While digital photography has taken the chemicals and darkroom out of creating photographs, the old standard still has value. Developing film is a skill and an art because you can have direct control how the film is finished by your own hand rather than the digital computer brain. Film developing may stain your hands a bit and smell a bit, but it gives a much more hands-on approach and is an ideal teaching method for beginners.
Basics
One of the best ways to instill the love of photography into anyone is to have the person shoot with film and develop it himself. All you need is a film tank and reel for 35mm film, the proper chemicals, a dark room to load the film and a timer. Contrary to movies and TV, you can't load film in a room with a safelight. It must be loaded in total darkness, so it must be done by touch. One can learn this by practicing it many times in the light with a blank strip of film. When you can do it with your eyes closed, you're ready. Black and white film is the easiest to develop because it takes fewer chemicals, less time and has a wider range of temperature tolerance. All you need for black and white is developer, stop bath, fixer, photo-flo (to reduce spotting) and running water to wash the chemicals away.
Standard Developing
Load the film in a dark room into a "daylight" film tank. This can be plastic or stainless steel. Stainless steel is more reliable, but the reels are harder to load. In a plastic tank, you just feed the film into the outside of the reel, then walk it in using both sides of the reel in a back-and-forth motion. In a stainless-steel tank, there is a clip at the center of the reel. Bend the film slightly to get it into the clip, then wind it outward from the center. Seal the tank and take it into a room with subdued lighting. Start the timer, pour the developer into the tank and put the cap on. Rotate the tank by turning it upside down and right-side up about every 20 seconds for the duration of development. Developing Kodak T-Max 400 ISO film in Kodak T-Max developer, for example, should be developed for seven minutes at 68 degrees Fahrenheit. Then pour in the stop bath for about 30 seconds, rotating the tank. Pour out the stop bath and pour in the fixer. The longer you fix film, the more stability it will have. Fix for at least 10 minutes. Use Photo-Flo to reducing spotting, then wash the film by allowing 68-degree water run through the tank for at least 45 minutes. Hang the film to dry.
Push Developing
Beyond basic developing, you also can "push" film. This can be done to increase the image density on film you suspect is under-exposed, for example. To push the film to fix this, increase the temperature and the development time. For example, if you think the film may have been under-exposed by one stop, develop it at 70 degrees for eight minutes. If the film was over-exposed, keep the temperature at 68 degrees, but decrease the development time to five or six minutes. There are a variety of chemicals available, too, including old standbys such as Rodinal and Edwal. It often is the best practice to use chemicals specifically designed for the film you are using, but you can use other chemicals. Follow the instructions with the developer.
Tags: stop bath, dark room, development time, film tank, Kodak T-Max