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Black & White Film Developing
From 1990-2000 I worked with 3 film developers. They are Sprint Film Developer, Kodak HC-110 and Hutchings PMK Pyro . It should be noted there is no correct way to develop film or make prints other than the methods that you choose to work with in the darkroom should produce consistently high quality negatives and prints.
Sprint Film Developer
When working with Sprint Film Developer I always use a temperature of 75°. This chemistry can be used at temperatures as low as 65°. Whatever temperature you choose, it must carefully be maintained throughout the process with each chemical to produce optimum results.
We will be developing film using the following procedure.
To load film into a light tight tank the film must be loaded onto a film reel. We have 2 types of reels – plastic and metal. The plastic reels are easier to load. The metal reels are more reliable. Plastics reel production in 2006 became much lower quality than in previous years. The main mechanism for winding the film onto the reel breaks easily making it impossible to load onto the reel. Metal reels are difficult to get used to. If you can become patient enough to work with one, they are very reliable.
Loading film is done in total darkness, so it is best to have access to more than one reel when using a reel that has not been previously used just in case you have a bad reel. It is also a good idea to practice loading reels using practice film with the light on before actually loading the real film.
Once the film is loaded to the reel, it is placed in a light tight tank. The plastic tanks also have a light blocking spindle. The reels must be placed on the spindle to keep the tank light tight. The top of plastic tanks must be carefully closed and tested for closure before turning on the lights. When you are sure the tank is correctly loaded the lights can be turned on. The rest of the process is done in full room light.
Take 5 containers that can hold 32 ounces. How much chemistry you put in each tank varies with the size of the tank. Each container will have the exact same amount of liquid. Each container will be a mix of water and various photographic chemicals. Each mixture will be mostly water and a small amount of chemical. Most of the chemicals we will be using are manufactured by Sprint Systems. Here are chemicals. Lay them out in a line from left to right. Label each container to avoid any chance of mixing them up since some of them will look similar.
Container 1 – Presoak
This one is simple it’s just 75.0°F water. The temperature is very important. You can use a lower temperature if necessary. This temperature is suggested because it gives you the fastest processing time without compromising the quality of the process.
Container 2 – Developer
1:9 Mix 1 part Sprint Film Developer with 9 parts of 75.0°F water. This might be 2 oz. of developer to 18 oz. of water in a 20 oz. tank. The amount varies with the tank. The proportions remain the same – 1:9. Be very careful to use film developer not print developer. Print developer will destroy your film. The temperature should not be below 73.0°F or above 77.0°F. If you must use a lower temperature see the Sprint time chart. If you must use a higher temperature contact Sprint.
Container 3 – Stop Bath
1:9 Mix 1 part Sprint Stop Bath with 9 parts of 75.0°F water. This might be 2 oz. of developer to 18 oz. of water in a 20 oz. tank. The amount varies with the tank. The proportions remain the same – 1:9.
Container 4 – Fixer
2:8 Mix 2 parts Sprint Speed Fixer with 9 parts of 75.0°F water. This might be 4 oz. of developer to 16 oz. of water in a 20 oz. tank. The amount varies with the tank. The proportions are different than the two previous chemicals – 2:8.
Container 5 – Perma Wash
There should be a 1 gallon brown container of this on the wooden bench between the 2 sinks. It has been mixed up, so just pour the needed amount in container 5.
You are almost ready to start. You will next need times and agitation patterns.
1. Presoak 65-75° 1m
Constant agitation
2. Developer 65-75° variable
Constant agitation for the first 15s, then one figure 8 every 30s
3. Stop bath 65-75° 1m
Constant agitation
4. Fixer 65-75° 2m (4m for Kodak T-Max films )
Constant agitation for the first 30s, then one figure 8 every 30s
5. Fixer remover 65-75° 2m (4m for Kodak T-Max films )
Constant agitation for the first 30s, then one figure 8 every 30s
6. Wash 50-86° 4m
7. Photo-Flo 65-75° 10s
Do not wipe this off.
Developing your own film is a slow process. The first time takes about 2 hours. With practice this time can quickly be reduced to 1 hour. There are 2 advantages to developing your own film. One is that the quality can be controlled, reducing the amount of paper needed to make a print. The second advantage is time. Good negatives print much faster than bad negatives. If you choose to have a lab develop your film, basic processing is available from Image Inn and Bedford Photo and Digital. For premium processing try Cox B&W Lab or Color Services.
Hutchings PMK Pyro
Step 1. Mix 2.5 ml. of stock solution A with 5 ml. of stock solution B and 250 ml of water. It does not matter whether A or B is added first. When the pyro working solution is mixed together, it will immediately proceed through color changes from gray-green to pale amber. If there is no color change, something is wrong! At the end of the development time save the developer. Do not throw it away. It will be reused in step 4.
