I have a scanner with negative-scanning capabilities, and don’t really feel like paying photo development fees to get pictures developed (when I’ll just be scanning them in anyways).
How can I cheaply (ie, free or almost free) develop negatives from a roll of film so that I can scan them in myself? I don’t need to develop the pictures, just the negatives.
Thanks!
PS: This is not because I scanning dirty pics… it’s because I don’t want to take my digital camera into these places; I’d rather take an el cheapo 35mm camera.
It’s been a few years since I’ve done any, but you need to buy a chemical kit for C-41 proccess, IIRC.
You also need:
Some developing tanks and reels.
A good thermometer.
A timer, for the various steps and chemicals.
A dark place to load the film onto the reels. Or a changing bag.
A way to hold the chemicals at 20 Deg. C
Bottles to mix and store the chemicals.
Clips to hang the film while it dries.
Plus a few things I can’t remember.
Or just tell the guy at the store to develop the film and don’t make any prints. It’s a lot easier.
Well…you need film developing equipment and a darkroom. Your darkroom can be a bathroom ro closet or something but it needs to be totally dark (light coming from under the door was more than enough to ruin the film). When I did this in high school the whole process was done by touch alone. You open the camera, eject the film canister, pry open the canister and threaded the film onto a spool. Once the film was grabbed on the spool you’d twist the spool over and over till the film was all on it. The spool would then go into a container that was made for it and locked shut. At this point you could turn on the lights. The consiter needed to be filled with developing chemicals. After a certain amount of time you could remove the film and you have your developed negative.
I realize this isn’t very specific but that’s the gist of it. Plenty of photo shops and online sources that sell the necessary materials.
Now you know the difference between b/w and color processing - b/w can be loaded in a closet and processed using the lavy tapwater - color is a tad bit trickier…
Actually, you don’t even need a darkroom. You can use a changing bag, which is a double thick pouch with a zipper on each bag and two sleeves on the other end with elastic in the openings. You put the film canister, an opener, a reel and the reel can inside the zippered pouch and put your arms in through the sleeve openings on the other end. From that point you’re working blind - you open the canister and thread the film on the reel inside the bag, put it in the reel can, put on the lid and take the closed reel can out of the bag. You have the film already to develop at this point, through light-safe opening on the lid of the can. It takes a bit of practice to get used to threading the film on the reel blindly, but take a piece of exposed film and practise until you can do it. I always used this to load my film, as film is a lot more sensitive to light leaks than photo paper, and my darkroom was just a closet that I didn’t trust to be completely light-proof.
You can also use it if the film comes off the canister in the camera itself - just stick the camera and all the aforementioned equipment in the bag at the same time. The bags are surprisingly roomy.
Black & White is easy. Chemicals are quite cheap and the process takes place close to room temp. Slight variations in processing can be compensated for when scanning.
Color is more tricky. Chemicals can be expensive when purchased in small quantities and have a very short shelf life. Processing temperatures are much higher and absolutly critical. Likely consequences of processing errors can be very hard to correct (the dreaded crossover, where the shadows are shifted towards one color whilst the highlights towards another, comes to mind). The photo store will usually be cheaper and better.
For B&W neg development, I reccommend taking a class at the local community college. They will have all the equipment already and someone to show you how to do it without ruining your film. After that you can spend the minor investment to get tanks and reels and chemicals.
For color, most places will develop negatives only. Meaning no prints. Should be cheap. I think it’s only $1.76 at Walmart, of all places, if you can convince them they actually can do it. You should request that they not cut the negatives. Less handling means less scratching and stuff, and also you can cut them yourself into 5-neg strips rather than 4-neg strips. Easier to scan and you can fit more in a binder negative page.
If you’re doing color, it’s not that difficult. In fact, it’s quicker than b&w processing, but is much more sensitive to temperature variation.
GaryM has got the basics down for C-41 (color processing).
I’ll add a few things to make life easy and make your negatives accurate.
Use metal reels and metal tanks. They keep temperature better. While they are a little harder to thread than their plastic counterparts, they are much better, don’t break, and are just plain cooler. Almost every single professional I know (including myself) uses metal reels. (Well, in the days when people still developed their photos.)
To keep the temperature at 101.5 F reliably, we would fill up a rectangular container (in which the development tanks can be placed) and filled it with warm water. At the bottom of the tub we placed a heating coil which could be regulated to precisely 101.5 degrees. We called the device a “Dev Tech,” but I can’t seem to find it on the internet. A good photo supply shop should have it. Place the development tanks with the chemicals into this warm bath of water. When a thermometer inserted into the chemicals registers 101.5, you can be sure that your chemicals will stay exactly at 101.5.
Color processing consists of 5 main steps: Development, bleach, fix (sometimes combined into one step as “blix”), wash, and stabilization. Then you dry. Total time until the drying stage is about 15 minutes.
The development and blix need to be done completely in the dark, or with the covers on the development tanks.
It’s best if you get a proper film dryer, although a hair dryer will suffice in a pinch. Simple air drying (not “hair drying”) will often result in water spots on your neg.
In the end, it can be done, but the effort is rarely worth it. The only reason I’ve ever developed C41 myself is because I was on-site, on deadline, using film equipment. If you use a heating coil and keep the temp steady, you shouldn’t screw up. But if you fail to regulate the temp, a one to two degree difference can really mess with your film. My suggestion echoes Gary’s. Unless you’re doing it for the fun and experience, just drop your film off with the instructions “develop only.” Labs do it all the time. I can think of no advantage of doing it at home, and even moneywise, it’s not really that much more economical.
You can just take your photos to a store and request “just processing” or “no prints”. Some places like Walgreens don’t advertise this because they make their money on prints but you can do it. If you can’t find a retail place there are tons of specialised places that will process a roll of film for a couple or 3 bucks, depending on the process: C-41, E-1, etc. and type of film. This is what my Photography expert friend does who prints his own color photos. He has them process and he prints. I process my medium format (60mm as opposed to 35mm) then scan it or selectively have the print shop print exactly what I want.