[LargeFormat] home processing of film

[mark blackman]

If you've processed film before,(in smaller formats) then it's not such
a jump from B&W to E6. If you haven't, I would caution against it
initially.

B&W can pretty well be done in your kitchen (so long as it can be made
light-tight) all you need are 3 containers large enough to hold the film
e.g. soup plates, Woks, empty ice-cream cartons etc.

Moving up, day-light processing tanks are available new or on-line, load
the film up in your changing bag and you can do the rest watching telly.

You will also need an accurate thermometer to make sure the chemicals
are at 20 C. Unless the kitchen is particularly warmer or colder than
this you wont need to worry about temperature control, even then, with
B&W you'll soon learn how to alter times for your own work flow.

E6 is much more fussy, you need to be able to keep the film and
chemicals at a steady 30 C during processing. Hence the use of jobo
processors etc which use a heated water bath which maintains a pre-set
temperature. 

Try out B&W first (shoot a few photos of the cat, the scene through your
bedroom window, your mates down the pub) to see if it's right for you. 

There's nothing particularly wonderful about being able to process your
own film - a reliable lab can do the work for you and handle special
processing instructions (n-1, n+2 etc). You may decide that you rather
spend what spare time you have doing other things rather than sloshing
smelly chemicals around in the dark.



>
>
> DigitallyScenic Photographer wrote:
>
>
>> Thanks Leigh - I think that is the way I'm going to go with B&W.  
>> Looks like the E-6 stuff will be travelling to Australia! No-one  
>> else has trouble with the sheet film buckling? I assume it's  
>> because the lab is drying it too hot or drying it hanging......
>>
>
>
> Or someone is stuffing the film into a film holder or hanger with  
> big clumsy paws, and bending it too much in the process.  It  
> doesn't make sense to me that it could be damaged like that during  
> drying, although I am not exactly certain what you mean by "buckling".
>
> Are you sure it isn't you, bending it while loading (or even  
> unloading) your film holders?
>
> Leigh
>
>
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