3 ms·

i wouldn't call this "developing", the negative is already developed. this is simply making a contact print. if you do find undeveloped exposures, the emulsion

by ruined 3y ago

i wouldn't call this "developing", the negative is already developed. this is simply making a contact print. if you do find undeveloped exposures, the emulsion is likely very degraded. film or glass plate is likely standard silver and may still be easily developed at home with any standard black and white process, but most historic color film chemistry has been lost. your local lab should be able to identify it for you and explain your options.

reportgunner 3y ago
This. I got three old films developed last month, two were about 10-12 years ago and one was even older. Out of two "younger" films the color one had all it's black replaced by blue and the other one was pushed 3 stops and turned out fine. The "oldest" film was completely blank.
actionfromafar 3y ago
A neat trick is that almost all color film can be developed as a black and white, with cheap black and white developer and fixer. (Of course you will loose the color and get only a black and white picture.) In a pinch, you can mix lukewarm coffee with a generous helping of baking soda for developer, and sea water for fixer. (Not tap water nor lake water.)
- ruined 3y ago
  i've done the color-as-bw trick, and it works, but everything looks like garbage, more than i would normally expect. baking soda seems like a poor choice, i've heard borax and soda ash (carbonate rather than bicarbonate) more commonly recommended. maybe it would work in a pinch but baking soda is significantly less basic and might produce gas during the reaction which seems problematic. but sea water for fixer, that's interesting, never considered that one. is it really ionic enough? i guess i could boil down a reduction edit: chatgpt seems to think i'd need to concentrate it to saturation and at that point i might as well just use table salt. do you have any experience with this? how does the negative hold up over time?
  - actionfromafar 3y ago
    Best is to soak the film in the sea itself for hours, so you get an exchange of fresh ions. It’s not the table salt, NaCl, that (probably??) does the fixing, but other trace ions that does it. So super market table salt may or may not work. I put a picture in a saturated solution of cheap horse salt for 24 hours in a soda bottle. Worked fine! Re baking soda, it stops fizzling after a minute, and you just have to compensate with more baking soda and/or longer development time. Re C22 film, it can be developed in C41 chemicals if at room temperature. Increase development time to … more.

by ruined 3y ago

reportgunner 3y ago

This. I got three old films developed last month, two were about 10-12 years ago and one was even older. Out of two "younger" films the color one had all it's black replaced by blue and the other one was pushed 3 stops and turned out fine. The "oldest" film was completely blank.

actionfromafar 3y ago

A neat trick is that almost all color film can be developed as a black and white, with cheap black and white developer and fixer. (Of course you will loose the color and get only a black and white picture.) In a pinch, you can mix lukewarm coffee with a generous helping of baking soda for developer, and sea water for fixer. (Not tap water nor lake water.)

ruined 3y ago
i've done the color-as-bw trick, and it works, but everything looks like garbage, more than i would normally expect. baking soda seems like a poor choice, i've heard borax and soda ash (carbonate rather than bicarbonate) more commonly recommended. maybe it would work in a pinch but baking soda is significantly less basic and might produce gas during the reaction which seems problematic. but sea water for fixer, that's interesting, never considered that one. is it really ionic enough? i guess i could boil down a reduction edit: chatgpt seems to think i'd need to concentrate it to saturation and at that point i might as well just use table salt. do you have any experience with this? how does the negative hold up over time?
- actionfromafar 3y ago
  Best is to soak the film in the sea itself for hours, so you get an exchange of fresh ions. It’s not the table salt, NaCl, that (probably??) does the fixing, but other trace ions that does it. So super market table salt may or may not work. I put a picture in a saturated solution of cheap horse salt for 24 hours in a soda bottle. Worked fine! Re baking soda, it stops fizzling after a minute, and you just have to compensate with more baking soda and/or longer development time. Re C22 film, it can be developed in C41 chemicals if at room temperature. Increase development time to … more.