Ok, so you've shot a roll of film, first thing you do is get the film into your dev tank. You can either find a room and make it light proof (bathrooms are good for that) or use a changing bag. You then transfer the film onto a reel, which you place into the dev tank (there are vids on youtube on how to do that, search how to load a dev tank). You close the dev tank, and now you can move out into the light (yay!).
Next you prepare your chemicals - personally I use a liquid concentrate developer so I don't have to mix a powder and store it. You just mix this with a specified amount of water (for example Rodinal is mixed at 1:50 or 1:100, so 1 part rodinal, 100 parts water) - just mix up whatever you need for that session. Next up is stop bath, which stops the film from developing further on. Again, it's a concentrate you have to dilute to get a solution you can use (peeps call this a working solution, this term is used for dev, stop and fix). You don't need a stop bath as you can just run the film under some water for a few minutes to rinse the dev off. Next up is fixer, which stops the film from being light sensitive. Again, dilute it to a working solution. Finally you have a wetting agent, which isn't needed but it helps your film dry without any drying marks. A drop or two of some washing up liquid will do the job, but I just use the proper stuff as it lasts an eternity, and I don't want whatever additives Fairy put in their stuff to mess up my negs.
Ok, onto the process itself:
First of all, you need to determine how long you have to develop your film for. It's different for each film+developer combo. To find that out, just google 'massive dev chart' which will give you times for many film+dev combos. You'll notice that there are different ISO speeds from what it says on your film. For example, if you use ISO400 film, but need the speed of an 800 film, you expose as if you're shooting at 800. This means that when developing, you need to add extra time to compensate for the underexposure. That is called push processing. You can also overexpose a film on purpose (say, shooting a ISO100 film at ISO50), that's pull processing.
Next is the temperature of the chemicals, which is usually 20C so room temp is fine.
1) Your first jug will have the working solution developer in it. Pour that into your dev tank, put the lid on it and start your timer. You have to agitate the tank (basically invert it) for the first 30 seconds and then for 10 seconds after each minute has passed. Once you've reached the required dev time, tip the dev solution out. You can reuse it but you'll have to compensate for that by developing longer.
2) Next, you have to stop the film from developing further. I don't use stop bath, I just fill up the tank with water and tip it out 3-4 times, then let it run under a tap for a minute or two. Does the job.
3) After that, pour in the fixer and do the agitate thing (first 30 secs, then 10 secs every min). Do this for about 5 mins. Pour the fixer back into your jug (and then into your storage bottle) as you can re use that. Eventually it gets knackered, to test if it is drop a small piece of the film leader in it, if it takes longer than 3 mins for the piece of film to turn clear then dump that and mix up a new batch.
4) Finally, fill your tank with water, add in a drop (yes, just a drop) of wetting agent, agitate for about 30 sec. Dump that in the sink.
The four steps take about 20mins. Maybe even less.
Open up your tank, and take your developed negatives out (it's almost magical when you see the negs for the first time). Hang them up to dry somewhere. After they're dry (takes like a night), cut them into strips of six frames and put them into storage sleeves. From there you can either go to a darkroom and print them, or scan them in with a film scanner.
Anyway, to summarise, here's what you need equipment wise:
- Scissors
- Bottle opener
- Gloves (you may be allergic, also fixer stinks)
- Somewhere completely dark or a changing bag
- A dev tank with developing reels
- 3x jugs, one for dev, one for fixer, one for stop (if you want to use it)
- 3x 1L bottles for the chems mentioned above
- Thermometer (just to make sure)
- A timer
Here's what you need chemical wise (with recommendations):
- Developer
Rodinal, you can dilute it so it lasts for loads of rolls. D-76, which is a powder is also pretty cheap, XTOL, which is also a powder but only comes in 5L sachets, HC110 which is a liquid much like rodinal. All developers have their own characteristics. It's best you settle on one initially (D76 is a good starting point, Ilford's ID11 is an equivalent too)
- Fixer (I use Ilford Rapid Fixer, tbh the brand doesn't matter)
- Wetting Agent (Ilford Hypam, again brand doesn't matter, you can use unscented washing up liquid if you want)
After you dev, you need:
- Clothes pegs to hang your film up
- Storage sheets. You can get about 25 or something for a fiver.
Here are links to where you can buy:
http://www.silverprint.co.uk/
(London based)
http://www.ag-photographic.co.uk/
However, it's best to be patient and watch ebay/gumtree for people wanting to dump their darkroom stuff. Buying new is expensive (when I was looking it would've been £120!), but I got everything including some chemicals for £50. The equipment will last me forever. As for overall cost last time I worked it out it was something like 20p per roll to develop (i'm excluding equipment). You can get a roll of b/w film for 2.60, so it works out to 10p per shot. Of course the storage sheets are pretty expensive, but I bet you could find some plastic wallets and use tape to hold the strips in place.
