Have you ever developed your own film, as a class, or just a hobby?

I've done some B/W photography, developing and all as part of a class.

Many moons ago, but yes. Developed my own B/W film in high school and college. Do you still use those 4" wide chrome wheels? those things were a pain to load without being able to see them. the payoff was worth it though, when I got to see my latest "creation" develop before my eyes.

I did, for a high school class...back in '72. I later set up a darkroom in the spare bathroom, oh, some ten years later. A piece of plywood over the tub for my trays, and set the enlarger on the seat of the "throne". I actually miss it.

I've not had the opportunity but I'm thinking of doing a photography course at college when I am able.

I 'wet' developed radiographs (X-Rays). Does that count? =) We did all of our surgery films in the darkroom ourselves.
Man, did the "fixer" stink!

oops, double post!!

...did it? :P

No, we use plastic self-winding reels. We also use black bags, instead of reeling film in a light-safe room.

I developed all my own b & w film until colour slides became affordable. The fun bit was making the prints. I would hang black curtains over the kitchen window and put red globes into the kitchen lights and there was the darkroom. I’ve still got all the tanks, trays, enlarger etc.

It’s interesting to note that half the slides are faded or mouldy now, while all the b & w negs and prints are still perfectly useable.

Digital is great but you can’t get the smell of fixer from photoshop :-)

Ah, yes...the smell of fixer...

I loved rocking the prints in the developing tray and watching the image build up on the print. It was like a something magical was happening right in front of me.

"Digital is great but you can’t get the smell of fixer from photoshop"

On the other hand I don't miss the impossible to get out white stains. 8•P

Ah, fixer stains the photographers signature :-)

Funny, I thought developer stains were...

As long as a blue dress wasn't worn at the time..

Sorry, someone had to go there. Might as well be me..

Blue dress?

lol @ Rob… no, it was my favorite purple shirt, and a pair of black jeans, and a pair of blue ones, and a couple of years later @ work it was a pair of italian leather boots. That was when I stopped dressing up to go to work.

Did you use to be a film processor, Cat?

No, early in my career I was a typesetter, and worked on a system that required repro to be developed. Unfortunately the machine that fed the paper through the developer and fixer on auto would have the trays overturn frequently - requiring a human to open it up, stick hands in and splashes well... happened.

Since I did take Photography in high school I was not horrified and worried about harmful chemical reactions when the splash hit my boots. *sighs* I still miss that pair.

At work we processed 24” x 20” sheets of film in trays. We wore shoemaker type aprons to protect our clothes. In later years we got a processor. You fed the film into it in the darkroom and the processed film popped out in a tray in the workshop.

One morning I put 250 sheets of film into it one after another. Another guy was supposed to collect them as they emerged from the processor. When I finished he was patiently waiting for the film to emerge and wondering what was taking me so long. All the sheets were jammed in the first wash section of the processor. LOL, That machine had an amazing capacity.

sorry...24x20!? Typo!?

That’s not a typo. They were big sheets.

If this is exposed 20x24 film: Wow.

250 sheets? 250 sheets of 4x5 is over $250 if you get the cheap B&W (in todays world); but 250 24x20s must be ... a lot.

Occasionally a piece of film would miss one of the transport rollers and jam. Any film that followed jammed against the first. Normally the operator would retrieve his own film so a jam was quickly noticed and rectified. On this occasion we had two operators… It was an expensive hiccup.

One of the frustrating things is when you enlarge the photo, to remove extraneous detail...and things get grainy...

One of the frustrating things is when you enlarge the photo, to remove extraneous detail...and things get grainy...