Analog Photography by Anıl Uzun – How to Develop

 

This article is the Part 3 of the Analogue photography guide by Anıl Uzun. In this part of the guide, I will talk about the aftermath of shooting. How to develop, print and digitize the analog film?

Preparation

 

To take the film out of your camera you need to rewind the film roll. If you do not know how to do that, read the manual or watch tutorial videos on Youtube. There are many tutorial videos for many models. Never open the cover before you rewind the roll, light will ruin the film. 

 

To process and develop the film is costly. For the beginning you can make the shops do that for you. If you learn to do the job yourself, that would be fun but the equipment is expensive and you need a dark room. 

 

In my own experience another photographer taught me how to develop a film. If you do not have a friend to teach you you can find anyone on the web. 

Developing the film

 

If you are going to develop a film for the first time, let someone guide you. If you do not have anyone to get help, watch tutorials on Yoıutube, etc. the two important factors are the temperature and mixing time of the chemicals.

 

Black and white films need a different procedure. Color films need a chemical mixture, you can find the formula on the web. 

 

To develop you need to work in a dark room. First step is to take out the film and put it in a container with chemicals. If you have color film, you should first wash it with the c41 solution. Then you need to rinse the film with clean water and to wash the chemical away. Then you need to mix the blix with the film at a certain temperature. Check your film and adjust the temperature accordingly, otherwise your film will burn. Put the fixer, and rinse the film again with clean water. If your film is black and white, you will skip the blix step. Now you have the negative film. 

How do we digitize the negative film?

 

You do not have to print your photos to digitize them. I prefer to print the photos after I see digital versions.

 

There are special scanners to digitize the film negatives. You can buy a scanner but I do not recommend it because they are expensive. If you are a professional photographer that takes photos regularly you may get one. But for a hobby, it won’t be worth the money you spend.

 

In the scanner you need to adjust the color profile. Calibrate the contrast and resolution settings to get the best results. Before scanning a negative film, make a research on the process thoroughly. And ask google “What is the contrast in a photo?”, “What is a flat photo profile?”, “What is IT8 Color Calibration?” Check the scanner manual. You can scan a film more than once so try different settings to get the best results. 

 

See you in the next article of the analogue photography guide, bye.

 

Anıl Uzun