Developing film
I first developed a roll of film in 2022. I threw myself into the deep end because I did not understand the process. I watched a few step-by-step videos and booked out all the equipment I needed. In the dark room, I had my notes and the video in the background if needed.
I would say that my first roll of film was both successful and unsuccessful. I found getting the film onto the reel very challenging. It probably took about half an hour because I was so unfamiliar. However, I managed to do it, and the rest of the process went swimmingly. Once I had dried and hung up my film, I found I had ruined around half the roll. I am still unsure what I did wrong, but it was during the loading section. The roll had gotten stuck together, so the photographs didn’t develop.
Over the next year, I used colour film, and we can’t develop colour ourselves at university. For my colour film, I used Take It Easy in Leeds. Starting the final year, I knew this would be my best opportunity to experiment with 120 mm film. As excited as I was, I didn’t feel comfortable to develop myself. It was a lot of pressure to get it right as the photographs could be used for my exhibition and final project. However, I only had one year left of uni, one year left to develop my film. I prepared myself by re-watching the videos. I prepared myself by re-watching the videos. I found that it helped to have an unused reel in front of me. If I was struggling to load to film, I would visualise what I needed to do by seeing the reel. 120 mm film is a lot harder to load. I didn’t realise this at the beginning. However, I found that it helped me when it came to developing all my 35mm film.
This time around, I didn’t come across any problems. I think this is because I took my time and I found it helpful having the reel to visualise what I can feel in the changing bag.
I’ve added a link to a short video I created during one of the sessions in the darkroom.