixing and shaking; so it’s a good idea to cover your floor with newspapers to prevent stains. The developer and stabiliser clean up pretty well, but the bleach-fix is especially difficult to clean, and becomes almost impossible if you don’t wipe the mess on the spot. Do this now to keep clean and organized.

My mixing station ie my bathroom, equipped with a bathtub for filling with warm water during heating and sink for pouring and rinsing chemicals in the basin. Note the hanging film.

Lastly, find a place to hang your film to dry. Get your hanger and hanger clips ready, and hook them up at about 2m (6ft) high to be safe — a 36-frame film roll is pretty long.

2. Heating Your Chemicals

Your chemicals will need to be at a temperature of 38°C, which will take some time; therefore, it’s worth making the preparation of warming them up while you complete other tasks. Fill up your tub, sink or tray with water at around 40–42°C and place your developer and bleach-fix inside, where the water is covering at least half each bottle. (The stabiliser just needs to be at room temperature, so just keep it to the side).

Place your developer and bleach-fix inside your tub at around 40–42°C. The chemicals should reach 38°C.

I like to place my thermometer right in between the bottles, with the tip submerged in the water to keep track of the temperature. Later, you will also unscrew your bottle caps and place your thermometer inside the chemicals to get a more accurate reading. But for now, leave your chemicals in peace as they warm up, and head to your Darkroom Station.

3. Loading The Film Into Your Developer Tank

You are about to remove your freshly shot film roll from it’s safely light-tight canister, and load it into a spiral…before placing the spiral into your development tank…in the dark…yeah…

Practice loading film onto the spiral with spare negatives.

For this part, prepare these materials:

• Developer tank
• Loading spiral
• Scissors
• Bedsheets or darkroom or changing bag
• And of course your very own film roll you want to develop

Firstly, ensure that your “darkroom” is light-proof, whether it’s your bedsheet, changing bag, or closet. Do this by opening your eyes in the darkness, waiting a minute for them to adjust and checking if you can see anything. If you can, no good. You must not be able to see anything.

So your darkroom is set, great. But before you get started, fair warning, it will get messy in there unless you organize and practice, (Oh God, please make them practice, PLEASE); so it’s worth taking at least some ready made negatives you may have and load it onto the spiral. You might want to go to any photography shop and ask if they’ve got expired film canisters they’d be willing to donate, and that way you’d be able to do the whole ritual in daylight, without cutting yourself in the actual process. This is not what I do, and I regret it every time. But unfortunately…I’m cheap.

Opening the film canister

This will seem tricky at first, but it gets easier the more you do it. For convenience, you can add to your materials by buying a film canister opener, or you can try using a bottle opener, but none of that is necessary; instead, you can dig your finger in the velcro seal and pull until the metal cover starts “peeling” the side of the can.

Starting from the velcro seal, “peel” the side of the canister until you have access to the film inside.

No need to peel the whole thing. Just make sure you’ve created a big enough opening for the film to slide out. That’s right; you don’t want the whole role to come out, because then it starts to get messy, and your film is prone to more scratches.

Cutting the first edge of the film

Before wrapping the film onto the loading spiral, you should cut the outermost edge of your film to ensure that the “teeth” of your spiral can clasp onto your roll’s holes correctly — this is the protruding edge that you use to unravel your film when you first load it onto your camera. Snapping about an inch inside that edge should be alright. You can always cut more, since that bit is already exposed, but no need to risk slicing a frame.

Loading the film onto the spiral

Detailed instructions of the loading process can be found in the manual booklet that comes with your Developer Tank package, but here is the gist of the loading process:

• Take the spiral and hold it horizontally, so that your two thumbs are each touching one of the two “hooks” of the spiral. These edges will act as the gateway to the spiral, but one of the gear’s side moves as part of the loading contraption; therefore, you must first set the edges parallel to each other when initially inserting your film.
• Insert the start of your film through the gateway by pushing it with your thumbs.
• Once the film is securely clasped in the spiral at least a couple of inches deep, and you can feel that you can no longer push any more of the film with your thumbs, begin the loading process by turning the moving side of the gear.
• Keep turning the gear until the full roll of film is loaded, and you can feel the last bit of film attached to the role.

Some of my favorite shots from my home-developed 35mm film!

Cutting the final edge of the film

You’ll feel the film get a little thicker for about an inch before reach the core of your film canister. It’s at this point that you’ll know you’ve reached the end of your roll and that it’s time to cut it. Ideally, you want to cut your film right before the film gets thicker to avoid any difficulties loading the final couple inches onto your spiral.

Finishing touches

Once you’ve cut your film and completely detached your canister, it’s time to wrap things up. Ensure the entire film is wrapped within the spiral; hence, keep turning the gear until there is no more film jutting out the gateway — it’s important to keep the entire film within the constraints of the spiral to ensure the mixing process is consistent across the entire role of film.

