Why You Should Develop Your Own Film (2024)

Ever thought that it was about time you learned to develop your own film? Wondering exactly what it takes to develop film at home? Want to save on lab costs and take full control of your photography? Keen to give developing film a go but not sure where to begin? Well, you're in luck, because Howard is back! And this time with some words of wisdom pulled from his vast experience and knowledge of darkroom sorcery.

Spoiler alert: you don't even need a darkroom (!) There is also an excellent analogy for choosing the best romantic partner. Read on...

Why Develop Your Own Film at Home?

Once you have exposed that roll of film that you took so much care over, what do you do next? Do you post it or take it to one of the many excellent photo labs up and down the country that offer a film developing service?

You might have a friend who does their own film developing at home and will perhaps do yours for you. If you have shot on Ilford XP2, your local colour snap shop can process it for you and make pretty good prints from it too.

Ultimately it's up to you how you process your films!

All the above methods work, but if you don't develop your own film the chances are that you are not getting the best results possible from your photography. Whoever processes your negatives will put them with a lot of other films in a bulk processing machine, where all the films in the batch get the same development. They will be using a general purpose commercial developer that gives reasonable results with all films. But you want the best results with your films!

If you choose a superior service, like the one provided by Harman/Ilford Ltd, your film will be processed in the most appropriate developer, and you will be able to have the process modified if you want to increase or decrease the speed (ISO) of the film. The service is very good, but simply developing film costs £7.00, and either push or pull processing whacks an extra £2.00 on top. Add to that the cost of postage there and back and the cost mounts up. Now imagine that you don't just have one or two rolls to process, but a whole handful of them, and suddenly the potential savings offered by learning to develop film at home yourself starts to look very attractive indeed.

That's all very well, but even if the desire is there, knowing precisely how to develop your own film is another matter entirely. Fear not, developing film at home is a lot simpler than it sounds. Not only that, but it's also a huge amount of fun!

What's that you say? You want to develop your own film but you don't have a darkroom? You don’t need one. In fact you can develop film at home with very little equipment at all.

What's more, you can get all the equipment you need online; and secondhand darkroom kit is very cheap. You will need a CHANGING BAG to load your FILM PROCESSING TANK in, and you will need a THERMOMETER to get the liquids to the right temperature, plus at least two MEASURING CYLINDERS of suitable size to prepare the liquids. But not a great deal more (at the end of the article is a list of the minimum equipment needed to start developing your own film).

In order to develop film at home a cheap thermometer is more than adequate for the job

In another blog I will set out a good reliable working method to start off with when first developing film. But the essential thing to realise is that, if you take your work seriously, you will have to get your hands wet. Finding the right film and process combination for you is like finding the ideal girl/boyfriend, it may take a lot of tries and you will have some frustration and tears, but you will succeed if you understand what went wrong last time, and learn from it. In short, at first developing film is always matter of trial and error. But once you have a little experience, and have learned from both your mistakes and successes, you'll be wondering why you didn't start to develop film at home ages ago!

• Changing Bag -the bigger the better – get a good one, as they don’t fall apart.
• Film dev tank - If you only do 35mm film, get a small one, otherwise get a “Universal” which does 120 as well, with an adjustable spiral or two.
• Measuring cylinders – for both developer and fixer, get a large one that hold a litre, and a smaller one about 250 cc or so to measure out concentrated chems. If you are using one of the high-dilution developers, also get a plastic syringe to measure more accurately.
• Thermometer – digital ones are fine, but a normal spirit (not mercury) 12 inch one is fine and doubles as a stirring stick.
• Timer – a cheap digital kitchen timer is perfect for developing film at home.

• Lightbox - Inexpensive light panels help when examining your negatives
• Spare spirals – in case you have a few films to do, and don’t want to wait for the spirals to completely dry. You can try to load a slightly damp spiral but you will only every try once, and you will probably damage your film as well.
• Film Washing Hose – a piece of rubber tube with a squishy tap fitting one end and a plastic bit on the other end that fits perfectly down the centre of your tank – gives you most efficient washing, saves water.
• Drying Rack. – You know those plastic or metal frames that have lots of clothes clips on them for drying small laundry items? Get one, and find a place to hang it at least 5 feet above the bath or shower.
• Concertina Bottles - Will keep your chemicals fresh for a lot longer.
• Good Scissors – used for cutting your negatives into strips. Film filing sheets – to put your processed negs in – get them online.
• LED thin light panel – Sold for use by crafters. Get an A3 one. Useful if you get a Pixl-latr (below)
• Linen Tester –A magnifying glass to examine your negatives with – an 8X is fine.

Concertina bottles - will maximise chemical shelf-life

* Pixl-latr Home Scanner – one of the excellent scanning devices soon to be available from 35mmc *
This promises to be a brilliant device that doesn’t cost a lot and has the potential to give you pro-quality scans for no cost other than the unit itself:

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