How do ppl who shoot film generally process the film ?

[Phil U]

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Love processing film and even started doing my own c41 in a hand tank with the tetenal/unicolor press kits. Not as hard as you think to get decent results, just a matter of getting a tub of water to a stable temp, really quite easy if you use a drinks cooler. Home processing costs for c41 is working out at about $1 a roll. B&W much less than that. Throw in a $250 kodak/pakon f135 scanner and the whole process from taking the film from the camera to seeing the finished result does not take a great deal of time or effort or cost. Would like to traditional print one day if I can find space for a dark room.

[pico]

I have finally become entirely adverse to developing 35mm film for a couple of reasons. First is the compromise of too many exposures under different conditions that tailored exposure/development is problematic. I develop eight rolls at a time. I had shot 35mm professionally for uncountable rolls in news work. I am not an amateur. FWIW, most on my development was with Edwal FG7 & 15% Sodium sulphite.

 

Respect for 35mm enthusiasts is cast within my heart because that was where I began.

 

If anyone wishes to challenge the quality of 35mm using Leica's finest, most expensive lenses against my seventy year-old medium format cameras, then feel free.

 

This is not an adversarial challenge. I like you all and respect choices.

[honcho]

.......If anyone wishes to challenge the quality of 35mm using Leica's finest, most expensive lenses against my seventy year-old medium format cameras, then feel free......

 

Not difficult and I don't even own the finest or most expensive Leica lenses.

 

You really should try Adox CMS 35mm film processed in it's bespoke developer before issuing rash challenges. You might also find your technique with medium format equipment improves as a side benefit.

 

Never too old to learn.

[Mikeyyah]

I started developing my own film recently and my advice? Try it out. Search for any local photo labs that rent out darkroom time. Try it out and see if you like it. Consider the costs of buying film, chemicals, mixing measures, etc.

Are you planning on going through a couple of rolls a month?

[semi-ambivalent]

I have finally become entirely adverse to developing 35mm film for a couple of reasons. First is the compromise of too many exposures under different conditions that tailored exposure/development is problematic. I develop eight rolls at a time. I had shot 35mm professionally for uncountable rolls in news work. I am not an amateur. FWIW, most on my development was with Edwal FG7 & 15% Sodium sulphite.

 

Respect for 35mm enthusiasts is cast within my heart because that was where I began.

 

If anyone wishes to challenge the quality of 35mm using Leica's finest, most expensive lenses against my seventy year-old medium format cameras, then feel free.

 

This is not an adversarial challenge. I like you all and respect choices.

 

35mm quality vs. MF quality? Only a fool would take that bet. But content, now, there's a wager...

 

s-a

[Herr Barnack]

Hey!

 

Im wondering how photography pros or enthusiasts generally go about processing their film's in this day and age.

 

Do they use scanners to get the digitally ?

Or let it print then scan them ?

 

And do ppl go to the shop to get the negatives ? or mix some chemicals themselves ?

 

I like the look of film but have no idea how i should go about processing them.

 

I develop my own film in the kitchen sink - I always have. Nowadays, it's B&W and C-41, but I used to do a lot of E-6 shooting and developing. Developing film is not hard; it is not the black magic or voodoo that many imagine it to be.

 

Here is a place to start for learning to process black and white film:

ILFORD PHOTO - Processing a Black & White film

 

and The Ultimate Guide to Developing Black and White Film | The Art of Photography

 

and for C-41: Developing colour film is not as hard as you think | Japan Camera HunterJapan Camera Hunter

 

and How to Process Your C-41 Film at Home

 

It's not hard at all - I have no idea how many hundreds of rolls of film I have developed over the years and I have never screwed up a roll of film in the process of developing. It's all about attention to detail, nothing more.

[chrism]

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Love processing film and even started doing my own c41 in a hand tank with the tetenal/unicolor press kits. Not as hard as you think to get decent results, just a matter of getting a tub of water to a stable temp, really quite easy if you use a drinks cooler.

 

I'll throw in a comment to support this. C-41 is really easy—there is only one set of chemicals, one temperature and one set of times. As long as you have a thermometer and a water bath at the right temperature it is far simpler than the dozens of B&W developers in various concentrations used with all sorts of agitation regimes at numerous temperatures. I don't know how much Kodak spent on research to come up with C-41, but they have to be congratulated on doing it. I assume they made such exposure tolerant* films and chemistry simply to enable the development of the wretched negatives that would inevitably be made by the Instamatic users, who had perhaps two choices for distance and exposure at best. Presumably they sold enough Instamatics and 126 film to recoup that investment. We should grab what we can of those films and use them whilst we still can. C-41 colour films have little grain, and while I haven't been seduced into it as yet, I can understand that using C-41 colour films and converting to B&W for post-processing and printing might be attractive (once scanned you can use the colour mixer to do the same things as you do in digital monochrome conversions, just as you do with filters on B&W film. I have been seduced into using C-41 monochrome film—XP2— for that purpose, though there I see no reason to avoid the lazy relaxed Rodinal stand developing method for these films, and I have many bottles of Rodinal in the fridge!)

