First ever film developed and now the wait for it to dry!

Ellie Jones

Ellie Jones

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I've been practicing for a week or so now, with an old real of film to art of getting it loaded on to the spool in the dark or my case a black out bag....

So today I picked the courage up to actually sort out my first film... Read the instruction, reread the instruction, and just to make sure reread the instructions several more times....

First I decided before anything else I would load the film into the tank.... prior to making up the various chemicals hrmm

First issue I had was when I took the film out of the camera, I accidentally rewind it all back into the film canister.... Oh dear, I hadn't practiced cutting lead film nor cutting the corners off in the dark hrmm,..

But still ventured forward, leap of faith I'll manage somehow in the black out bag, I kinda did, and 2 hours later showing some real dedicated patience, I finally managed to wind the film onto the spool, into the dev tank lids on.. Phew by this stage I'm getting a tad hot... I did my best only touch the edge of the film, not easy and may have finger prints over the first shot...

Again prior to mixing my chemicals, I read the instructions several more times (Ikea would be impressed) and off I went, hopefully I did time myself and the inversing of the tank correctly...

The film is now hanging in the bathroom to dry.. I used a wetting agent and a squeegy thing to get most of the water off...

Couple of issues, being female of average height, I don't have A, long arms to easily squeegy the film ermm, And trying to get the hook on to the hanging point, I so do need some steps...

Well, all I can say from a quick look at the negatives, there are photographs there... Couple frames look a bit dodgy at one end of the film, might be I under exposed when I took them perhaps a scan will show if it's a camera user issue or developing issue..

How long does the film take to dry before I can, start scanning my efforts?

P.S

I'm really feel that I've achieved something just getting the developing done, but if I get one or two decent photographs, I be ecstatic Indeed,, I will post some of my results as soon as I've got them scanned onto my computer
 
In reverse order

In hot summer film can be dry in an hour - this time of year leave it at least 6 hours. You can see the surface getting dull then shiny again. As I usually do mine in an evening I leave them overnight.

Find someone you don't like to give the squegee to.

Opinions vary but unless it is cleaner than an Andrex advert it will scratch your film. Wetting agent normally is good enough if you have soft water or used distilled for final rinse. If not soft or distilled then need to shake off excess to prevent drying marks. If you have my arm length can just do that by holding both ends of film and giving a whip like flick or two. However sounds like that could be a problem with a 36 exposure. If you leave it on the spiral for final rinse (which I don't) can just give that a good shake. There can be a problem with that as the wetting agent residue can make it hard to get film onto spiral after a while and cleaning them is a pain.

Getting a rewound film leader out of cassette - there are tools you can get or you can save a length of scrap film (oddly I always seem to have some) lick the emulsion side and stuff into the cassette and it will stick to the film inside and you can pull it out, other folks use sticky tape.

Hope to see the results soon.
 
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Could tell straight away you weren't a male photographer when reading this post, what's with all this reading the instructions lark, hope they dry up nice, if you live in a hard water area you might find it causes a small problem, in which case you could always do a final wash in "soft" water, demineralized stuff from Halfords, garages etc.
 
@MatBin I not normally that pedantic with reading manuals, normally it's a case of a quick flick through, then hit individual sections when I get stuck...

The film been hanging now for a couple of hours, and the bathroom gets the sun all day (which we've had some between the showers) and it now hanging straight as a die, hopefully I be able to take it down before hubby needs his bath when he gets in from work tonight..

I will check the photo's, see if there's any watermarks left, we're haven't got particularly hard water but never know, and I do need to check if the squeegee has any impact, I did wonder about this..

But will get photo's up as soon as possible, mind you it's one thing developing but a totally something else taking them :)
 
I put a squeegee in a cup of water when I start so it's used wet. Quick flick to get rid of any excess and we're good to go. For me, it's better than just a drip dry (I use wetting agent).

Ellie Jones said:
I'm really feel that I've achieved something just getting the developing done
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Yep. It's a great feeling. Problem is that for me, pressing a digital shutter feels meaningless now..

Congrats on your achievement. Hope to see something in "Show Us Yer Film Shots" shortly :)
 
Well done, depends how impatient you are, I'm pretty impatient and usually scan when the negative no longer fells sticky to the touch (I am so eager I have had negs stick to the scanner glass but wouldn't recommend that). I'm sure it's better to let them harden for longer to reduce the risk of dust sticking and damage. At this time of years it's probably about 3-4 hours.

It's the third or fourth roll you have to be careful with, the first couple I think people are paying close attention, by number 3 or 4 it's starting to feel a bit easier and that's when people (me at least) tend to take their eye off the ball and forget something, put the wrong chemical in first, etc.
 
Ellie Jones said:
First issue I had was when I took the film out of the camera, I accidentally rewind it all back into the film canister.... Oh dear, I hadn't practiced cutting lead film nor cutting the corners off in the dark hrmm,..

But still ventured forward, leap of faith I'll manage somehow in the black out bag, I kinda did, and 2 hours later showing some real dedicated patience, I finally managed to wind the film onto the spool, into the dev tank lids on.. Phew by this stage I'm getting a tad hot... I did my best only touch the edge of the film, not easy and may have finger prints over the first shot...
Click to expand...
If your camera has auto rewind, there might be a setting in the menu that stops the rewind with the leader still out. Manual rewind is just stopping quickly when you feel the rewind going slack. It's possible to trim the leader and start the film on the reel before shutting the bag, although you might lose one frame. See photo, and carry on regardless! (y)
20180207_163606_resized.jpg
 
You can always invest in a neg drying cabinet, if they still exist, they did in the 80's. Alternatively if you are brave a low temp hair dryer can be used, watch for dust being blown into the negs though.
 
Thanks All some handy tips.

Well I've waited, and I think looking at the negatives after scanning that I must have caught the film with the scissors looking at the scratch marks on about 2 photo's, but otherwise I pleased how they turned out..

I've just heading over to put some on the show us ya photo thread, just got to upload to flicker
 
MatBin said:
You can always invest in a neg drying cabinet, if they still exist, they did in the 80's. Alternatively if you are brave a low temp hair dryer can be used, watch for dust being blown into the negs though.
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Tbh much as neg drying cabinets or other rapid drying techniques may be available, simply leaving negs in a minimal dusty enviroment ( bathrooms are usually ideal, then allowing nature to do it's stuff and dry overnight is imo the best option.
Afterall the beauty of shooting film is how it slows us down as togs ( very much so for those of us who shoot LF) so why do we need to rush at the following processes if not for work / client purposes?
Tbh I don't see how film photography and impatience ( even if only for seeing the end result) can work in harmony …...Being excited at what the final image will look like is part of the fun, and the wait, for me, adds to that excitement and even more so the pleasure when I eventually view it.
 
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If you're drying in the bathroom its often a good idea just to run the shower for a couple of minutes just to dampen down any dust in the air.
 
Peter B said:
If your camera has auto rewind, there might be a setting in the menu that stops the rewind with the leader still out. Manual rewind is just stopping quickly when you feel the rewind going slack. It's possible to trim the leader and start the film on the reel before shutting the bag, although you might lose one frame.
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I always load the first part of the film into the spiral in the light. I have never lost a frame yet. Of course, this will only work with 35mm film. with 120 you are stuck with doing it all in the dark.
 
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