Home Developing without a darkroom

Developing 35mm black and white film at home.

Developing your own film can be such a fun and rewarding experience, knowing you’ve gone through the whole process from taking the photos to developing them yourself. 

There’s definitely a prerequisite that developing film is a difficult process that requires enough space for a darkroom but nowadays it’s a lot easier. 

By buying a changing bag and developing tank will allow film developing in your home without the need for blocking out all the light.

So where to start? The most important things you’ll need are the developing tank, the changing bag and the Chemicals. There are some great kits out there to get you started websites like Analog wonderland have lots of options for 35mm film but also 120. They also have links to developing charts as every film and chemical brand have different timings and measurements. 

When I first started developing it was a nerve wracking process using the changing bag, taking the film out of the canister, loading it onto the reel in the tank all by feel and touch was tricky but with practice it got easier.

Developing film is a mixture of chemicals and temperatures and using traditional methods it’s a quick exact process leaving little to no room for error. Which is fine if you know what your doing but for an amateur  like myself it’s a little intense. 

A tip that I found is to use a Stand developing process which in short is using a extremely diluted developing solution to develop the film. Meaning you can take your time with the developing process. This method also compensates for film shot in the wrong ISO which is great if by accident you had the camera on the wrong setting or you’ve got a camera that doesn’t go up to the ISO of the film you’ve used. No ruined film Yay! It also allows you to develop different types of film in one tank which is great for sustainability.

The down side to this process is it’s slow instead of taking 10 minutes it will take about 2 hours so patience  is key but definitely worth it if you’re starting developing for the first time. 

Break down of the method:

•Once you’ve successfully loaded and sealed your film into the developing tank the film needs wetting, it’s a case of just running lukewarm water into the tank till it’s full, then tipping out straight away. 

• To create your developing solution pour 5ml of developer into 500ml of water (room temperature should be fine around 20°) 

• Now agitate the film make sure the lids on tight and turn the tank gently upside down one way then another, you can also rotate it on its axis at the same time. It is then important to tap the tank down on the desk to get rid of any air bubbles.

• Set your timer for 40 minutes 

• After 40 minutes you want to do another agitation so again move the tank upside down one way then the other like before and again tap it on the desk.

• Set you’re timer for 41 minutes 

• Now dispose of your developing solution and pour in your stop bath this can again be water from the tap make sure it’s lukewarm, run the water in the tank for around half a minute make sure all the developer is gone.

• You’re now ready to add the fixer this stabilizes the image and makes it insensitive to light. You want 60ml of fixer added to 300ml of water (you can reuse this fixing solution for up to 10 films so the fixing time depends on the number of times it’s been used) agitate the film while it’s fixing.

• After the allotted time pour your fixer back into a bottle to reuse and again wash your film pouring running water in the tank around 10X

• Prepare the wetting agent you want around 30 drops of the wetting agent (I use ADOFIX II) with 300ml of water, you can now pour this into your open tank.

• Move the reel up and down in the wetting agent to remove all traces of chemicals for about 30 seconds then you can take the film out, remember to rinse the reel and tank well after to remove chemical traces.

• The film should now be developed, attach a clip to each end to ensure it doesn’t curl up while it dries and leave hanging for a few hours to fully dry. 

You’ve now got your negative film to get your images in digital form you can use a scanner to load them on to a pc however there are a lot of apps to allow you to do this on your phone. 

Have fun developing!