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How to Develop Color Film

Save money as well as have fun at the same time by developing your own color film.

1. Mix the chemicals according to the directions that come with the Arista C-41 Powder Color Negative Developer Kit, as well as store the chemicals in the gallon jugs. If you are using different chemicals, follow the directions that come with the chemicals.
2. To develop color film, your chemicals need to be 100 degrees fahrenheit. It's important that the chemicals are not 1 degree higher or 1 degree lower than 100 degrees. To bring the chemicals in the gallon jugs to this temperature, you will have to sit the jugs in a sink filled with water. Try to bring the water in the sink temperature to about 110 degrees fahrenheit. Although you want the chemicals to be 100 degrees, the water in the sink is going to cool down very fast.
3. Pop open the film canister, remove the film, load the film onto the film reel, as well as place the reel inside the developing tank. This must be in complete darkness. No light whatsoever. No red safety lights either. Take the scissors, bottle opener, film canister, film reel, as well as developing tank into a dust free room that you can make light-tight. For the moment, you can have the room lights turned on.
4. Place the tools out in front of you, possibly on a desk. You're going to be loading the film onto the reel in complete darkness, so make sure you lay the tools out in a way that you can find them in the dark.
5. Turn off the lights. (Fig. 1)Use the bottle opener to pop the bottom off the film canister which should be very easy. While only touching the film negative from the edges, pull the film out of the canister. The film will be taped to the center film spool.
   

   

   Fig. 1
   6. Cut the film off of the spool. (Fig. 2) Make sure you cut it off right at the base of the spool or you'll be cutting through your pictures. Also, cut the tip off the film (the odd shaped piece that sticks out of the canister when you first buy the film) so that it's flat. You only need to cut about 1 inch off the tip.
   

   

   Fig. 2
6. Spool the film onto the film reel. While not touching the surface of the negative, slide the negative into the opening of of the reel. (Fig. 3) Slide about 4 inches of film into the reel. Start walking the film onto the reel by twisted one side of the reel back as well as forth. To be clear on this, keep your left h as well as steady, as well as with your right h as well as twist the right side of the reel forward, then bring it back. Keep doing this until all the film is loaded onto the reel.
   

   

