Contents Introduction Reference Books Tanks Chemicals and Jugs Miscellaneous items for Film processing [Thank you to everyone who contributed-J.A.O.] Editor's Note: The initial step of an exciting process of experimentation and creativity--developing and printing your own photographs--starts with the mundane task of populating it with the right tools. Many beginners want to know what they need to get started. J. A. Ollinger's tutorial offers valuable information, based on personal experience, to help you make those important first decisions. This is a long file...but worth it!

A Beginner's Guide to Darkroom Equipment by J A Ollinger A darkroom is just that--a light-tight area where film can be handled without being exposed to light. It can be as large as a suite of rooms, or as small as changing bag. For a hobbyist it's usually a converted bathroom, basement, closet, or an add-on room. There are a number of books on building home darkrooms, from spartan, temporary work areas to big, permanent setups. A good library or bookstore ought to have them. What do you put inside your darkroom once it's built? Read on. Reference books Get a book on darkroom procedures. You don't need a thick textbook. A lot of people on rec.photo.darkroom recommend the Ansel Adams books. They're great books, not quite appropriate for beginners. They're thick, they're dense, and they're intimidating. They are very well written and useful, but better suited for people who are comfortable with developing and printing first. Kodak makes a book called BASIC DEVELOPING, PRINTING, ENLARGING IN BLACK & WHITE (they also make one for color) that I highly recommend. It was the book I started with and it was very handy. It is clearly written, heavily illustrated, and easy to follow. Film Processing Tanks Roll film (35mm, 120, etc.) is almost always developed in "daylight tanks." A daylight tank is light-tight: the film is loaded onto a reel in the dark, then the reel is placed in the tank, the cap is put on, and then the rest of the work can be done in daylight without fear of ruining the film. (The kind of tanks that are not light-tight have no caps, and they're used for developing sheet film on hangars). The film gets wound onto a reel in a spiral so that the film surfaces don't touch. This allows the chemicals to cover all of the film surface. Visit a photo specialty store that carries darkroom equipment and you'll probably notice a number of different makes and styles of tanks. You can easily divide these into two kinds--stainless steel and plastic. Each has its advantages and disadvantages. Stainless steel: The best thing about these is that they're durable. You can drop them on the floor and they won't break (although some might dent), whereas plastic may crack, chip, or splinter. Even if you take good care of plastic it can still break just from use--but unless you're Dennis the Menace you probably won't hurt the steel tanks. Steel tanks also conduct heat well, useful when you're trying to control the chemical temperature. There are problems with steel tanks, though. First, if you get the kind of tank with a steel cap, the cap may freeze on and become hard to remove. A lot of steel tanks have plastic lids which come off easily. Unfortunately, plastic lids aren't as durable as steel. Some people have difficulty winding the film onto steel reels. It takes good coordination. Remember, you're loading film in pitch black! And if you drop a reel, it won't break, but it may get knocked askew, which will make it much harder to load film properly. Steel reels come in single-sizes--such as 35mm, 120, etc. You need at least one reel to handle each film size you plan to develop. It used to be that there were a lot of oddball sizes--35mm, 120, 616, 127, 110, and the like. But thankfully (for our purposes) most have been discontinued, and it's just down to 35mm and 120. We do not no if there will be a black and white APS film. If there is, it will require a new reel size. On the subject of reels--the thing I've found with stainless is that they reels and tanks seem to be interchangeable. You can grab Acme's reel and put it in a Smith-Jones tank. Plastic tanks and reels Plastic tanks and are very different. First, they tend to be "systems" and they're all incompatible. If you buy a Patterson tank you'll need Patterson reels. If you get a Jobo tank you'll need Jobo reels, etc. Plastic units, particularly the big brands (Patterson and Jobo) can get pricey, too. This is a lot like buying into a camera system--if you lay out much money, you're going to be committed into the manufacturer's system for awhile, and you'll have to look to that manufacturer for whatever parts and accessories you may need. David Josephson (david@josephson.com) adds: Plastic reels must be dry before you load the film,otherwise the film will stick, and you don't know this until after you've tried to get it in (in the dark) and it won't go. Metal reels can be loaded while damp. There are some nice things about them, though. The reels may have aids to make loading the film easier. The reels may be adjustable, so that you can make one reel handle both 35mm and 120 film, and that old 127 that was in Uncle Oscar's baby Rolleiflex when he died. Plastic tanks may also have larger, easier to open tops, they may