Step 2. Fill the tank with 70° tap water and continuously agitate for 30 sec. Do not use stop bath. This will ruin the film.
Step 3. Fill the tank with 70° TF-4 fixer and continuously agitate for 6 min. Do not use any other type of fixer.
Step 4. Fill the tank with the used developer and continuously agitate for 2 min. Do not wash the film after step 3. Go directly to the used developer. After using throw the used developer away.
Step 5. The film will not look like normal film. This is due to the image staining process. Wash the film at 68° to 75° for 25 min.
Step 6. Photo-flo and dry.
Black & White Printing
Once you have exposed paper under an enlarger, it must be processed through some chemical baths. If you are using 8x10 trays you will need 3 trays and each tray should be filled with 60 oz. of the following chemicals that should be 65°F to 85°F . If you are using 11x14 trays you will need 3 trays and each tray should be filled with 120 oz . of the following chemicals that should be 65°F to 85°F. Each print should be processed for the following times in the following order when using Sprint chemistry. Each chemical should be diluted 1:9 (6 oz. of concentrate to 54 oz. of water for 8x10 trays and 12 oz. of concentrate to 108 oz. of water for 11x14 trays).
1. Print Developer 1m
2. Stop Bath 5s
3. Fixer 2m
Fixer can never be too fresh. It is not visible when it is exhausted. Prints that are inadequately fixed will show stains when they dry. Test strips should be given 10s and full prints should be given one minute. Anything you wish to save at the end of your printing should be given one more minute in fresh fixer.
When the stop bath changes color, your chemicals are exhausted and they should be thrown out, You will able to process about 90 prints before this happens.
4. Storage
This is just water. You can leave prints in this tray for several hours. After you have fixed the print put in here. At the end of class we will wash all of the prints together. Do not hang up unwashed prints.
5. Wash 5m
You cannot overwash a print.
Color Printing
The principal processes for printing color today are
1 RA-4
2 Ilfochome
3 UltraStable
RA-4 is the process used to make color prints from color negatives.
Ilfochome is the first process where a reasonably good print can be made directly from a slide in less than 8 hours. Although the finished print is rarely comparable to a UltraStable print, it is generally better than a print where a 4x5 internegative was made and the cost is a somewhat lower than an UltraStable print.
UltraStable is a truly remarkable process. The colors are brilliant and the prints have a three dimensional quality that is more apparent than in most other printing processes. The process has two major drawbacks. (1)It is very expensive to set up for it-about $3000 and (2) even a mediocre print takes 8 hours or more. This is not a process for the casual printer and does require too much work for most people and even most labs. All color prints fade over time regardless of how they are stored. UltraStable prints don’t fade.
Starting Filter Pack
for most color films>>>40M+50Y
for Kodak Ektar films>>>50M+90Y
always include a UV filter in any filter pack to protect your negative
Processing
105°F
1 Pre-soak 60s
2 Developer 50s
3 Stop Bath 30s
4 Rinse 30s
5 Blix 50s
wash prints for 90s at 90-110°F
Mixing Unicolor RA-4 Color Developer (2 liters)
105° water 1562.5 ml
Developer A 125 ml
Developer B 62.5 ml
Developer C 250 ml
Mixing Unicolor RA-4 Color Developer (4 liters)
105° water 3125 ml
Developer A 250 ml
Developer B 125 ml
Developer C 500 ml
Mixing Unicolor RA-4 Blix (2 liters)
105° water 985 ml
Blix A 500 ml
Blix B 500 ml
Blix C 15 ml
Mixing Unicolor RA-4 Blix (4 liters)
105° water 1970 ml
Blix A 1000 ml
Blix B 1000 ml
Blix C 30 ml
Correcting Filtration after first print
prints must be completely dry before changing your filtration
too blue>>> subtract yellow
too green>>>subtract magenta
too red>>>add equal amounts of yellow and magenta
too cyan>>>subtract equal amounts of yellow and magenta
too yellow>>>add yellow
too magenta>>>add magenta
amount of change approximate exposure
color variation in filter pack for new filter pack*
from normal (in seconds)
too blue slight subtract 10Y 10
moderate subtract 20Y 9
great subtract 40Y 9
too green slight subtract 10M 8
moderate subtract 20M 7
great subtract 40M 7
too red slight add 10M+10Y 13
moderate add 20M+20Y 15
great add 40M+40Y 17
too cyan slight subtract 10M+10Y 8
moderate subtract 20M+20Y 7
great subtract 40M+40Y 6
too yellow slight add 10Y 11
moderate add 20Y 11
great add 40Y 11
too magenta slight add 10M 12
moderate add 20M 14
great add 40M 15
* Based on an original exposure time of 10 seconds
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