DEVELOPING PHOTOS

IN THE DARKROOM

We take millions of pictures everyday, most on our Iphones, some on digital cameras, but nowadays rarely on film cameras. With digital cameras as soon as we click the shutter, we see our pictures instantly, editing them with filters and fixing the brightness, but with film cameras the fun of it is that you don’t get the photo in that same instant. You have to wait until the photo has been fully developed in the darkroom just to see one picture.

The darkroom is a room designed for developing film photos. Photos can’t develop after being exposed to light, so a dark room is essentially a completely dark room solely lit by safelights that are safe to use when developing.

Before stepping into the darkroom, you need to remove the roll of film from your camera. The film can’t be taken out in the darkroom because the safelights are still sensitive to the film causing possible exposure.

Place your camera in a black box and remove the roll from the back of the camera. This step is only using your hands, so you won’t be able to see what you're doing.

Once you are done taking it out of the camera and still intact in the roll you are able to now take it to the darkroom. Once you enter the darkroom, be sure to turn off all the lights. Now you are limited to seeing only what the safelights illuminate.

1.plGrab a sheet of photo paper and place it under the enlarger. This machine allows you to place film under a lens which then is mirrored to fit to the size of your photo paper

2.pl The timer connected to the enlarger will transfer your photo to the paper. The timer ensures that you don’t take the photo paper out from under the enlarger before it has the time to fully expose. Adjust the timer based on the size of the photo paper, but the standard would be for around 30 seconds

Now in the wash station is where you are able to see your picture gradually develop. You rinse your photo paper through 3 different chemicals and then at the end rinse through water to develop the actual photo. During steps 2-4 you have to gently shake the tray to allow the chemicals to fully seep through the paper. Also remember to use tongs, when moving the paper to the next solution.

1.plPour the developer, stop bath, and fixer into three separate trays. Fill the trays up enough to be able to soak the film paper

2.plSoak the photo paper in the developer for 2 minutes