Processing black-and-white film:
A New Method for Traditional Results
This text is an outline of what my photography students do in my classes, and is an excerpt from my book "Photo 1", an iPad textbook available on iTunes at this link:
• Pre-Soak 1-3 min.
The steps are pretty simple and the chemicals are easy-to-use as long as you follow the instructions. The first thing you need to do is turn on the water and let it run for a minute so that the temperature isn't too hot or cold. Then fill up the film tank, agitate, and let it sit for the next minute or two while you mix the developer. The standard temperature to use is 20C or 68F for all your chemicals.
• Film Developer - 20-40 min.: (Mix 1:2 - one part developer to two parts water and use once. Discard after use). Agitate briefly about every five minutes.
Getting consistent results is important, so I like to use a weaker dilution of developer and only use it once and discard the mixed solution. In the past, people would sometimes use developer without mixing it with water, and use it many times. This would cause the developer to get weaker over time with somewhat unpredictable results. I prefer to use developer mixed one part developer to two parts water. This weaker dilution allows for a slower more compensated development. (I will explain compensation development in a moment.) Thus, the weaker developer can be used one time and discarded. Every time you develop film you can use developer of exactly the same dilution and consequently, the same development strength. This consistency allows for more predictable results.
Now about compensation development: When I was in high school I used to go down to the Anchorage daily news in Anchorage, Alaska, and work with the chief photographer. I was a high school student with time on Saturdays and holidays, and chief photographer was generous enough to take me under his wing. We would go out for the day and take pictures, but when we returned to the newsroom there was always a whirlwind of activity. We had to process our film quickly. We used strong developer and short times to get the film processed, dry, and proofed in about 45 min. Then we would rush out to the editor with the contact prints for him to quickly make a selection of images to be printed for tomorrow's newspaper. Time was always of the essence. Quality imaging was second to information. These photos were for tomorrow's paper and then on to the recycle bin…
At the same time, photographers like Ansel Adams, Wynn Bullock, Irving Penn, Minor White and others were more interested in fine arts photography. They were shooting with sheet film and using protracted processing methods to ensure maximum tonal quality. They would use tray development to allow the negatives to soak without agitation in a tray of water after a brief time in a tray developer. This soak time would allow the negative’s shadows to catch up with the highlights. Thus the term “compensation development.”
So,while not strictly compensation development, I started to realize that excellent results could happen with roll film if I just agitated less and let the film tank sit for long periods of time. Instead of processing the film for 8 to 12 min. I change my development time to 20 or 30 min. Agitation would happen every 5 min., but I wasn't too strict about it. The results for my students were amazing. The negatives were richer, easier to print, and possessed beautiful tonal quality. This is why the instructions I give for processing film do not follow those norm usually found in textbooks.
• Stop Bath - 1 Min.: (Do not mix, but use straight from the bottle. Do not throw it away. Save it to the original bottle when finished)
After the film developer you can throw away the developer and filled the tank with stop bath. This is a simple acidic acid solution which is very dilute. However, it is still strong enough to burn off any of the developer still in contact with the film. Development is thus “stopped”. A little agitation and at least 30 seconds in the solution will be enough for the stop bath to be effective. Stop bath often contains an indicator which means it will change color when it is no longer effective. Because of this, save the stop bath in its original bottle and do not pour it out. It can be used for quite a long time.
• Fixing - 5 min.: (do not mix, but use straight from the bottle. Do not throw away. Return it to it's original bottle when you're finished)
Fixer is a stronger chemical, but it is still dilute. The purpose of the fixer is to wash the film with an acid bath that both cleans off any unused silver from the emulsion while at the same time chemically etching the used silver into the plastic base. When you are finished with the fixer you can see your image on the film. It is finished, but you have to remove all of the acid from the film to preserve the negatives. I have a chemical called hypo check which allows me to put a drop into the bottle of fixer to see if it's still good or not. If the fixture is used up a precipitant will form and the fixer is no longer effective. Because of this, please do not throw away the fixer, but save it in the original bottle when you are done.
