Film Processing

Today we went back to the films which we shot at the barbican a few weeks ago. We started by going through the equipment we would need to process the film before we could develop. This included scissors, a thermometer and the developing tank. Inside the tank is a selection of parts including the main tank body, a lid, a funnel, a spiral and a spindle. To process the film, you have to go into a pitch black room with only the selection of objects needed to process the film. To do this we needed to get the film canister and pull a small amount out cutting it into a tie/triangle shape. Once this was done we needed to use the spiral and turn it so it ended up collecting the reel of film onto the spiral. As soon as the full film was around the spiral, we had to place it inside the tank with all of the other tank parts going in on top of it also so that it wasn't exposed to light.

To follow this, we needed to mix the chemistry so that we could create our negatives. There are 5 main steps when doing this which I’ll go through now.

1. Developer – The first step is to mix the developer which goes with the film we were using. We had to mix 150ml water with 150ml developer, as well as getting the correct ratio we also needed to get the correct temperature needed for it to activate and work properly. Once this chemistry was made up, we put it in the dev tank, agitating it every minute for 13 minutes. As soon as the 13 minutes we up, we emptied the tank ready for the next step.

2. Stop – The stop does exactly what it says on the tin – stops – instead of letting any remaining developer continue working, it neutralises the film so that it can no longer be developed into negatives. This process includes 300ml of stop going into the tank and being agitated for 30 seconds.

3. Fix – The fix is what enables you to take the film strip from inside the tank out into normal lighting. It works by making the film no longer sensitive to light and fixing all of the light and dark where it is.

4. Wash – The fourth step is a simple water wash to get rid of any chemistry left behind. To do this, I simply places the spiral with the wound film into the wash sink - which has constant water being flushed through - for 20 minutes.

1. Dry – The last step is letting the film strip dry for however long is needed. I left the filmstrip I was working with in the dry cabinet for 40 minutes as I can’t go any further in any process with a wet film strip.

All in all, I enjoyed learning about film processing as it now enables me to use it for my own work if I so wish to do so. It has definitely opened up my eyes as it makes you think of the times when all photography was film based and they had no digital options. At this stage I still prefer working digitally as I love working in Photoshop but I guess I’ll see if that changes when developing contact sheets!