Developing your Film and Contact Sheet

The change from digital cameras to film cameras was a big change for me, as I have never used a film camera before. There were some significant changes, for example, I couldn't view / delete my images if they weren't good, I needed to manually adjust the lighting, and much more. It was a good change, though, because I got to live through new experiences in photography.

Step 1 : Take pictures using a film camera. You need to load the film in properly, otherwise the film would be exposed and your pictures would all be ruined. 

 Step 2 : Develop your film!

Film processing is a difficult procedure, because you need to make sure you don't mess up. Luckily for us, the advanced students in the class developed our film. Otherwise, if the 'newbies' tried to process it, everything would be ruined. To develop the film, you need to put several liquids through a light-proof can. The chemicals react with the film, creating your image. 

Step 3: After your film turns out nice, you will need to put it in something to protect it from getting moist, or dirty. What our class did was we cut the film strips and put it into a sleeve, as shown.















Step 4 : Once this is done, create your contact print! This is where the fun begins, but you need some prerequisites before you begin. You need a dark room, and several photo developing chemicals, such as developer, stop bath, and fixer. You also need photography enlargers that project light onto a canvas. This is what creates your image. 

This image contains a girl standing at one of the photo enlargers. She has to lay her film (in the sleeve) on a piece of photo paper, put it on the canvas, and project light for around 10 seconds, depending on the lighting in her original photos. 

This image was taken in a dark room. It is all red because of the red lights inside. The red lights are especially designed for dark rooms, because they don't expose photo paper. 

After the photo paper has been exposed, you need to slip it into the first chemical, the developer. This is the chemical that does the real magic; it creates your image! You need to leave the image in the developer for around 2-3 minutes, then move it on to the next chemical. The photo has to stay in the next chemical, stop bath, from 30 seconds to a minute, then it's one to the next one. Your photo needs to stay in the fixer for 5 minutes this time. The final step is the most important, you need to put it in the final rinse. This rinse cleanses your image free of chemicals, so that it is safe to touch and to display. The picture has to sit in a tub of water for at least 5 minutes undisturbed, then slipped into the dryer to be dried. This is quite a fun process for me, because I love being in the dark room watching my photo develop. 

The final product turns out fabulous!