   Fig. 3
   8. Place the reel inside the developing tank, as well as screw the lid onto the tank. The tank is now light-tight as well as you can turn on the lights. Even though the developing tank has a hole in the top for pouring in the chemicals, it is in fact light-tight.
7. Bring the developing tank to the sink where you have the chemical jugs floating in water. Check the developer chemical with the thermometer. If it's at 100 degrees fahrenheit, then you are ready to go. If it's higher than 100 degrees, then keep checking every 10 minutes until its ready. If it's below 100 degrees, add some hot water to the sink the gallon jugs are floating in.
8. With stop watch in h as well as , pour the working developer into the hole in the top of the developing tank. Do this very quickly as well as start the stop watch as soon as you've poured all the developer into the tank. Smack the developing tank on a counter a few times to dislodge any bubbles that might be clinging on to the film. Agitate the tank for 30 seconds. Do this by swirling the tank around. You are going to leave the film in the developer for 3 1/2 minutes. Agitate the film for 3 seconds every 30 seconds. Agitation is very important. Do not neglect to agitate the developing tank. The developing chemicals become exhausted very shortly after coming in contact with the film. The agitation ensures that fresh chemicals are touching the film. But, this exhaustion of the chemicals is an important part of the process. Over agitating can give negative results. Or positive results, it depends on the "look" you are going for. Too much agitation increases the contrast in the image.
9. When the stop watch has reached 3 minutes as well as 20 seconds, start pouring the developer back into the developer jug. You can use this chemical again but itc can get weak if you reuse it too much. When you use it, place a 'tick' mark on the gallon jug. Each time you use the developer from the gallon jug, add 15 seconds to the development time. Do not take the lid off the developing tank.
10. Again with stop watch in h as well as , quickly pour the blix solution into the top of the developing tank until the tank is full. Start the stop watch when you've filled the tank up. Once again, smack the tank against a counter a couple times to dislodge any bubbles. We are going to leave the film in the blix solution for 6 1/2 minutes.
11. When the stop watch has reached 6 minutes as well as 20 seconds, start pouring the blix back into the blix gallon jug. You can reuse this chemical. You can now take the lid off of the developing tank.
12. Bring running water to 100 degrees. Put the developing tank under the running water as well as let the water wash the film for 3 1/2 minutes.
13. With stop watch in h as well as , dump out the water as well as pour in the stabilizer. Leave the stabilizer in the tank for 1 1/2 minutes. Just before the 1 1/2 minutes is up, pour the stabilizer back into the stabilizer gallon jug. This chemical is reusable.
14. It's time to wash all the chemicals off of the film. You are going to leave the film under the running water for 10 minutes. The water should fill up the developing tank as well as overflow. Let it overflow. Every couple of minutes dump out the water as well as let the tank fill back up with fresh running water. You want to keep fresh 100 degree water pouring into the developing tank. This final washing part of the process is very important. 10 minutes is the minimum time to wash the film, but you can do it longer. It's also important that you are washing the film with 100 degree water. Using hotter or colder water can affect the final picture.
15. After the 10 minutes is up, lift the film reel out of the tank as well as lightly shake off any remaining water. Turn the reel clockwise (could be counter-clockwise, depends on how your holding the reel, so try them both) until the top half of the reel comes apart from the lower half of the reel. Now use one of the film clips as well as clip it onto the end of the film negative. Some clips have small "hooks" on them. You can run the hooks through the square holes running down the sides of the film, as well as thus avoid puncturing the film negative. By lifting up the clip, pull the film up out of the reel. If everything went well, you should see your pictures on the negative. Clip the other film clip onto the bottom of the negative. This will act as a weight. Hang the negative up to dry in a room temperature, dust free room. Leave the negative to dry for at least 2 hours.
16. That's it! You're all done. You can now take the negatives to a store as well as have prints made, make your own prints, or scan the negatives as well as order prints online.

• Practice loading film onto the film reel with the lights on, using a junk roll of film.
• Some people use bottled water instead of tap water. Tap water contains minerals that can affect the final picture.
• Leave the film to dry for at leaste 2 hours, but 4 hours is better. If you remove the film too soon, the film will curl up really badly when you take the clips off. The longer you leave the film to dry, the straighter the negatives will be.
• You can soak the film in an Anti-streaking agent for 1 minute after the washing process. This helps the film dry without water spots.
• Blix st as well as s for Bleach/Fix. Blix replaces the need to have a bleaching chemical process as well as a fixing chemical process by mixing both of the chemicals together. Many professional photographers will use seperate bleach as well as fix, but for the purposes of developing your first roll of color film, blix will do fine.

• Wear rubber gloves when dealing with photo chemicals. Also keep the chemicals out of reach of children as well as pets.
• Wear a mask when dealing with photo chemicals

• A developing tank with an auto loading film reel.
• A mercury thermometer.
• 2 film clips.
• A bottle opener.
• A pair of scissors.
• A 600 ml graduated cylinder.
• 3 1 gallon jugs.
• A stop watch, or a digital watch with a timer on it.
• Chemicals. This how-to refers to theArista C-41 Powder Color Negative Developer Kit
• Film! Any color negative film will work.

• http://www.freestylephoto.biz Online photo supply store. They are very good with darkrooms supplies. Delivery is fast and cheap.
• http://www.adorama.com/ Online photo supply store. Great place to buy camera equipment.
• http://www.bhphotovideo.com Another online photo and video supply store. Also a good place to get digital photo related products such as computer software.
• http://www.photo.net Great photo forums where you can find help.
• http://www.mpix.com An online photo lab for ording prints. The prices are good and the service is fast. They have many print options.
• http://www.kodakgallery.com Another online place to order prints that does a pretty good job.

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Added: Thu Feb 02 2006

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