 

Chris

*Exposure tolerant? This morning I took the Hasselblad 500 onto the deck with Adox 25 film in the back. On seeing how colourful the flowers in the tubs were I went and got the back with Ektar 100 loaded in it. I forgot (again!) to change the ISO setting in my Gossen meter, so I have Ektar 100 overexposed by two stops. The negatives look great despite my error. That's not just tolerance, it's forgiveness!

[smb]

Let the lab develop the film & get 4x6 prints with contacts. I number each roll of film and place the contact with the negatives. I place the 4x6 in a book with notes so that I may review them if I want to blow them up. As for digital: When I plan on sharing I'll have the lab do a scan. For the quantity of film that I shoot in a year my M6s provide more than sufficient service. But, I am not a professional and my situation pertains only to me.

[Leica Fanatic]

35mm quality vs. MF quality? Only a fool would take that bet. But content, now, there's a wager...

 

 

 

s-a

 

 

Yep, crap is still crap whether it's on 35 or MF (or large format)!

[chrism]

Here you go, taken this morning on Ektar 100 and developed with a Unicolor Presskit.

 

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and converted to monochrome in LR with some heavy-handed work in the colour mixer to show it can be done:

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Chris

[pico]

 

You really should try Adox CMS 35mm film processed in it's bespoke developer before issuing rash .

 

 

I love ya, dude, but I gotta believe you have not done MF as I have. I am addressing MF printed via *conventional enlarging, and not scanning.

 

May we agree that this is a pivotal issue? Original silver prints vs scans?

 

I do no put this forward with an expectation that either viewpoint will prevail because on net presentation we cannot know.

 

* sigh *

 

I am tired. Major health issue and caring less, but you are a good guy.

 

.

[Leica Fanatic]

Eh when I were a lad I 'ad to shoot 50 exposures per 120 roll of film, 32 hours a day ant father would rip each exposed roll open for a laugh and dance on our graves, yada yada.

 

Try telling that to the young folk of today, will they believe you.

[spydrxx]

Leica Fanatic - Only 50? Your father let you off easy.

[Leica Fanatic]

That's nothing.

 

When I were a lad I couldn't afford developer so I used to process film in the fermented urine of a tiger that I'd slain with a blowpipe fashioned from the ballpoint pen that me and my 17 brothers and sisters used to call home. As a dart, I'd use a grain of rice that I ad to work downt mill for 57 hours a day for twopence an infinity, to buy.

 

And you try telling that ...

[jmr237]

I have the rolls developed and scanned at Richard Photo Lab here in Los Angeles. I have been happy with the results. They accept mail orders if you are not in the LA area.

 

Sometime soon I will get a scanner, but for now the lab has been convenient.

[cobbu2]

I process all my film at home using HC-110B, nowadays either TMY or Plus-X which I happen to have in bulk rolls now. Once processed, on a light table, I decide which are worthy of scanning. I used to scan them all so I can evaluate each shot on a large computer screen, but it became way too time consuming.

 

After scanning the frames with potential, I decide if I want to make prints and when I do, it's all in the darkroom.

[Michael Hiles]

I use Ilford XP2 pretty much exclusively. I love it. I get the local WalMart to process the negatives c41 (leave film uncut please). I scan for sharing and cataloging/searching. When I want a print for the wall (always my final objective), I plug in my Focomat 1c.

 

Local C41 is becoming harder to find. I may have to consider the Tetanal kit.

[Mark Fisher]

Developing BW film is pretty simple and I can't imagine ever sending it out even if I was in an apartment.. I also print wet so no scanning. I much prefer the way the print looks and appreciate the craft of the darkroom. Scanning and Photoshop doesn't bring me the joy that the darkroom does.......I think if I had to scan, I'd just switch to a fully digital workflow.

[pico]

A tip: I mix photo chemistry in a kinda double distilled water. We have a couple of dehumidifiers. I pour the water taken from the dehumidifiers and for the heck of it, put that water through a home distiller. Voila! No mineral deposits in the distiller.

 

Now I am thinking - what else can I use the distiller for?

.

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[leica_m9_user]

In the days of low resolution digital cameras there was merit in processing and scanning negs. So unless you are using a large format camera (or at least medium format), just get a decent digital camera. Having said that if you are using film, please make silver prints, in B&W - it far surpasses any enjoyment you will get from digital printing. The paper quality is far superior, although paper manufacturers are advancing all the time. For monochrome try Epsom traditional photo paper.