Learning to Develop Your Film is a Good Investment.
You are enjoying your film camera and enjoying the different film stocks out there. Now, all you have to do is get your film developed. Unfortunately, the drug stores are no longer good options as they no longer process in-house and most of the warehouse developers the drug stores ship the film to, do not return the negatives. The better-quality processing houses are growing but are still few and far in between. Sending your precious film rolls off, sometimes across state lines, can be a little nerve racking. Of course, some film processors will scan and give you a web link to view your images online, as soon as they are scanned and ship the film (and hopefully the negatives) back to you in the mail.
BUT what if you could develop your own film?
Think about it. You take the photograph, use up the roll, rewind the roll, then develop that roll…all in the same day! Yeah, I know right?! You can do that!
There is a setup fee, and I will let you know it can be a bit of an investment, although, well worth it. You will need a few essentials:
1. A Darkroom bag, for safely loading and unloading the film from it’s film canister, to the film tank.
2. A film tank, to process the film.
3. Film reels to keep the film from sticking to itself in the tank.
4. Film chemicals, for color and or black & white film.
5. Containers to store your Chemicals.
6. Safety equipment where needed, gloves, apron, etc.
7. Film hangers (even if they are wooded clothe line clips)
I understand it can be intimidating, but once you learn to load the film in the darkroom bag (and it does take some practice), your golden. Once the film is loaded, it’s just a simple matter of time and kinetic movement. Depending on if you are doing standard or constant agitation developing, your film development time can be between 3 to 30 minutes all together.
Once dry, you can scan then store your film negatives and keep snapping shots!
Now, cost wise; once you get the hardware, what you need is to replenish your chemicals. Some are reusable, some are one time use only. It depends on the brand you use.
Just make sure you keep them stored in a cool, dark place. Otherwise, you just have to make sure you know your measurements and have enough on hand before you start developing-I’ve made this mistake before, and it’s not fun.
Constantly having to agitate an eight-reel tank because you didn’t have enough chemicals, was not fun, and the pressure caused a small chemical burp from the lid…all over the kitchen floor! Measure well before you start.