fit special agitation motors, and they may even fit into special water-jackets (for temperature control) and processors. A good plastic tank and reels may be worthwhile if you can afford them. Some things to look for in a tank, no matter what you end up getting: Durability. If you do much developing at all, you're going to be putting some wear and tear on your tank, and it's going to do you no good at all if it breaks and leaks chemistry or light at a critical time. Pay particular attention to the top--how does it go on and off? Does it look like anything could get caught and snapped off if you don't put the top on correctly? How many pieces does it have? A good tank is going to be easy to assemble, because you're going to have to put it together in the dark. Some tanks look like puzzles. Beware of anything that requires parts to be seated in a proper position because it'll probably be a pain. Beware of anything that has more than a couple of parts to put in. Beware of anything that looks like it might break, go down the drain, or disappear easily. Practice loading the tank (with your eyes closed) at the store before you buy it. How much chemistry does this thing need? You may be surprised at the difference in fluid requirements for different tanks to process the same roll of film. A stainless steel tank typically requires 8 ounces for one 35mm roll of film, and 16 ounces for two 35mm rolls or one 120 roll. But a plastic tank may require 9, 10 or more ounces per 35mm reel. This may seem negligible, but if you're running one-shot development (i.e. you're dumping the developer after one use), the extra few ounces add up quickly. If it takes more than, say, 18-20 ounces to fill up a two-35mm reel plastic tank, start asking yourself if it's really a good tank or is it bad engineering? Do the reels load easily? This is important. You have to load reels in the dark--not easy for a novice. Many reels have gimmicks to simplify loading. If you can, try and load the reel at the store--either with a roll of film they had laying around or from a roll you brought in yourself. This is particularly useful if they have more than one kind of reel and you don't know which one works better. What kind of agitation method does it use? Agitation is where you stir up the chemical inside the tank and keep the chemical reactions going evenly and smoothly. There are, generally, three ways to do this.   Inversion. Cap the tank, pick it up, turn it upside down and then right-side up again to agitate it. Good part: this is the tried-and-true method of agitation and it works pretty well. The bad part: if the tank isn't well sealed, the chemicals may leak when it's inverted. Spinning by a spindle. A spindle is attached to the reel and it sticks up where you can grab it and spin it for a certain number of seconds. Good part: no flipping over, no leaking. Bad part: a) film may walk off the reel and get stuck to the side of the tank; and b) the agitation isn't that effective--some find that the edges of the film develop more than the center using the spin technique. Spinning by motor. In this case, a watertight cap is placed on the top, then the tank is set sideways onto a motorized base, which rolls the tank. This is a nice, hands-free operation, but the motorized bases seem expensive to me. I don't know if they suffer from the same uneven development problems as spindle-spin tanks. Andrew Golden (agolden@cyberramp.net) suggests: Find a store that sells rock polishing kits with the automatic rock tumblers. The tumblers work using a tank similar to that for developing 2 reels of film. Place the tank on its side on the tumbler and it will spin itself similar to the method described [above]. It works for me and I have a 6 year old $20 rock tumbler! If you do decide to use a motor with constant agitation (as opposed to intermittant agitation), remember to cut the development time down. Constant agitation increases the action of the developer and will cause overdevelopment if the developing time isn't cut. II. Chemicals and jugs. Powder vs. liquid concentrate. Darkroom chemicals usually come packaged either as a powder or a concentrated liquid. Powders tend to be less expensive and bulky, but some of the powder can become airborne during mixing, so it's best to mix chemicals (particularly powders) in a well ventilated area. They also dissolve more slowly in water. Many chemicals come in liquid form. They mix easily and don't cloud the air the way powders do. Some liquids--Kodak's Indicator Stop Bath, for example--can be mixed up in whatever quantity is needed. Storage. Darkroom chemicals have to be stored in bottles or jugs when they're not in use. In B&W; work, all except developers can be kept in any decent bottle. I recommend plastic over glass, as plastic won't shatter if it's dropped. This can be very important with darkroom work--not only are you going to be handling bottles, but you'll be doing so when your hands and the bottles may be wet, in the dark. Some darkroom chemicals (some developers for instance) are extra-slippery. Developers have two special concerns that may affect the choice of container: First is that they're light-sensitive, so it's best to keep them in dark-colored or opaque containers (unless the bottles are going to be stored in a dark place