Finally, insert your spiral in your development tank and lock it tight before exiting your “darkroom” or turning on any lights. A safety trick that always helps when screwing the cap on is first making a counter-clockwise motion until you hear a snap, then turning clockwise until you’ve tightly fastened the cap.

More favorites from my home-developed film.

4. Time-critical Events

You’ve just loaded your film in your development tank and it’s just waiting to be developed. No going back now. You’re about to start the magic.

Check on your chemicals and measure their temperature. They should be 38°C but read your kit’s instruction manual to make sure that’s correct and see what uncertainty value you’re permitted.

Once that’s ready, prepare your Lab Timer app with five cycles:

• Warm Up at 1:00
• Developer at 3:30 (i.e. 3 minutes and 30 seconds)
• Blix at 6:00
• Rinse at 3:00
• Stabilizer at 1:00

Notice that there are 5 stages to development, with specific times for each. Each specific time is determined by the recommended amount for my specific C-41 developer kit, so it’s worth reading your kit’s manual to use the recommended times, (though I’ve found these to be mostly consistent timings). If you think about it, the fact that you know you’ll have finished the film developing process in roughly 15 minutes is pretty reassuring. Just follow the below steps for each stage and you’ll be on your way to producing some beautiful memories.

WARNING: you must follow these steps exactly in the time duration delineated above; therefore, it’s worth reading through the procedure first, before embarking on the actual mixing process. Remember, these are time-critical steps.

Warm up — 00:01:00

Being the simplest of all, in the warm up stage you must consider that your film and development tank should be equally heated as your chemicals to maintain consistency throughout the process. Furthermore, there is an anti-halation layer on your film, along with some other chemicals, which you’ll need to rinse out. The warm water will help clean it for you.

Filling the tank with 40°C water and placing it in the same water-filled bathtub with the chemicals for 1 minute. You can use your beaker to pour the hot water into your tank.

Simply fill your tank with 40°C water, like you did before with your chemicals. You can use a beaker to help you determine how much water you’ll need to fill your tank, but this isn’t necessary, since overflowing won’t be a problem. Once your tank is filled, place it in the same warm water you placed your chemicals and start your timer. While your timer is counting down, unscrew your Developer’s cap with your funnel on it, and have it at the ready since you’ll be pouring it in your tank soon.

Rinsing the tank of the anti-halation layer of the film.

After your timer ends, remove your tank from the bathtub and poor the water out into your sink’s basin. You’ll notice weird yellow-brownish coloring coming out, but that’s perfectly normal as the chemicals from the film are removed. But now’s not the time to admire the cool colors, no; now’s the time to focus and try to remove all the water and chemicals inside, so rinse thoroughly until no more colors come out. Immediately after, prepare to pour the developer into your tank.

Developer — 00:03:30

The developer should be unscrewed and ready. Place your funnel on your tank, which should resting on your sink’s basin, and start pouring your developer into the tank as fast as possible, until you see some of your developer coming up. Don’t worry about overflowing, since the result is that your film is drenched with the chemical uniformly; whereas if you don’t fill the whole tank, you may risk having unequally developed film. (That being said, don’t waste the damn thing!)

A cool ad for the Paterson Tank in the 50’s. A sample of the proper way to agitate is shown on the left side, rotating the tank 180° and back up again.

Immediately — immediately — start your timer for the Developer and place the top rubber lid to seal your tank. Begin your first agitation. Agitation is the process of inverting your tank to activate your chemical and effectively distribute it all around your film roll inside.

Fun fact: For a long time it was believed that the degree of agitation gravely affected the result of the film in the development process, but this theory was disproved in a Practical Photography issue in 1962.

Nonetheless, your film still needs a healthy amount of agitation throughout your timed amount to ensure you receive successful results. The image above shows the proper way to agitate: holding the tank vertically upright, and inverting it by flicking your wrist, and then straight up again as soon as it reaches 180° down. Perform agitation as soon as your timer starts and the lid to your tank is sealed, for 4 inversions each 30-second period.

Following the 4 inversions, place your tank in your bathtub filled with the same warm water you used to heat your chemicals and perform the warm up. Then let it rest until the next 30-second cycle starts.

Quick tip: after each agitation cycle, before letting your tank rest, it is recommended to uncap your tank and use your spool to rotate the reels inside. One rotation clockwise, and one rotation anti-clockwise will suffice. This is to ensure that any bubbles trapped inside your tank may escape, preventing uneven distribution of the chemicals on your film role.

