For many nights I lay awake tossing and turning and wondering how I could call myself "Streetshooter" yet not develop my own B&W negatives. But I could not bear the thought of hours spent messing with smelly chemicals, and adjusting temperature with ice cubes, and sitting around stirring a tank for 10-20 minutes, when I could be surfing the net or out taking photos instead.
Then I came across the thread in Offstone about developing at room temperature, and what is now known as "stand developing", which is basically developing without agitating the tank. OK now it looked feasible.
Therefore in the grand surgical tradition of "See one, Do one, Teach one" which applies to appendicectomies and all other major operations, I am going to teach my method of developing negatives. Feel free to change the timings and dilutions and experiment. And post your results!
The standard textbook method of developing a negative is:
1. Add Developer (mixed at a certain concentration), keep temperature constant at 20 deg C, and agitate for 5 secs every minute for xx minutes.
2. Add Stop Bath (dilute acetic acid) to stop the development process.
3. Add Fixer to "fix" the film so that light will no longer affect the film.
4. Optionally soak in Hypo Clearing Agent (HCA) which will remove all traces of Fixer and shorten the washing time.
5. Wash the negatives, optionally adding a Wetting Agent as the last step to make sure the negatives dry evenly and do not leave water stains.
6. Dry the negatives.
Sounds complicated, right? The Offstone method is a little simpler. Develop at room temperature, using low concentration and longer timing, no need to agitate. Fix, wash and dry. That's it.
Then I came across the thread in Offstone about developing at room temperature, and what is now known as "stand developing", which is basically developing without agitating the tank. OK now it looked feasible.
Therefore in the grand surgical tradition of "See one, Do one, Teach one" which applies to appendicectomies and all other major operations, I am going to teach my method of developing negatives. Feel free to change the timings and dilutions and experiment. And post your results!
The standard textbook method of developing a negative is:
1. Add Developer (mixed at a certain concentration), keep temperature constant at 20 deg C, and agitate for 5 secs every minute for xx minutes.
2. Add Stop Bath (dilute acetic acid) to stop the development process.
3. Add Fixer to "fix" the film so that light will no longer affect the film.
4. Optionally soak in Hypo Clearing Agent (HCA) which will remove all traces of Fixer and shorten the washing time.
5. Wash the negatives, optionally adding a Wetting Agent as the last step to make sure the negatives dry evenly and do not leave water stains.
6. Dry the negatives.
Sounds complicated, right? The Offstone method is a little simpler. Develop at room temperature, using low concentration and longer timing, no need to agitate. Fix, wash and dry. That's it.