Developing film strips

    Film requires a lot of knowledge and skill. There are many rules and processes involved with getting the perfect picture. In this blog, I will talk about the next step in the process. The next step is developing your rolled film strip, so that it is ready to go to the dark room. 

    After your film has been rolled around the small metal wheel, it is ready to be developed chemically. If you followed the last steps correctly, your film should be in  metal can rolled neatly inside. You take your can to the developing sink and begin to follow the directions. The directions are simple and easy to memorize. 

      You first fill your can with water and shake your can in a sideways motion for one minute. After emptying your can, you fill it with a chemical called developer. This makes your photos show on the strips of film. You shake your can with the developer for 7 minutes. After each minute, you set your can in the sink and wait ten seconds to continue the minute. After you are done with this process, you fill your tank with water 3 times and shake your can 5 times, 10 times and 20 times. This washes off excess developer.  After pouring out the water, you are ready to use a chemical called fixer. This makes sure the photos on the film strip are perminate. You pour the developer into the can and follow the same procedure as the developer. You do this for five minutes. When this is done, you fill the tank with water and shake for 5, 10, and 20 times. When the water is poured out , you can open the can and take out the rolled film. You drop your developed film into a bucket of chemicals called Photo Flo.  After 30 seconds, you take it out and hang your film in the drier to dry. 

Developing process/rolling film

    Before printing out a photograph, you have to know the many processes involved with black and white film photography.  There are many rules and steps needed in order to create a beautiful photo. Before you take your negative film strips to the dark room, you have to develop them first. I will describe the steps to the first part of the developing process. 

    First, you need to roll your film. You get a black film bag,a metal rolling wheel, a film openener, and a small metal can. You insert these items into the sealed black bag, which looks like a small backpack. You put your arms through the slots on the side of the bag. These slots allow you to roll your film around the wheel and seal it in the metal can without exposing any film to light. after your arms are in the bag , you feel for your film and start rolling it around the wheel. Your film should slide easily between the two metal plates of the wheel. After you have finished, you put the wheel with the film wrapped around it, in the can. You seal the cam with a plastic lid and take it out of the bag. You are now ready to use chemicals to develop your film, so it can be printed in the dark room later on. 

The dark room

I have decided to talk about the dark room for this blog. The dark room is an interesting place where creativity comes to life. The dark room is the place that photographs get printed after they have been developed. The dark room is painted black and has no lighting except for a photo safe light that allows people printing photos to see what they are doing. In the dark room, there are many odd looking machines called enlargers. They hold the strips of developed negative film and project the images on the film strips onto photo sensitive paper. This exposes the photo paper to light, darkening the areas the light hits, printing out the photograph. Photo paper darkens when exposed to light. You can adjust the knobs on the side of the machine to enlarge the picture or shrink it. You can also set a timer for how many minutes you want your picture to be exposed. The exposure time depends on the conditions in which the photograph was taken. Photographs taken in bright light need a longer exposure time than photographs taken in a low light setting.  After the picture is successfully exposed, it is dropped in multiple chemicals that make the exposed areas of the phot paper show. The paper begins to darken after a minute of being in the chemicals, and the image appears. The image is then rinsed off with clean water and placed in a drier for one minute. The unique processes are one of my favorite parts about photgaphy. The dark room continues to amaze me.  

Photo ideas

  For my next set of photos, I plan to do something different. I want to take photos of the human body, but add different effects that make my photos unique. I need more ideas to keep my project going. If you have any ideas, please let me know in the comments below. 

  I am planning to use one peice leotards that match with the model's skin color. I love ballet and will have models do ballet poses to show the muscles in the body, especially the legs. I might use my digital camera so the photos will be in color. This will allow me to use different color backgrounds that contrast with the color of the model's leotard. For the backgrounds, I will use cardboard science fair posters. When opened up, these always show the best and create a lot of color that make the photos pop. Black posters are the best for black and white photos with a film camera. My film camera has been giving me problems, which I am getting tired of. I am looking for a good film camera. Hope you enjoy my new photos.