32. Traditional B&W Photography: Developing 35mm Film Negatives

This is one of the trickiest technical skills of photography because you have to do this in absolute darkness – usually in a tiny little photo closet, although SCHS uses black bags, with all your materials inside. The bag itself must be light tight, so you do it all by feel. It’s good to practice with some dead (over-exposed) film, just to see how the film goes into the developing spiral. 

NOTE: Before you take out your film and slide it onto a reel, be sure to take off any jewelry or watches that light up, as any light whatsoever will ruin the film!

NOTE: Before you put all your equipment into a black bag, be sure it's dry!!! If your reel is wet, the film will stick to it and itself, and become a jumbled mess! Your only chance for this to work is that the film go into a completely dry reel.

This video by ILFORD helps show the process in detail:

Link to Youtube here.

This video shows how to use a changing bag to get your film safely into the reel and tub:

Link to Youtube here.

Once your film is properly sealed in the reel, you put it into a special developing tank. Tanks have three parts. There is a small cylinder that goes into the spiral (wide part goes on bottom). Then, there is a funnel that screws onto the top. 

NOTE: Make sure the funnel is screwed on correctly, and flat!!! 

If you screw it on wrong, at an angle, it's not light tight, and it can fall off when you agitate the tub, destroying your film.

Pour in the developer, and bang it on a table twice, to get out any bubbles that could be sticking to the film inside. Agitate as directed, and wait however many minutes until it’s properly developed. Times depend on the kind of film, chemicals, and their temperature. 

NOTE: Check the temperature of the developer so you know how long to develop your film! 

Your darkroom should have a chart to help clarify exact timing based on the chemistry used there. There is also a great link from digitaltruth.com that lets you search for specific development times depending on the film and developer you use. Repeat these steps for the stop bath, fixer, and final wash with water. Then you can safely take out your negative, squeegee it with your fingers, and hang it to dry.

NOTE: When wet, your film is extremely sticky!! Do not let any two film bits touch while drying, or they'll be stuck forever!!