HOW TO START SHOOTING AND DEVELOPING FILM

HOW TO START SHOOTING AND DEVELOPING FILM.

I get asked many questions on this subject so let's make a video and start with a shopping list, or at least the way I started in Film Photography.

When I first started I kept it all simple and built on it as I grew to enjoy the hobby.
In this video I mention and show the chemicals that I used to use when I needed to cut back on the spending.

Here is the list of chemicals I mention.

Rodinal or R09 Film Developer. 500ml

Fotospeed Stop Bath 1ltr

Forospeed Fixer 1ltr

Fotospeed Wash Aid (Optional)

The Point and Shoot Camera featured -
Minolta AF-TELE 60 (For 100 and 400 speed Films)

Other accessories featured I found online.

The small measuring syrenge I featured are easily found in most
good Chemists.

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Azriel Knight

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If my videos inspire, create ideas and help others in film photography and darkroom work then it's worth making them.
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Keep shooting and thanks for watching.


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[CraigPrentisPhoto]

It doesn’t matter how many times you do it, that special moment you pull the dev’d film off the reel and hang it up to dry. That first little look at what you’ve got. You don’t get that with digital. Nice one Roger and thanks for the shout out at the end.

[squirrelarch]

“You’ve gone out & shot the sh*t out of everything”. I have as well. Laughed out-loud at that.

[TristanColgate]

Changing bags are great, but one thing that it took a "pro" to tell me (seems obvious now), you can't take your arms out if you get interrupted. If you need to, you have to dump the film in the tank and close it before you do so, your arms are an integral part of the light seal.

[James-The-Hermit]

when starting out I think the biggest tip I can give is to tell friends and family and get them to tell there friends and sooner or later they will look in the loft/shed and kitchen draws and be providing you with equipment and supplies to get started.

[gameloozer]

Film cameras are so diverse. I think it pays to find a camera you like to use and that gets you out to take pictures.
I only started 9 months ago knowing nothing about photography, I started developing black and white after two months. Find a cheap film and shoot lots of it. Pick a developer and develop lots of film. Great video!

[TrashTheLens]

One additional advantage of rodinal is that, unlike most other developers, it has a virtually unlimited shelf life. So when you're just starting out and not going through lots of film, rodinal won't go bad on you from just being opened.

[johnjbh]

You have a way of conveying, what to some may be a daunting task, as a doable process. The mark of a great educator. I love your down to earth approach.

[mudgie]

I never understand why people pop off the top of a 35mm film and remove the film to mess about trying to load it onto a reel before winding it on completely in the dark. If you don't rewind the film into the canister you can actually load the film onto the reel in daylight as you have around 6-8 inches of film which has already been exposed when loading into the camera. I usually load the film onto the reel (around 3-4" of film just so the bearing catches it) then put the film and reel into developing bag and wind of the rest of the film in the dark. This for me is by far the quickest way to load 35mm film onto the reel. I've always loaded film onto the reel this way and never ever had an issue with developing. You should try it, works a treat. Great helpful video for people starting out with film.

[epstar]

I really love the grass roots approach! One could also chuck in some of the soviet cameras as a budget option for getting started, something like a Fed 2 with an industar lens. Exposure can be easily worked out with a free light meter app on iPhone / android etc. I guess it depends on how technically inclined one is.

[pwitkop]

Be careful with your fixer. If you're waiting until the film comes out milky, the previous rolls will likely have been under fixed. IIRC when the clearing time doubles (i.e. goes from 30 sec to 1 minute) it's saturated and while it'll completely clear the film, there can still be some residual silver. Best practice is to check the clearing time with the film leader that you've clipped off with fresh fix, and then every couple rolls (especially after 15-20) and when it doubles, mix fresh.


