Studio practice

 Developing film photos   

steps:

1. turn on enlarger, check light and timer. 

2. Put neg in neg holder, (I think shiny side down)

3. Put on continuous light to put the image to the size you want by putting the top of the enlarger higher or lower. 

4. Check the aperture 

5. Check the projection is in focus by using the magnifier to see if the grain is visible, if the grain is visible its in focus, if it looks smooth its not in focus, turn the nob on the left to change the focus whilst still looking in the magnifier to check the grain is visible. 

6. Do a test strip for each neg you want to develop as most will have different exposure times 

7. Cut a small strip of photo paper as its expensive and you want to waste it as its expensive 

8. put the paper on the base plate of the enlarger, emulsion side up 

9. Set the timer for 10 second increments

10. use a piece of card to cover all of the strip of paper except an inch, and press the button on the timer, this will turn on the light for 10 seconds. 

11. moved the card to reveal another inch of paper and press the button on the timer, 

12. Repeat until your one inch away from the end. For the last inch you don't cover anything, just press the button. 

13. For me I did this for roughly 50s, so 5 times every time. So the beginning inch you did first will of been exposed for 50s and the last inch only 10 seconds. 

14.Then put the paper into the chemicals. Developer for 2 minutes, Fix for 10 seconds, Stop for 7 minutes, Then wash for 10 minutes 

15. When the photo has gone in the stop for a minute or two you can take it out to go look at it in the light. From this test you will be able to see which exposure time works best for your neg. 

16. Developing the photo itself is basically the same process, to start repeat steps 3 to 5

17. Cut paper to the size you actually want, put it on bottom plate emulsion side up  

18. Set timer to the exposure time you've chosen from the test strip

19.Press timer button, the light comes on for set time 

20. put it in the chemicals, repeating step 14 

I really enjoyed learning this process. It just kind of clicked first time and gave me the results that I wanted. I will go back across to the dark room to develop more of my negatives. The process is very long and technical so I would definitely need to take notes with me or I wouldn't remember all the steps properly.