Once upon a time, professional photographers preferred slides to negatives because of the brilliant colors. Kodachrome, Kodak's best slide film, dominated both the art of both professional and amateur photographers, and gave Paul Simon an early solo hit song. With digital technology taking over the photographic world, slides are becoming an endangered species. Yet, 35mm slides are still a viable art form.
Instructions
1. Choose your slide film. Fujifilm makes a variety of Fujichrome slide film rolls in 35mm format at different speeds. Kodak makes Kodachrome, Elite Chrome and Ektachrome slide films. Kodachrome must be processed in a factory, but most others can be processed at home with E-6 chemicals.
2. Shoot your slides in various conditions---inside and outdoors, with flash and without---to get a good sense of what type film you prefer. If you used Kodachrome film, send it out for processing and mounting.
3. Develop your slides at home. There are two E-6 methods, a three-step or six-step process. The preferred method is the six-step process because it gives better control over color rendition. Roll your slide film into a 35mm reel (stainless still is best) in total darkness and seal it inside the developing tank. Wash your film in developer bath at 100 degrees Fahrenheit for six minutes. Next, wash the film in water for two minutes at the same temperature. Wash the film in a reversal bath for two minutes at about the same temperature, give or take a few degrees.
4. Wash the film in color developer for six minutes at plus or minus 100 degrees Fahrenheit. Next, pre-bleach the film for two minutes between 90 and 103 degrees. Bleach the film for six minutes at the same temperature. Wash the film by running water through the tank. Use the fixer at 100 degrees for four minutes. Consider dumping the fixer and fix again in fresh chemicals to make the film last longer. You also can use a spot-reducing agent after this step, often called Photo-Flo. Dry the film.
5. Mount your slides on plastic slide mounts and snap them shut. The images then can be shown through a slide projector. Don't mount the slides if you want to batch scan them into a computer using a flatbed scanner.
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