Webmaster's Film Development Process

Overview

This page simply documents the film development process that has evolved for my specific requirements. After processing two dozen rolls of film using this process I've gotten very consistent using this process.

You can expect this document to change in small increments over time as my technique (hopefully) and my equipment improve.

Step 1: Chill water

An ordinary Coleman cooler with two Thermos icepacks, around three liters of water and my fixer solution.

At this stage I take two coleman ice packs from the freezer and dunk it in a coleman cooler filled with about four to five liters of water. I slap on the cooler's cover and let the whole system sit. It should take around 15 to 20 minutes for the water to get to around 15-18 degrees. That's just about enough time to prepare everything else I need.

Since I'm usually working with reused fixer (that is, already mixed before hand) I usually drop a sealed bottle of the fixer in the cooler as well to start getting it to a lower temperature.

Alternatively, I can use ice that I buy from the neighborhood store to cool the water bath. This tends to get everything cold really fast. And it also means I'll have to add warm water since the bath drops to around 4-10 degrees using ice.

Step 2: Load tank

Left to right: Scissors, tank lid, reel, can opener, reel, film, changing bag.

I take the rolls that I'm going to process and stuff them into my changing bag along with my can(ister) opener, scissors, and my developing tank. I feed the reel and thread the film using the prescribed process with plastic reels. When this is done, I screw on the light proof lid and I'm set. This takes ten to fifteen minutes with two rolls.

Plastic reels are great, but not exactly the most durable of things. I've broken one already in just two months of processing.

Step 3: Prep water bath

My tempering bath tray with icepacks, water from the cooler, and container with fixer and thermometer.

I take the water and the icepacks out of the cooler and move them into the processing tray (read: palanggana). If had the FIXER in there, I'd put it in the water bath, too, to maintain the proper temperature. At this point the water should be BELOW the temperature I require, which is perfect since the system slowly heats up while I prepare the chemicals. I'll keep the icepacks in the bath if the water is near 18 degrees. If it's below 15 degrees I'll add water from the tap.

I've got the process down to the point that when I get to this step, the water is at 18 degrees and there's no need to add water from the tap. To regulate bath temperature I can put the icepacks in, remove them, or add tap water as required.

Step 4: Mix chemicals

Stopbath and Fixer sitting in the bath. Developer sitting outside to get to 20 degrees. Washing aid is not in the bath. I keep the lids on to prevent cross-contamination of the chemicals.

Using water from the bath (which is at a lower temperature than I need) I prepare the working solutions in this order: fixer, stop bath, and then developer. I mix them into plastic sealable measuring cups (Homez brand, on sale at Make Room in Rockwell). Because the cups are plastic, they tend to float and tip over if the water bath level is higher than the level of liquid. To solve this problem, I simply hang the cup onto the side of the tray using the cup's handle. This keeps the cups stable even as they float. It also means I can have a water level roughly two inches higher than I would if I had to keep the water level low enough to keep the cups from floating. More water means more stable temperatures. It also means I have more water for the rinse.

By the time I'm done preparing the chemicals the whole system should be at around 18 or 19 degrees. The temperature of the fixer and stopbath are not as critical as the temperature of the developer so I normally worry about only the developer and let the water bath keep the other two chemicals within a close enough range to prevent reticulation.

To get the developer to 20 degrees, I simply take it out of the water bath and place it on the counter. I leave the thermometer in there to keep tabs on the developer temperature.

If by any chance the bath is ABOVE 20 degrees, I'll just put the ice packs in the water bath again and wait until the developer hits 20 degrees.

It should be obvious that my process requires two thermometers, one for the bath and one dedicated for the developer.

Step 5: Pre-soak

As the developer slowly inches up to 20 degrees, I take some bath water and fill up the tank with it. I tap the tank firmly on my wrist to remove bubbles, and then leave it IN the water bath to cool down the tank and everything inside it.

While this is going on, my developer is sitting on the counter slowly warming up. Once it reaches 20 degrees, I ditch the pre-soak water into the sink and move onto the next step.

Step 6: Developer.

Flipping the tank over and back three times (six flips) in the last five seconds of every 30 second cycle.

I set the timer/clock and pour in the developer. I rap the tank firmly a couple of times on my wrist to remove bubbles and then agitate continously for the first 30 seconds. At the half second mark, I place the tank back into the water bath. I then count out cycles of 30 seconds, making sure to agitate the tank during the last five seconds of every cycle. I normally do three complete inversions in the last five seconds.

I also like to rap the tank once on my wrist after every agitation period since I'm paranoid about bubbles... Although it seems this is unnecessary, it has become a part of my process, and I keep doing it now for consistency's sake. :)

On the last 30 second cycle, I no longer agitate the tank. Instead, at ten seconds from the end of the last cycle I start ditching the developer into the sink. It takes around 10 seconds to completely drain the tank and have it set on the counter ready for the next chemical. I'm very consistent about my developer times so I've gotten this process down quite well.

I usually, do all the wet processes over the sink and not the tempering bath (not as shown in photograph) to minimize contamination of the water with chemicals from the tank.

Step 7: Stop bath

At exactly the moment my developer reaches it's time-up, I pour in the stopbath, pop on the tank lid, and continously invert the tank for 1 minute. Only 30 seconds are needed, but since it doesn't hurt to have a bit more time, I usually do this for one full minute.

