Developing by inspection.

Asha

Asha

Blithering Idiot
Suspended / Banned
Messages
11,274
Name
Asha
Edit My Images
Yes
I suspect this posting may have some experienced people rolling about laughing at my ignorance....please accept my apologies if it is a ridiculous question but if i don't ask then I won't know!

I have found some snippets of info on the internet regarding developing by inspection.
Sadly i do not have access to a darkroom....hence there lies a potential problem.

Saying that, I did read somewhere that a film could be developed in a tank ( in my case a patterson) and stop bathed at x amount of minutes, removed from the tank and inspected in a dimly lit room. I understand that the film will continue to develop until it is fixed but I presume only very slowly.

Assuming that the film can be inspected in this way and turns out to be under exposed, is it then possible to lengthen the developer time once replaced into the tank or will the stop bath have made this impossible.
 
I don't know the exact answer but I'd assume that any room dark enough not to cause the film to over develop would be too dark to tell if the negative are exposed/developed properly. I stand to be corrected though.
 
IIRC Orthochromatic films can be developed under a dim red light as they are not redlight sensitive (like papers.)
 
puggie said:
IIRC Orthochromatic films can be developed under a dim red light as they are not redlight sensitive (like papers.)
Click to expand...

This

you would only be able to dev Ortho film (or paper negs I suppose), and you would most definitely not be able to then inspect in a dimly lit room. It would have to be a completely dark room, lit only by red light

TBH the benefits don't really seem to outweigh the massive inconvenience if you don't have a darkroom to begin with. Experimentation with pan film is going to be much easier, and if you really need to you could do a clip test with the first few frames of a critical roll (provided you remember to take some none critical shots at the end or start of the roll)
 
Back in the day when I used to develop my own BW film I learnt that part of getting consistent negatives is to stick exactly to the temperature and times for the developing chemicals.

If I wanted to push the film I could do that but again consistency is vital.

In order to develop the film I had a 'change bag' and a film developing canister. Once the film was on the spiral developing reel it was put in the canister and was then safe to take out of the change bag. It was all actually very easy !
 
Well I'm glad that I asked those of you in the know as I was a little sceptical of what I read about being able to view the negs under a dim light prior to fixing....Would have been ideal at times ( especially when developing old films) had it been possible.
As I said originally, if I dont ask then I don't know.
Thank you all for your help.
 
It is possible to develop B&W by inspection - some pro labs offer it for an extra charge, I'm not quite sure how they do it though.
 
I doubt what they are offering is true developing by inspection, but more likely examination under the dimmest of dim green safelights for a ver short period of time at the end of the dev process so they can see roughly how far along the film is. From prior experience though these safelights are almost impossible to see in, very different to the red lights we're used to.
Long exposure to the green light will still fog the pan film though
 
Paper negative development by inspection (and experience) on the Afghan box camera project. I presume there's a red filtered window somewhere in the construction. Looks an interesting design.
 
Night vision goggles?

Apparently loved by more than 1 or 2 Large format photographers to tray develop LF and ULF images.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top