Developing your own filmĭeveloping and processing your own film is easy once you get the hang of it. Black & white film requires a more specialist processing service but there are plenty of options available including the Ilford Lab ( Emulsive has a growing list of labs recorded on an interactive map, which you can see here. There are many colour film processing and developing services on the high street, and most offer an additional scanning service. Consult the manufacturer’s data or forums such as the APUG, Getting films processed Consider factors such as exposure latitude (how forgiving of under or over exposure your film is), and versatility of processing. The beauty of analogue photography is that each one has its own look and characteristics, which makes the choice often one of taste. Ilford, Kodak, Fujifilm and countless smaller, independent brands still make film. This way the size is arbitrary, perfect flatness is easy, and you can stack a matt inside if you want a framed effect.If you don’t have room for your own darkroom, consider renting one. **Since the making of this tutorial I’ve found that the best/cheapest/most-flexible solution is to make a gaffer-tape-hinged plexiglass sandwhich. The print will dry flat and darken slightly.
Make 20% ferric ammonium citrate with distilled water.Make 8% potassium ferricyanide solution with distilled water.Print a negative image on the transparency with an Epson inkjet.
Darkroom soak photoflow windows#
Finally you can work in a normal subdued-light room (you should pull the shades, but you don’t need to block out the windows and tape the corners of doors!).
Darkroom soak photoflow full#
You create your own negative using Photoshop and an inkjet printer, meaning you have full control over contrast/tonal-curves/compositing/retouching. You print on any surface which will absorb liquid, so any fine art cotton paper or fabric will work.
Since it is a contact-print print-process you don’t need an enlarger, just a sheet of plexi or glass. Stains can be washed out easily before they are exposed and with some effort once exposed. In a cyanotype workroom you deal with only two relatively benign chemicals. You need to work in a nearly light-free environment with only amber photo-safe working lights and good ventilation is very important. You are limited to the type of manipulations possible in a darkroom (dodging, burning, basic compositing, and some basic tonal-curve adjustments like contrast and shoulder/foot adjustments. You need developer, stop bath, fixer, and photoflo for the film and a different developer for paper. You print only on special photographic paper the variety and availability of which is dwindling as the world moves away from film. You project the image from film through an enlarger, and enlargers are becoming harder to find/service/repair. In a traditional darkroom you deal with smelly chemicals which stain anything and everything and are often carcinogenic. Because of the chemical process it depends on cyanotypes can be done in a general purpose room and requires very little specialized gear. Since maintaining a full black+white wet darkroom based on a silver-halide process is now extremely impractical, cyanotypes allow me to tap into that magic again. Having grown up shooting film, processing the film myself, and printing the film in a traditional darkroom I love the ability to get my hands wet and create the final image rather than just “push print” and to yet again watch a latent image materialize at the bottom of a photo try after exposure to light. This blue-toned printing process is a hands on art form in which an image is permanently printed on normal cotton rag fine art paper. One of my passions is creating traditional-chemical-based cyanotypes.
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