Hi all!
So would anyone be interested in a bit of vintage photography processing in a few weeks? I’ll bring a Patterson tank and some b&w chemicals if anyone can get their hands on distilled water.
Need to work out a way to keep the negatives clean whilst they dry. Any ideas anyone?
Whats this fancy distilled water you want… ?
I’d be interested. 
If you really want distilled water, any petrol station will sell you a gallon of it for topping up batteries, but is it really so important that it’s that pure?
Any pharmacy will also sell distilled water.
Hi I’d love to have a go at some photo processing. I learnt how to develop black & white photos about um 20 years ago and did quite a bit one summer but haven’t done it since. I think I used to just peg the strip of negatives to a string across the room and leave them hanging until they were dry. You could probably do that at the end of the snug and nobody would brush past them.
My girlfriend is a film photographer and we have a darkroom so I have some experience of this stuff being around it so much. Drying is as simple as 2 pegs per negative roll. One to hang it and one for weight to prevent curl while drying. A good squeegee of the neg before it is hung is invaluable. You can do it between your fingers pretty effectively. The real issue you will face is dust particulates in the air. Negatives when wet are really tacky and stuff sticks to them like crazy. Otherwise the process for black and white film development is pretty straightforward. You can do some fun stuff with temperature and different chemistry to get differences in contrast and black point.
Make a quick drying cabinet out Of mdf .
I have all the equipment for a darkroom .
When i was doing a lot of photographic prosesing i just used tap water
Remember to put a clip on the bottom
Morisns do very cheap RO watter
Where are you going to do it ? Do you have a bag
What she said…
I would be interested in developing film. What find of film? I 3D printed a pin hole camera last year, have taken some photos with it but I think the next stage is to develop my own film.
Ilford products are still available. In a pinhole camera i would go with pan-f and pull proses it . I think id-11 can do that .
In my experience stick to Ilford as they seem to be stll around . Pattinson universal developer always work well and if memory serves me right it can pull film as well.
I seem to remember perseptol was the best at pulling.
This is all for memory but if you are interested i can bring down some film and darkroom handbooks if i can find them.
I have a Philips enlarger that i am happy to donate to the space . Its a colour defused type great for multi grade but not as eye watering sharp as a big condenser if i remember right it has a rodanstock lens so its right up there
Hi All,
Sorry for the delay. Took a while to get my chemicals out of my cupboard.
I still seem to be one changing bag and a squiggiee short. Would anyone have some I could borrow?
Might look into building a drying cabinet. Sounds easy enough.
Anyone for a photo evening two weeks from now or so? How’s Saturday 28th? Personally I’m an Ilford person- anyone experienced with anything else want to share some tips?
Best,
Rory
Sure, but bare in mind the decision not to dedicate space to a dark room.
That’s fine- dark rooms are only needed for the printing. We can use changing bags/cabinets for the darkness.