most of the time). Second is that developers leach oxygen--that's what they're doing with the film--and they're more than happy to get it from the oxygen in the air when nothing else is going on, which means the developer will go bad just sitting on the shelf. All chemical s have shelf-lives, but developers are particularly short. There are a variety of ways to slow down this process. One way is to store a batch of developer in small bottles--pints work well. Fill all the bottles full so there's a minimum of air in each one, and then just open a bottle as you need it. One container I've seen has a floating lid and a spigot to draw fluid off from the bottom. (Possibly a carboi, used for making Beer-Ed.) The great thing about it is that it keeps almost all the air out with no hassles, it's easy to refill, and it's easy to see the fluid level. The problem is that the only one I've seen was far too big (five gallons or so), heavy and pricey. There is a line of plastic containers called Air-Evac. They fold up like bellows so that they can collapse down until the fluid level is even with the top, and then you just screw the lid down. I've avoided them because they always looked like they'd squirt out of my hands while I was trying to put the cap on and I'd end up with chemicals all over. They also don't terribly easy to hold while pouring, either. Then there's the cube. You fill a clear plastic bag up with chemical, put on the rubber spigot, then stuff it down into a cardboard box with a hole cut out in front for the spigot to stick out. I used to like these things because a) they set nicely on the shelf, b) they looked professional when they were sitting on a row next to each other, and c) it was easy to draw chemicals from the spigots. But the boxes got soft and didn't hold the liquid bags very well. The spigots started to drip. Fluid level was hard to see. The bags were tough to clean. Too bad. Aegular brown bottle is best. Hint: I take a deep breath, hold it as long as I can, and then gently exhale it into the bottle. Then I screw the cap on. The carbon dioxide replaces the free-oxygen in the air and the developer doesn't seem to go bad from it. C. Stop baths. The stop bath is really a step, not a chemical. It halts the action of the developer by lowering the PH of the residual developer on the film below the working threshold. Once the PH drops below a certain level, the developer stops working. If you want to save money and you have a lot of water, you can use water to do it. Water has a PH of 7, so it's not very efficient. If you use water for film, fill the film tank up with fresh water, agitate it for a minute, and then dump it. For B&W; prints, try running water for a couple minutes. The most common stop bath is acetic acid, which has a PH of around 3. That makes it very efficient and it saves a lot of water. I suggest getting Indicator Stop Bath, which has a chemical that turns color when the PH level gets too high. Kodak's Indica tor Stop Bath is normally orange under room light and clear under the safelight. When it's spent it turns purple under room light and looks dark under the safelight. Photo stores sell acetic acid in concentrate form, often in two strengths--28% and glacial (98%). Glacial is this cheapest by bulk because a pint of it makes a huge amount of working stop bath. For home darkroom use, 28% is a better buy, and is much safer. One pint of 28% makes a lot of working stop bath, and working stop bath lasts a long time in B&W; work. D. Fixer Fixer is the last major step for B&W; work. There are several different kinds of fixers available. For beginners I recommend plain old fixer, as opposed to Rapid Fixer and non-hardening fixers and the like. I also recommend (for beginners) using a one -bath process. Once you get to where you're making prints you are really happy with and want to keep them, then look into a two-bath system. I also recommend (for beginners) using a one-bath process. Once you get to where you're making prints you are really happy with and want to keep them, then look into a two-bath system. Misc. items for developing film. Fixer Test Solution: Edwal makes a fixer test solution in a small bottle. You put a couple drops in the fixer and if a precipitate forms, the fixer is spent. It's a decent investment. Hypo Clearing Agent: a lot of people use a hypo-clearing agent, which efficiently gets rid of the fixer on the print and cuts down the wash time. Fixer used to be "hypo," back when the main ingredient, sodium thiosulfate, was called sodium hyposulfate. Thus the name "hypo-c lear." Wetting Agent: another useful item is a wetting agent (Kodak's version is called "Photo Flo.") The wetting agent reduces the surface tension of the water on the film, and makes it much easier to squeegee it off when you dry the film. This cuts down the chance of getting water spots. Changing Bags: these are can be very useful. A changing bag is a large, light-tight bag that looks kind of light a coat that was sewn shut. One puts the film and the developing tank into the bag and zips it shut, and then puts his hands into each of the armholes. You can then open the film inside the changing bag and load it into the tank. These are very convenient for people who don't have a regular darkroom.   Go to Part II || Back to Top