Learning how to develop film myself has always been something I wanted to do, so when the first lockdown was about to happen I thought it would be the perfect time to get everything I needed to finally learn it. It’s really so great to be alive in this age where we can learn everything off YouTube!
This was the first roll I developed. I do it in my bathroom because it has everything I need in there, including running water and good ventilation.
Developing black & white film is more commonly done at home, dealing with colour film is a whole other ballgame. I considered doing a short video to show how it’s done but realised it would be quite a boring video as it would just show me rotating a tank for 15 minutes.
A shot from my first roll, taken with the Mamiya RB67. I used a roll of Ilford HP5 Plus, shot at box speed.
The roll I developed last night, a Kodak Tri-X 400 pushed to 1600 (never developed a pushed roll before!). The mandarin is just there for fun :)
The magic of shooting film combined with developing it yourself is something I wish everyone can experience, it makes you appreciate the wonder of photography so much more. I barely give it any thought when taking pictures with my iPhone! I’ll definitely talk more about it in another post, but for now, here are some shots from the roll I developed last night (they mostly came out quite underexposed, I might need to tweak my push developing recipe).
I read an article on TimeOut a few days ago about how different Lockdown 2.0 is to the first one. It’s funny probably because it’s true! But I’m so determined to continue picking up new skills and not letting these few weeks go to waste. Also, if you’re experiencing “lockdown fatigue”, I find that taking a walk outside, even a short one, always helps!
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