When I purchased a beautiful, used, medium format film camera with the goal of revisiting my roots I was very nostalgic about my years in the dark room. I was my favorite thing about high school and the Colorado Institute of Art. I was fast and accurate when loading film onto the reels in the pitch black dark room. I remember the smell of the chemicals and the magic of seeing something appear from what looked like nothing. The dark room was my happy place. Fast forward 30ish years and a few things have changed. I promised to expose the good the bad and the ugly of this journey and there is plenty of it to share.
I sent my first roll of film to a lab for processing specifically so I would know it was developed properly. I wanted to check for light leaks in the camera so having the lab process the first roll was a way to take myself and any mistakes I might make during processing out of the equation. This involved more steps than I expected. It took a few google searches to find a lab that develops 120 black and white film. There are quite a few that will develop 35mm C-41 black and white but not so many doing silver halide processing. The difference being that C41 black and white was made to be developed in the same chemicals as regular mass produced color film we used to use all the time. Silver Halide processing requires a different type of chemicals so I had to hunt down a lab that could handle the job. I found a place in Overland Park Kansas and I’m happy with their service. What I was not prepared for was how long it would take or the overall expense. From the time I stuck it in the mail and shipped it off, to the time it arrived back at the studio as cut negatives and 4x5 prints took three weeks. Yes, three weeks! That’s quite a bit different than walking to my computer and downloading a card. And by the time I paid for it to be shipped to the lab, processed, printed and scanned and sent back to me the cost added up pretty quickly. $12 for a roll of film, $7 to ship it to the lab, $25 to process, scan, print and ship back, cost around $44. A roll of 120 film only has 10 exposures so that makes it $4.40 per click. Ouch! However, I am happy to report that the camera is light tight and appears to be working as it should.
The next step was to start developing my own film. Having done it so many times in the past I went into this with a lot of confidence. Silly, silly Dawn. Some things aren’t as easy as riding a bike and a lot of things have changed. My first experience loading and developing on my own film went ok. Not great, but OK. I used the old school stainless steel reels that I had back in the day. It took a bit of fumbling around in the dark bag but I did manage to get it loaded on the reel. The trouble is, you can’t exactly open the bag and check your work so you just have to hope you did it correctly. I was a bit disappointed when I finished processing and the film had not loaded properly on the reel and a few areas of the film ended up touching each other during processing making those frames unusable. Sadness right? Yes, but this is all about relearning and old skill so I just need more practice. I also found out that the chemicals have changed and they don’t smell the same. I know this probably sounds really weird but man I miss that smell.
I’ve had mixed results with the next few rolls. My first struggle was with the old school reel so after attending a black and white film class I decided to try out the new fangled reels that “auto load” the film. HA! Auto my ISO! In theory it is a much simpler concept than the old school reels. In reality it is easier once you get it started on the reel but it’s the start that is the tough part of these nifty gadgets. I think my hands were in the dark bag for a good 30 minutes just trying to load two rolls. The new school reels also have a recommended tank that can hold multiple rolls which is fantastic! Unless you aren’t paying close enough attention to how much developer you put in the tank. In which case you end up with the top roll only being half developed. ***SIGH*** Obviously I still have much to relearn.
I’m going to wrap it up for now because this next chapter of Fun with Film is also a bit long and uphill. However, I am figuring it out and I do have some nice film images to share so stay with me. We’ll get there!
0 Comments