Film Processing
As part of my work on this module one of the metrics of success I set myself was to learn how to process my own film. After speaking about this with Tony he suggested I get in contact with Lisa, one of the technicians to see about getting involved with one of the BA Photo film processing inductions. I did this and was given the okay to join the induction.
I had a few rolls of ILFORD HP5+ from when I first started shooting with film that I foolishly didn’t label after shooting and so after a while had passed I had no idea what was on the film so I figured that it wouldn’t be much of a loss if something went wrong in my induction processing.
Making notes during the talk through for the processing, I then followed these notes and processed a roll of B+W film for the very first time. Straight away this opened up the possibilities for my shooting as I would now be able to process my own film allowing for an increase in image quality, tone and atmosphere that comes when using film over digital images.
Using ILFORD’s HP5+ emulsion, it was very easy to work with, with reasonable developing temperatures not too far off of room temperature and a developing time of around 12 minutes giving plenty of time for the developer to react with the film and produce some images.
The agitation process became one that would improve as I gained more practice with developing and the nuance attached to the smaller details around the process. Upon speaking with fellow MA students and other photographers that dev their own film and gained some useful tips including gently lifting the edge of the processing tank to release any gas that may build up after agitation causing pressure to build and cause leaks of developer, not so much an issue when using relatively safer developers like XTOL but when using more harmful chemicals like Rodinol, it would be best to keep the solution contained in the processing tank.
Perhaps the hardest and most challenging aspect I found during the processing of film is the changing over from roll/cassette to the dev spools whilst in the dark changing room. With difficulty when using 35mm, the tension in the film strip causing it to roll up and coil in such a way that made it very difficult to handle carefully. 120 film is slightly easier to handle simply due to its larger width and less tightly wound rolls.
Over the course of this project and my photographic career, I will be processing many more rolls of film in a variety of methods and so I will be sure to develop my own methodology and process when it comes to film processing.
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