I ditch the stop bath into the sink, and then take fill the tank with water from the tempering bath. I agitate for 30 seconds and then ditch the water into the sink. This redundant rinse helps remove some more acid that is still in the tank and on the film. Helps slightly to keep my fixer going longer.

Note that I use home-made acid stopbath with 1.5% acetic acid, so I have no problems about ditching the stop bath after one use.

At this point, times and movements are no longer critical, so I take a few seconds to rinse off all the stuff I've used in the past few steps. This keeps things from getting chaotic. So I rinse the used containers and the mixing rods and stuff.

Once I'm relaxed and ready, I move on to fix the film.

Step 8: Fixing

Film should be left in the fixer for twice as long as it takes for all cloudiness to disappear, so inspection is important.

I take the fixing solution container and make a line mark on it, to note how many times I've reused it (I discard after 30 rolls as prescribed). I fill up the tank with it. Like the development phase, I agitate continuously for the first 30 seconds, and then agitate at the end of each succeeding 30 second cycle. Because I'm using Tri-X and Kodafix solution, this goes on for five minutes.

At the five minute mark, I open the tank and inspect my film. Normally, I pull out the end of the film to inspect for cloudiness. If there's none, I pop it back in the tank for an additional five minutes... agitating every 30 or so seconds. While such precision is not so important at this step, it pays to be consistent so I just shut off my brain and keep doing this like a moron until my five additional minutes are up.

Afterwards, I pour the fixer back into my container and seal up the container for reuse.

Step 9: Washing

After slowly getting the film up to ambient (tap) water temperature, I run it through flowing tap water in this home-made film washer.

When I use water, this step takes me no less than 10 minutes. Usually more because I'm slightly paranoid (as you can notice). I open the tank and pour in water from the bath (which is why it's critical that I don't contaminate my bath water with any of the chemicals). I spin the reel around with my tank's built in agitator. I do this for a minute, and then toss the water out. I repeat the process again, taking water from the water bath and agitating the reel/s in it for a minute.

Then I refill the water bath with some water from the tap. The whole point here is that I'm trying to SLOWLY raise the temperature of the film and the water.

Once again, I refill, agitate, and discard the water and refill again from the tap. By the time I've done this four or five times, the water is at 28 degrees. In which case, I take the reels out, and put them in my home-made coke-bottle washer. I fill up the washer with water from the bath and then turn the taps on to provide a continuous flow into the washer.

Step 10: Wetting

While the running water is (hopefully) washing the last bits of hypo from my film, I rinse the tank with the last bit of water from the tempering bath, and then I fill it up with plain water. I add one drop of Joy Ultra (LEMON!) to the water in the tank and mix it up. It should be only slightly sudsy. Just a few bubbles at the top when I mix it... otherwise there's too much JOY in it.

After my film has been in the flow for around five minutes, I pick up the reels and dunk it back into the original tank with the Joy solution. I twiddle it a few times with the agitator and let it sit for about a minute.

Step 11: Hanging / Drying

You can buy these clips at National Bookstore. I also attach one to the other end to make sure the film dries straight.

At the end of the wetting rinse, I pull up the reels from the tank and give it a few taps on my wrist over the sink to remove any excess water. If doing two reels at a time, I'll only take one out at a time and let the other sit in the wetting solution.

I break open the reels (since I'm using plastic reels that split apart) and let the film unfurl, careful not to let it touch the floor or the walls. I fold the the leader end of the film a few times to increase the thickness of what my clip will be gripping. I use standard office clips (black with chrome handles). I clip the folded up end first.

Gently running the film in the loosely held sponge folder over itself.

I then take a cellular sponge (ZIM brand), dip it into the wetting solution in the tank and then wring it dry with one hand. I fold the sponge to create a double sided squeegee of sorts. I run the film through the sponge ONCE. I then add another clip to the free hanging end to weigh it down and ensure that the roll dries straight.

It's interesting to see that initially the film will bow backwards (that is bow so that the emulsion is sticking out) as it dries.. and then as it dries further this bowing will reverse to the normal position where the emulsion is hidden in the bow of the film. When I'm really bored, I watch the film for that magic moment when it pops bit by bit to the correct bowing position.

Of course, just because it's bowed properly doesn't mean it's completely dry. I had to learn this the hard way. I normally leave the film to dry for an hour or two.

Step 12: Clean-up / Soak

As the film is drying, I rinse all the items under running water and shake them out. I then refill the tempering bath tray (palanggana) with water and drop everything into it for a nice soak to ensure that little chemical is left on them. I'll leave them soaking for an hour or so. Sometimes, when I'm lazy I let them soak overnight. So far I've had no problems with it.

Step 13: Film storage

When the film is dry, I take the film and lay them down (the whole length of it) flat on a CLEAN dust-free table. I then proceed to cut them up into strips of 4 or 6 frames. It depends on what I'm using it for. Normally, I cut it up into six frame strips and use PrintFile Archival Preservers.

Step 14: Inspection

I take the whole preserver sheet to my light box and go through my shots with a loupe. If I'm feeling industrious, I may take notes as to how the batch came out.

I pat myself on the back on another roll successfully processed.

This document last updated on 2 May 2003.