The bathroom's a mess and my hands smell funny... [Archive]

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Matthew Allen

04-12-2008, 18:29

...but what a rush!:cool:

It's almost 3:30AM here and I just developed my first roll of film - Foma 200 in ID-11 1+3 for 13 minutes. The negs are drying now and they look pretty decent. Some are rather dense but this is down to considerable erring on the side of overexposure for my test roll rather than the developing I think.

In any case, I'm satisfied - it's a very cool feeling to have shot a whole roll and developed it less than 12 hours later.

Matthew

dazedgonebye

04-12-2008, 18:35

Keith

04-12-2008, 19:02

The first roll is a rush I agree and pulling a film out of a camera and having results to look at within twelve hours may not match the review function of a digicam ... but it's a lot more satisfying!

nikon_sam

04-12-2008, 20:20

30+ years of developing B&W film (and a few rolls of E-6 too) and I still get that feeling when it comes out of the tank...
It never gets old for me...Congrats on joining the club...enjoy...

You know the next step is printing...don't you???

Pablito

04-12-2008, 20:25

"The bathroom's a mess and my hands smell funny..."

....not at all sure I want to hear the details.....

:D

Matthew Allen

04-12-2008, 20:26

"The bathroom's a mess and my hands smell funny..."

....not at all sure I want to hear the details.....

:D

I can't imagine what's on your mind.:angel:

Matthew

colyn

04-12-2008, 20:36

Just wait till you develop your first print...:D :D

Matthew Allen

04-12-2008, 20:46

Can't wait.:) When I get back to Edinburgh I'm going to be watching the local ads like a hawk for cheap or free enlargers and in the meantime there are a couple of darkrooms there that I'll be able to use if I can find the time. Oh the excitement...

Matthew

topoxforddoc

04-13-2008, 00:28

Congratulations Matt!

The small ads will have some real bargains. In Gloucestershire a couple of weeks ago, there was a guy selling a boxed Durst M601, timer, safelight, paper washer, everything for 20 quid!

Charlie

mfunnell

04-13-2008, 03:10

Congratulations on your first roll. I haven't been developing my own for very long, but find that it produces results I very much like. It also, for me, makes "real" (ie. non-chromogenic) B&W a useable proposition. I much prefer the results I get, but sending out to a lab that does silver B&W development (here in Sydney, at least) is now expensive and involves long delays. Developing myself gives me much more control and much faster turn-around. And its cheap!

As it happens, I've just developed a roll of Delta 400 (pushed a stop) in LC29 and scanned the results. The development worked well and the tonality and grain came out nicely :) Shame about the photographer, however :(

I'm sure you've done better...

...Mike

oftheherd

04-13-2008, 04:17

Congrats on taking the step. I hadn't developed any film for a long time, and then got back in about six months ago. I still do it only once in a while as I just don't have the time I wish. But it is still fun just like it used to be. I wish I could do prints too, but that just isn't in the cards just now. I just scan some.

Keep enjoying it and if possible, try your own printing. It can be frustrating but is fun as well.

Matthew Allen

04-13-2008, 05:42

Thanks all for the kind words.:) Incidentally, if anyone else is contemplating doing this for the first time then there are some very useful videos on Youtube.

Jason Brunner's has a series on developing and some other quite entertaining things:

http://youtube.com/user/alternativecamera

And this video was good for checking that I was loading the film correctly:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=6SM5p_x4w7A&feature=related

I also found Roger and Frances Hicks' website very helpful, especially their page on processing:

http://rogerandfrances.com/photoschool/ps%20how%20process%2035-120.html

Oh and the development time was from The Massive Dev Chart:

http://www.digitaltruth.com/devchart.html

Matthew

charjohncarter

04-13-2008, 08:08

Smelly hands! Buy odorless fixer and odorless stopbath. If you have a wife or girlfriend, they won't be complaining forever too.

MikeCassidy

04-13-2008, 10:49

Wear gloves.

minoltist7

04-14-2008, 04:43

"The bathroom's a mess and my hands smell funny..."

LOL :D
What would your mom said if caught you ?

shadowfox

04-14-2008, 12:58

Smelly hands! Buy odorless fixer and odorless stopbath. If you have a wife or girlfriend, they won't be complaining forever too.

Exactly!

I use stuff from Clayton. Ordered from freestyle. Their stuff strikes a balance between value and quality (from my "research").

I'm new to developing myself, glad to see fellow self-motivated souls out there :)

Matthew Allen

04-14-2008, 13:07

Smelly hands! Buy odorless fixer and odorless stopbath. If you have a wife or girlfriend, they won't be complaining forever too.

Luckily (:rolleyes:) I'm young and unattached.

Wear gloves.

I did for most of the process, but I still ended up with a few chemicals on me. Perhaps this is one of those times for more speed and less haste. Next time will be calmer.

LOL :D
What would your mom said if caught you ?

Don't go there. (The horror.....the horror...)

I seem to do my best work in the wee hours. My Dad has had a brand new Epson V700 sitting idle in its box for months now and last night I got it out and put it to good use. Here's a frame from the roll I developed, scanned with the Epson software and tweaked (including cropping) in Lightroom. What do you all think?

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2189/2413650465_8974b8fecb.jpg

Before you point these out: 1)My Summar is not cracked, that's a strange reflection and 2)yes, I know there's a drying mark - I can't be bothered to remove it.

In case you're interested, this was shot with an ME Super on a tripod with a Pentax M 28/2.8 mounted.

Cheers,
Matthew

Ronald M

04-14-2008, 13:13

I WOULD SAY YOU HAVE THE PROCESS NICELY UNDER CONTROL.

Time to get creative.

minoltist7

04-15-2008, 01:22

The worth source of smell for me is a vinegar which I use for stop-bath.
It's tolerable for film processing, but quite irritating when washing prints. So I bought odorless stopbath from Foma (Fomastop). Ilfostop is good also, where it available

shadowfox

04-15-2008, 07:17

What do you all think?

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2189/2413650465_8974b8fecb.jpg

Before you point these out: 1)My Summar is not cracked, that's a strange reflection and 2)yes, I know there's a drying mark - I can't be bothered to remove it.

In case you're interested, this was shot with an ME Super on a tripod with a Pentax M 28/2.8 mounted.

Cheers,
Matthew

Matthew, that is one seriously nice picture. I can't tell which one is the drying mark. Did you squeegee the negative before hanging? I didn't.

Matthew Allen

04-15-2008, 18:41

I WOULD SAY YOU HAVE THE PROCESS NICELY UNDER CONTROL.

Time to get creative.

THANK YOU.:) Will do.

The worth source of smell for me is a vinegar which I use for stop-bath.
It's tolerable for film processing, but quite irritating when washing prints. So I bought odorless stopbath from Foma (Fomastop). Ilfostop is good also, where it available

Well, it doesn't bother me yet, but perhaps it will. The likelihood is I'll buy whatever I can get cheapest, wherever I happen to be.

Matthew, that is one seriously nice picture. I can't tell which one is the drying mark. Did you squeegee the negative before hanging? I didn't.

Thanks Will, I was rather pleased with how it turned out.

The drying mark isn't that noticeable, it's on the Summitar (the right hand lens). I didn't squeegee the negatives, I did my best not to touch them. The marks I'm seeing are almost certainly down to the very hard water we have here. I think next time I'll try doing the final wash in filtered water to see if that solves the problem.

Matthew