My First Film – Step 3

Mixing the chemicals and actually developing the film

Follow the link below for ADOX CHS processing times:

ADOX Developing timetable.

The actual development is simple. All you need to do is concentrate on keeping everything constant all the time and keeping your gear clean.
Never do anything that might lead to one chemical mixing with the other especially not backwards in respect to the path of the processing steps.
Use always the same way of measuring the liquids, keep the temperature at 20 deg Celsius and try not to work in an environment which is much cooler or hotter so the liquids do not change temperature while they are in the tank doing things to your film.

So let´s start.

Important notice before handling the liquids:

  • avoid any contact of your eyes and skin with the chemicals.
  • always wipe off spilling as they will dry and leave the active ingredients as a powder on your floor/desk. You might inhale the powder later!
  • when mixing powder chemicals do not pour them from great height into the water avoiding a dust cloud. You can actually dip the edge with the cutoff from the powder bag below the water surface and add the chemical powder „under water“. This prevents any chemical powder from getting into your room air.
  • always keep your gear clear from pollution and never mix chemicals. Try to avoid spoiling one chemical with another upwards the way you use them (developer-> stop bath -> fixer -> wash -> wetting agent) and never spill any drops downwards (e.g. stop into the developer or wetting agent back into the next film´s developer).

1) Mix up all liquids (developer, stop bath and fixer) acording to the manufacturers recomendation. For stop and fixer make one liter of working solution each and fill them into a chemical storage bottle.
2) Bring all chemicals up to 20 deg. Celsius temperature by placing them in a hot or cold water bath.
If your room temperature is lower than 18 deg C or higher than 22 deg C fill a bucket or plastic sink with water at 20 deg C to keep the tank temperature while developing.

3) Prepare the amount of developer, stop and fixer needed to fully cover the film with liquid in a separate mixing jug.

4) Get your stop clock set to the development time you want to process the film (see also next chapter)

5) Pour in the developer as quickly as you can, close the orange lid of the tank and jam the tank 2-3 times with the bottom flat on the table in order to push up bubbles that might have formed on the film. Immediately start agitating the film.

6) 10 seconds before your time is up (or when your downcounting stopclock reaches 10 seconds) open the orange lid and get ready to pour out the developer back into the jug. 3 seconds before your time is up start pouring out the developer. Don´t panic if the developer is suddenly pink or blue. All is OK. This is the anti halation dye being washed out of your film.

7) Immediately after you have emptied the tank pour in the stopbath and start agitating the tank for 30 seconds. if you don´t have stopbath do so with tab water.
After 30 seconds pour back the stop bath in the jug.

8) Pour in the fixer. You can be relaxed now. Only the development time is critical so it is important to interrupt (stop) the development at the given time. If you had just poured out the developer and not used stop bath or at least water the film would have kept developing until it got into contact with the fixer.
Fix as recomended usually 5 minutes agitating the tank every 30 seconds. Pour back the fixer in the jug.

 

Continue with Step 4 – Drying the film