Ross Holmberg‘s home developing tutorial continues (If you missed it, here’s part 1).
Now that you’ve got everything you need, the first thing to do is get your film on to the film reel and into the developing tank. This step will be done in the changing bag, and is probably the trickiest step of the whole process, mostly because you won’t be able to see what your hands are doing. If you have a roll of film you don’t care about, use it to practice with a few times in the light until you get the feel of things.
This video will take you through what needs to be done, and the following text will explain it for your reference. If you have any questions please ask and I’ll do my best to answer them.
Black & White film developing at home (pt.1) from Ross Holmberg on Vimeo.
- First off, use the bottle opener to pop the top off your film canister; no need to be gentle, just wrench it off there and throw the top to the side.
- Now carefully slide the film itself, along with its spool, out of the canister; be sure to hold the film to stop it from springing off the spool (don’t worry, there are no images on this part of the film, so you won’t be marking anything with your fingers).
- This end of the film will not be straight, because of its leader shape. Let a little film off the spool, and cut a straight end with the scissors.
- Now pick up the film reel and feel with your fingers for the entry; this is just the spot where the film feeds through. If you’ve looked at the reel in the light, you’ll have a better idea of what you’re feeling for.
- Once you’ve found the entry on the film reel, hold the very end of the film and feed it on to the reel, guiding it where necessary using your fingers on the edge of the film.
- Assuming you have the Paterson tank system, feeding the length of the film on to the reel is a matter of ratcheting the two halves of the reel back and forth. Keep ratcheting until you get to the end of the film.
- Snip the film at the end to separate it from the film spool, then make sure the film is fed completely onto the reel (usually just give a few more ratchets on the reel).
- You can now put the film reel onto the centre column of your tank, and slide this into the developing tank itself. Seal up the tank with the light-trap.
- Once the light-trap is on, you can open up your changing bag and pull the developing tank out. Your film will be protected from the light by the tank itself.
Now you have the film in the developing tank, it’s time to start the actual development process. This means it’s time for the chemistry, which we’ll go into in the next post.