After the fixer, the film is light safe and the lid may be taken off the tank. You should rinse the film briefly before moving onto the next chemical. This will get rid of most of the fixer residue and allow the final chemical, hypo clear, to do it's job better.
• Hypo clear - 2 min.: (use this chemical straight from the bottle without dilution. Return to the second hypo clear bottle when you're finished.)
Hypo clear chemically neutralizes the acid in contact with the film. This is really important, because without it you can rinse for a long time and still not have perfectly clean film. With hypo clear you can move on the your final rinse and wash your film for about 5 min. and be confident that it is clean and acid-free and ready to dry.
After the hypo clear the film needs to be rinsed for 5 min. in running water. This can be under a tap in the original film tank, or you can remove the film reels from the tank and put them in a film washer. After the final rinse the film is ready to hang up and try. If there are a lot of minerals in your water you can use photo flow to clean the film before you hang it. Photo Flo is a very weak detergent that is mixed with lots of water to create a solution for the film to be dipped in before hanging. Film that has been dipped in the Photo Flo will dry clean and without water spots. Do not rinse your film after Photo Flo, just hang it up and let the water and bubbles drip off…
I have a film drying closet where the film can hang and dry without dust and dirt. If there is a lot of foot traffic around your film, you will need to find a way to isolate it in a closet or covering of some kind so that it can dry without becoming dusty. Anything that comes in contact with the emulsion side of your film while it's drying will become embedded in the emulsion and be there as a permanent flaw.
It takes about two hours for film to dry. There is a strong temptation to look at your film right away, but just wait for it to dry so it doesn’t get damaged!
On this trip I chose to shoot with a Mamiya C33 twin lens reflex camera. The camera takes 120 film, and with it you can get 12 images on a roll of film. This particular camera does not have a built-in light meter, so I used a program on my iPhone 5 called "pocket light meter". This great little application uses the meter in your phone camera to emulate a traditional handheld light meter. Even better, it will take a photograph of what you are metering and save it to your camera roll with all of the metering data attached in a sidebar. It's a little strange to use such a modern piece of technology to help make such an older piece of technology work well, but it really is a great effective use of software. There is a free version of this application, and a couple in-app opportunities to spend a little more to get rid of ads or donate to the developer. Here's a link with information about the app and a link to where the app can be downloaded from the app store:
Images created with the twin lens reflex camera also have the look of a certain era in photography. The square format with all of its edge detail unique to each camera, the slight amount of guesswork needed because of parallax (the difference in view through the top lens and photographing through the bottom), all place the images within a certain timeframe in the development of photography. Modern digital tools try to emulate that look and feel, but creating it with film and film cameras is quite special. For this series of three images I chose to print on Ilford multigrade portfolio paper with a pearl finish. For a non-fiber base paper it has remarkable depth of tone and is able to render shadow and highlight details with good separation.
I would classify these photos as "street photography", and my goal was to capture natural, normal looking "people scapes". This is a term several critics have used to describe my street photography. The idea is that the picture represents an entire scene not just a portrait or close-up. When Ansel Adams took his large 8 x 10 view camera off into the wilderness to photograph the great landscapes of nature, those were not intimate portraits of nature, a grandiose and majestic views. In some small way I hope that my landscapes of the urban environment show a majestic pride among the common and evoke the sentiment of composer Aaron Copeland's "fanfare for the common man." I want the viewer to find beauty in the everyday common experiences of the people around them, and I hope by photographing these scenes to separated them from the mundane and elevate them to visually uniqueness. When we take the time to notice the patterns built up around the normal work lives of regular people, those patterns sometimes contain beauty. Years of thought about efficiency and convenience make things the way they are, and the casual glance can never reveal what a single photograph captures for later study. Sometimes I almost feel desperate to capture the moment before it is lost! What a silly sentiment since all moments are lost except the few that we capture in the still frame. Yet even those are an interpretation. Once many years ago, in a conversation with late fashion photographer, Richard Avedon, he reminded me, "every one of your photos is a self-portrait". So these urban people-scapes are a portrait of me because I value their unique mix of complexity and simplicity, and I hope to dignify them through my choice to preserve their lives on film.