Edit, a few more things: Rodinal is great, in 35mm there'll always be grain and at least it'll be pretty. Also it's a liquid concentrate so less fiddling with stock solutions, etc. HC110 is good for similar reasons. Also stop bath is acetic acid, aka white vinegar. Stop is around a 2% dilution, white vinegar is around 3-5% so I dilute 1:4 to be on the safe side. When in doubt dilute more than less, too strong can cause the reaction to give off gas (at a high enough rate) to cause pinholes. Good advice to check on disposal regulations, developer and stop usually are fine down the drain but it depends on waste water treatment in your area. Exhausted fix is saturated with silver compounds, which are heavy metals and pretty much always require special disposal.

[arty]

I use white vinegar and water (1+3) for a stop bath. It’s hard to get cheaper than that!

[slhibbs]

My first was an olympus trip 35, some 30 years ago and i still use it. at the moment i develop at home then scan. Hopefully early next year ill have my own dark room. Thanks for the excellent videos

[stephendeakin]

Great advice. However if I were just thinking about dipping a toe in the water and seeing if black and white was for me I would recommend buying a disposable Ilford camera which can then be sent back to Ilford company to process. They then send back to you both the negatives and quality prints. That lets you see what well developed negatives should look like and the sort of prints those negatives are capable of producing.

[liamc]

Another high quality video - cheers! I will add that for people without access to a scanner or darkroom it is probably more cost-effective (in the short term) to send film off to a lab as without these two components there's no real way to do much with your negatives. Scanners can be had for less than £100, but if you have a DSLR or mirrorless camera than you can also just pick up a Macro lens and a lightbox and scan the negs into Lightroom and process them using Negative Lab Pro which may give you better results and save you a lot of time.


For me personally, I have cameras galore so I'd need to spend about £50 as you say in the video, then about £40 on macro extension tubes and a lightbox, then about £80 for NLB software. I think this is worth it as I'm a hobbyist photographer. Filmdev (a lab I use) can process & scan for about £8 per roll. From my 25th roll with this la (already cheap), I am losing money against buying the gear you listed and I added to. Well worth developing film on your own if poss even ignoring the long-term savings!


Cheers again for the video - I've been a fan for quite some time now and I'm always happy to see you pop up in my subscription feed :)

[danburrill]

My best source for film cameras is car boot sales. In the past year I've found a Yashica T4 and a Nikon L35AF for £1 each. Also found loads of other cameras, lenses (I have a Sony a6000, and mostly shoot digital with old manual focus lenses), and other equipment. About 50% of the cameras work fine, and some of the others are easy to fix, but at the price they are it's worth taking a chance.

[danem]

Analog can be as cheap or expensive as you want. You make a great point with pricing and "need to have" minimalism. I hope newcomers and recent returnees like myself don't get dissuaded by the costs, or by tutorials insisting on top-tier specialty everything. I dunno Roger, maybe I'm spoiled from the days of dirt cheap 2000s film

[ttroutindy]

I recommend looking into photographers formulary tf-4 for your fixer. It allows you to use water for your stop bath. Just a little more savings.

[sgiruc]

For shopping I am using Maco Direct or Fotoimpex usually. As I'm living in Northern Ireland shipping costs are double comparing to UK Mainland. Plus they offer pretty good prices too.

[minisla]

Got myself Nikon em, F60, F80, F75 . Very enjoyable have to start developing at home.

[freesewatches]

Great video as always, and the money saving tips are spot on. A couple of things I've learnt through experience: don't buy measuring jugs from the pound shop, they are not accurate! I use a changing bag and they are convenient, but one thing to mention is that you soon get sweaty inside them which can cause all sorts of problems! So make sure your hands are washed and cool before you go in to the changing bag. The hardest bit of loading the film is getting it to go on to the spool, with 35mm definitely put the leader on before you put the film in the bag, with 120, you just have to practice first! You can use a roll of backing paper from an old roll. Finally, using film is unlike most modern pastimes, it is not immediate, it takes time, and enjoying the process is very important, so if you're coming to film from digital be prepared to make mistakes and see them as part of the process. Hope everyone watching this great video gets inspired and congrats to Roger for helping to make this hobby as accessible as possible.