I dabble in analog photography. Using (and fixing) old camera gear, developing film, and printing. Both color and black and white. I am an amateur, I barely know what I am doing. But I took some notes that may be marginally useful.
These pages are direct copy of files form my Obsidian vault, and may not be formatted in the ideal manner. Sorry about this.
Black and White developers
These are just a relatively sparse list of developers I have used for black and white film.
Rodinal (from Labo-Argentique)
High acutance, my mainly used so far, generally at 1+25 to 1+50. Reveal grain
Used 2 times to do semi-stand at 1+100, agitate 1 minute, stand 30 minutes, 4 inversions, then 30 minutes of stand again.
When developing Ilford Delta 3200, it is better to push development time one extra stop when using the time form Massive Dev chart to get a more contrasted/denser negative that is easier to scan.
C41 Developer depletion
After getting bad results from one development session and not being sure why, I decided that every C41 development should be logged
Film surface area
The best kit I can get for C41 color chemistry is the Bellini one. It is a kit for 16 rolls of 24 exposures as per its datasheet.
Because the lifetime of the bleach, fixer, and stabilizer is higher than the developer, you can also purchase the developer part separately on the Bellini kit to “recharge” it. Everything here is talking about one bottle of the developer specifically, and not specifically the lifetime of one kit
Caffenol experiment
Those are attempts at developing film with Caffenol
First roll, Fomapan 100 from Flexaret (test) 2024-09-08
This is a roll of film that I knew was damaged by the camera (rollers for 35mm film dug into the emulsion and backing paper. I fixed it since)
Tried to develop it in Caffenol’s- main recipe
- Sodium Carbonate 54 g
- Vitamin C 16g
- Instant coffee (Belle France, store brand) 40g
- tap water to 1L
I think temperature was around 24 degrees, but I proceeded as if it was 20 degrees.
Negative scans and inversion
I scan all my film myself using a DSLR. I am currently waiting on a Copy stand. used contraption I 3d printed in the past, but recently got an Essential Film Holder.
I attempt to expose the histogram to the right to get the most information possible in the shadows.
I align the camera with the film by looking at a mirror though the camera and trying to have the center of the lens in the center of the
Printing hardware
Easel
L P L 21 x 26 cm
Max paper size usable on this thing is 20x25 (8"x10"), there is a screws on the back to set the offset of the top left corner for the margins. Sadly it is not graduated in any way so you cannot easily set it to half an inch…
Note: Base is magnetic, so it should be possible to use Paterson marginless magnetic holders, if those are any good?
RA-4 paper development
So far, I only have done a couple of sessions of color printing, and I am unsure what I am doing is best or advisable, but so far has been mostly successful
The Bellini kit is for 5L. though I prepared only what was needed for 1L of each (beside the stabilizer)
I store all chemicals in collapsible bottles so they do not contain air, to limit oxidation.
The stabilizer should be used “fresh” for each 1 minute wash step, so I dump it every single time I use it.