I joined a B/W film development class

Last February, I joined a local art class to learn how to shoot and develop my own B/W film photography. It was both an exciting and humbling experience.

Exciting: for the past year or so, I’ve been experimenting with analog photography. I have two 35mm cameras. One is a simple “point-and-shoot” Olympus travel camera with battery-powered wind and flash. The second is my grandpa’s fully manual Agfa Silette Pronto, circa 1950s. It’s in excellent shape, but requires a little more brain power than the Olympus to get the exposure right.

It’s been fun but also a little nerve-wracking to think about your 36 shots—and whether or not they’ll even turn out.

Humbling: developing film is HARD! I feel like I only just perfected loading/unloading the camera. And now we have to evenly roll that film onto a stainless steel coil? And one kink or fingerprint could jack up your shot? Ok…

The new techniques felt awkward and unfamiliar. But trying anything for the first time usually feels this way.

Step 1: The Camera

For this class, we were provided with a Holga 120 mm camera and a roll of B/W film.

This model of Holga is made of plastic (including the lens) and was popular during the 1950s-60s. It’s known for being easy to use but also a little kitschy. This is not the camera for perfect lighting and excellent detail, but sometimes it can surprise you.

The reason we used this camera? For one, the instructor was gifted ~20 cameras many years ago, and still has them. But also, the larger size of the film makes it easier for beginners to roll onto the coils for developing. 35mm is narrower and a lot longer, because it has twice as many shots per roll.

B/W film is also a little easier for beginners than color development. There are fewer steps to remember and chemicals to juggle. You can also worry less about color tone and instead focus only on getting the timing right for proper light/exposure.

I was grateful for the simplified approach! After everything, this definitely is what makes me feel like I want and could try again outside of the class.

Step 2: Take 12 Photos

A roll of 120 mm film is usually 12 shots. Because the Holga doesn’t have any flash, the camera does best shooting outside with bright conditions—ideally full or partial sunshine.

To shoot most of my roll, I decided to drive into Logan Canyon in the morning and see what I could find. My dog, Cooper, joined me because he loves car rides (and also to be my primary subject). It was February, so the snowy mountain conditions took center stage in each shot. I tried to capture the icy river, craggy cliffs in the distance, and a close-up of Coop atop deep snow.

Step 3: Prepping the Film

Rolling the film onto the coils was definitely the trickiest step for me.

This class was intended for the “everyday” person. Most people don’t have a darkroom at home, and neither did the building hosting our class. Instead, we used a light-proof bag to roll the film onto the coil and place it inside the canister.

Until the roll is safely within the canister, it’s vulnerable to becoming completely exposed and ruined by the light.

Rolling onto the coil is not easy. Our instructor said it’s almost like riding a bike—something that eventually gets easier the more you practice. But it’s gonna be very awkward at first. Adding to the stress is the pressure to work quickly. The heat and sweat from your hands can impact how your roll develops, so you want to handle it as little as possible.

In a darkroom, you’d be able to use a special red light to see what your hands are doing. Working inside the light-proof bag means we have to go entirely by touch. And boy was that tricky for a class of noobs.

But in the end WE DID IT! It took the entire 2-hour class period, but we were each able to get our film into the canisters and all prepped to be developed during the next class.

This is the light-proof container we used for development. The film is placed inside after rolling onto the coil.

Step 4: The Magic Finally Happens

It’s finally time to develop! Our B/W film required three chemical steps:

1. Developer

2. Stop Bath

3. Fixer

Before getting started, we carefully diluted each chemical with the appropriate amount of water. It’s important to get it all prepped ahead of time, so that during the actual process, you can just focus on your phone’s timer. Everything happens step-by-step in about 10 minutes. It goes by quicker than you think.

During processing, we “agitated” the film canister gently for a certain amount of time (depending on the step) and then let it sit for a short period of time. We also rinsed the film with lukewarm water between each step.

The agitation motion is almost like pouring a glass of wine—you gently hold the canister upside down and then, in a quicker movement, you put it right-side up again. When it comes time to let the canister rest, you place it onto the counter with a little extra force.

After everything is done, we remove the coils from the canisters and then thoroughly rinse them in lukewarm water. With all our rolls together in the sink, we let the faucet run for a few minutes to ensure all chemicals are completely rinsed away.

Once the film is developed, the final step is to let it hang dry.

The whole development process really feels more like an art than a science. Almost like a performance, and you’re focusing all your energy on getting the dance steps right!

Step 5: See how you did!

Once the film is developed and dry, we can finally take a look and see if our shots turned out! Remember that these are negatives, so the lighting will be inverted; the brightest tones will appear black. To get the best look, we borrowed our instructor’s light table to better light up the image from behind.

Kodak also has a phone app that can help invert negatives—though it’s not perfect. If you’re not making prints, the best result will always be to use a high-quality film scanner and then invert the image on your computer.

Here are the scans of my best images! There’s some vignetting, loss of detail, kinks in the film where the developer chemicals acted weird, etc. But overall, not bad for a complete beginner.

I thought this class was such a fun learning experience. While the process was for sure challenging, it was also approachable and understandable. I would definitely try this again and would be eager to try tackling 35 mm film soon. In the meantime, I’ll probably continue sending rolls out to my favorite film lab.

Something Good to Do

Downtown part of main street, Logan UT.

Welcome to my new blog and space for personal writing! When thinking about what to call this, I decided to dig in my phone’s saved notes for inspiration.

I usually prefer writing things down in my journal—half the fun of saving my weird ideas is feeling the physical ink glide onto the page. But sometimes, an idea strikes and there’s no pen in sight. So, I often jot things down on my phone. The modern-day napkin notepad?

I was looking through old shopping lists and work reminders, when I stumbled upon something that’s been saved in my phone’s reminders app since… I think since I got my first smartphone in high school. It’s a line from the movie Ferris Bueller’s Day Off.

“You’re not dying, you just can’t think of anything good to do.”

Early on in the film, the protagonist Ferris says this line to his best friend, Cameron, to convince him to get out of bed and give him a ride. Cameron is a seventeen-year-old kid who’s worried that—once he graduates high school—there’s nothing left to look forward to.

The movie explores themes of existential dread and teenage angst via over-the-top scenes paired with borderline ridiculous music choices. A classic John Hughes film, and still one of my favorites.

When I was seventeen, I related to Cameron’s worry. I reluctantly admitted I was much more like him than the confident Ferris. At the time, I believed I was making decisions that would determine everything about the rest of my life. And I worried that I would choose wrong.

Now that I’m almost thirty, I realize how silly it was to feel that way. Life is all about change and experiencing new things—small or great. Even when you think you’re stuck, there’s always something to work toward and look forward to. Something good to do.

So here it is! Something Good to Do: a personal blog where I can save entries about all the latest things I’ve been doing or working on. New adventures, hobbies, goals, and more.

Thanks for reading, and stay tuned!