Just developed my first roll at home

Chris L

Chris L

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Having had a crash course last week, I've just had a go at developing my first roll of film (Acros 100, 120 format). It's currently hanging up, drying. How long should I leave it to dry?

I had some trouble getting the roll onto the spiral as about halfway through loading it jumped off the one side and it took some faffing to get it sorted. I think they may explain why there's some problems with the film. Shots 3 and 4 have a 1" thick dark bar coming halfway down the frame and shots 1,2 & 7 seem to have a thin bar going all the way down the height of the frame. Is this the sort of thing that I could expect if the film didn't load onto the spiral properly?

If it dries in time I'll snip a couple of frames off and take them to college and do prints of them :)
 
Sounds like a similar problem I had with acros 120 in paterson reels recently. Went on easily but towards the end popped out of one side of the track. Annoying and does end up with marks. I usually leave mine to dry overnight as I process in the evenings.
 
menthel said:
Sounds like a similar problem I had with acros 120 in paterson reels recently. Went on easily but towards the end popped out of one side of the track. Annoying and does end up with marks. I usually leave mine to dry overnight as I process in the evenings.
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Thanks for the reply:) I was also using a Paterson reel/tank and like you, I found it easy to get the film started on the spiral which was a pleasant surprise. I'll set up the desktop over the weekend and scan a couple to show the marks but thinking about it, could marks be where the spirals of film have been touching each other?

I've read something about using a hair dryer at it's lowest setting, held at a distance and constantly moved as a way of drying film quickly & safely. Does that sound safe?
 
I've done the hairdryer trick, but only when I've been completely rushed for something, BITD... it's got a habit of curling the film as one side drys faster than the other. Personally, unless there was a customer waiting for his roll of unmounted E6 and the drying cabinet had blown a fuse again, I'd let it dry naturally...
 
Difficult to tell without seeing the negatives (at least for me). I ended up with some little cresent shaped marks where the film had bent and kinked. Not terrible but not confidence instilling either! ;)

I have never used a hairdryer- I would be afraid of melting the negatives. Perhaps some of our more impatient members can advise! :)
 
The vertical bands sound like the film was in contact during the developing and so wont have developed evenly. A picture would help though :)
 
Thanks for the replies guys. I'll not bother with the hair dryer...the only shots I'd really like to see as prints are 1 & 2 which have the bars down them. I'll set the scanner up on the weekend and have my first go at scanning a negative :) I've got a roll of 100 T-Max waiting to be developed so I'll give that a go tomorrow and see what the results are like. One thing I found was that I could "guide" the film better when I hold the spiral with the roll of film between me and the spiral so that I can use my thumbs to try and stop the film buckling IYSWIM
 
Can empathise re loading the spiral.....very frustrating when either the film refuses to start or worse when it pops out half way through.
Agree with Rob re the vertical bands....if you do get to post the pics someone I'm sure will be able to confirm where the problem lies.
Something else worth remembering is the backing paper....I recently ruined 3 negs on a 127 film which is so tightly curled it really is a pain in the rear to spool.
So much so I ended up completely removing the backin paper and spooling by starting the film from the other end.
Unbeknown to me some remnants of backing paper was still attached....during the dev process the "contents" of the paper effectively disintegrated and spoiled 3 negs of the film...the ones nearest the centre of the spool.
All of us who home dev will have had and will continue to have the occassional cock up...part of the fun and frustrations! lol
Congratulations on your first attempt.....don't let the bands dishearten you too much ...before long you will become a dab hand at it!
As for drying ....only natural for me, never used a hairdyer except to "air" spools before loading them .....if they are humid at all then it can make film even more difficult to load!
 
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Asha said:
All of us who home dev will have had and will continue to have the occassional cock up...part of the fun and frustrations! lol
Congratulations on your first attempt.....don't let the bands dishearten you too much ...before long you will become a dab hand at it!
As for drying ....only natural for me, never used a hairdyer except to "air" spools before loading them .....if they are humid at all then it can make film even more difficult to load!
Click to expand...

Occasional cock-up?! I'm currently averaging an alarmingly high cock-up rate, must be rusty as i haven't devved a film for a while before this last one

As Asha says, dont be disheartened, load up another film and try again :thumbs:

I've still got my first set of negatives in my folder, they are in a right state, kinked, ripped sprocket holes, surge marks... Nearly everything which could go wrong, did go wrong...
 
Asha said:
It has been noticed! :D :D
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Only by you, no-one else reads my 52 :D I made a promise that i would always upload a photo from a roll, even if i shafted the developing :nuts:
 
Asha said:
Can empathise re loading the spiral.....very frustrating when either the film refuses to start or worse when it pops out half way through.
Agree with Rob re the vertical bands....if you do get to post the pics someone I'm sure will be able to confirm where the problem lies.
Something else worth remembering is the backing paper....I recently ruined 3 negs on a 127 film which is so tightly curled it really is a pain in the rear to spool.
So much so I ended up completely removing the backin paper and spooling by starting the film from the other end.
Unbeknown to me some remnants of backing paper was still attached....during the dev process the "contents" of the paper effectively disintegrated and spoiled 3 negs of the film...the ones nearest the centre of the spool.
All of us who home dev will have had and will continue to have the occassional cock up...part of the fun and frustrations! lol
Congratulations on your first attempt.....don't let the bands dishearten you too much ...before long you will become a dab hand at it!
As for drying ....only natural for me, never used a hairdyer except to "air" spools before loading them .....if they are humid at all then it can make film even more difficult to load!
Click to expand...

Cheers for the comments. TBH I've put it down to the learning process that everyone will go through and I'm resigned to the prospect of maybe losing some shots due to cockups :D

I think it helped rereading a thread that Danny started about his frustrations when he first tried his own home developing :)
 
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