For example, the developer process should be performed as efficiently as this:

1. Place tank on sink, with funnel on tank. Start timer. (3:30)
2. Pour developer into tank until overflowing occurs.
3. Seal tank and begin first agitation with 4 inversions (up-down, up-down, up-down, up-down). (3:00)
4. Place tank in the warm bathtub and remove the lid to place your mixing spool through the hole. (2:45)
5. Rotate your spool clockwise, and anti-clockwise.
6. Let your tank rest in the bathtub.
7. Repeat this process of agitation for a second time (2:30), third (2:00) fourth (1:30), fifth (1:00), sixth (0:30). Somewhere between your last or second to last resting period, prepare your bleach-fix (blix) by unscrewing it’s cap and having it at the ready.
8. Set your developer bottle in the sink with the funnel on, and prepare to pour from your tank back into the bottle. (0:15)
9. As your timer ends, pour everything from your tank into your developer bottle and immediately — I’m talking lightning fast here — lift your developer bottle outside the sink, placing your tank in the sink instead. Then lift the blix bottle and prepare to pour into your tank.

Bleach-fix — 00:06:00

The blix process works the same exact way, but with a new timer, hence more inversions. Here’s the way it’ll work:

1. Remove the plastic lid off your tank and start the timer. (6:00)
2. Pour the blix into your tank until it begins overflowing.
3. Seal the tank with the plastic lid and perform your first agitation with 4 inversions. (5:30)
4. Rest your tank in the bathtub before removing the lid and spinning clockwise/ant-clockwise with your mixing spool. While it rests, go to the sink again to rinse your funnel and tightly screw your developer cap back on the previous bottle.
5. Begin second agitation with 4 inversions (5:00), third (4:30), fourth (4:00), fifth (3:30), sixth (3:00), seventh (2:30), eighth (2:00), ninth (1:30), tenth (1:00), eleventh (0:30). Somewhere between your last inversions, place your blix bottle in the sink with the funnel on top.
6. After the timer goes off, remove your tank from the tub, and move to it to the sink. Take off its lid and start pouring the blix back into the bottle you’ve prepared in the sink.
7. Once every last drop is poured, remove your blix bottle from the sink and…

Photo by Steve Agnew showing the rinsing process.

Rinse — 00:03:00

1. …Start your timer before rinsing your tank by filling it up with water in your sink. The temperature at this point won’t matter, since the stabilizer for which you will be using later is at room temperature anyway. (3:00)
2. While your tank is filling up with water, screw the cap onto the blix bottle again. You should also rinse out your funnel and prepare your stabilizer bottle by unscrewing its cap and placing the funnel on it. (2:00)
3. Rinse your tank thoroughly by slushing water in and out of the tank, paying careful attention to the colors that come out if your tank. By the end of rinsing, the water coming out of your tank should be transparent. (1:00)

Stablizer — 00:01:00

Once your timer for rinse ends, place your funnel on the tank and prepare to pour the stabilizer.

1. Start the timer as you pour the stabilizer into your tank until you notice overflowing. You’ll find that the stabilizer is a little more fizzy, so you might have to pour more slowly than usual. (1:00)
2. Let your tank rest. No need to seal it or agitate it. Just let it rest until the timer ends. In the meantime, place the funnel back onto the stabilizer bottle.
3. Once your timer ends, gently start pouring your tank into the bottle. You’ll notice that the chemical reaches a darker shade of pink this time; rest assured, discoloration in your chemicals is very normal — it’s the result of their degrading quality following every use.

5. Finishing Touches on Your Film

Congrats! You’ve officially developed your own film! Don’t open your tank just yet, though — you don’t wanna ruin the moment in case you fucked it up. So breathe, realize you’re a Breaking Bad-ass Mr. White dealing with chemicals and developing your own film, because that’s exactly what you are, you badass Mr. White, you!

This will be you after you develop your very own film for the first time, I swear.

After you’ve taken that moment to yourself, and are now ready to see your creation, begin unscrewing your tank. (Technically, you could have completely opened your tank at the point where you stabilized the film, but where’s the suspense in that?)

Opening…unscrewing…holy shit!…removing the reels from the tank!…oh my God, I can almost see it!…I don’t see it…all I see is brown film…I’m worried…I’m worried…wait…oh my God there it is!…oh my God, IT ACTUALLY WORKED! And voila, your freshly-made, home-cooked negatives of your very own film.

I know, I know, you’re excited, but hold on a second. You’ve still got to do a couple of things to feel like a real pro…

Hang up your film to dry

Remember those hangers and hanging clips we prepared earlier? You’re welcome.

Tally your bottles

Weird, I know, but trust me on this. It’s a good habit to keep track of how many film rolls you’ve developed with your chemicals, because ultimately, they can only be used for so many rolls. So what I do is take a sharpie and put a tally mark on each of my bottles for every film rolls that I’ve developed with it.

Let it dry, dude. Trust me, just let it dry.

I know how exciting it is to have the ability to physically touch the photos you captured and check each frame, remembering what you took. Believe me, I know the temptation! But trust me, don’t touch it just yet because the film is at its most sensitive state, due to the moist texture and warm state following development — practically the worst state to touch it, leave prints, scratch it, etc. I recommend leaving it for about 2–3 hours to dry. After that, you are free to do whatever you like! They’re your negatives!

The Magic

Get ready to cut and splice the negatives, store them and scan them to admire your beautiful memories…

Have fun developing, and see you on the next one!