Glen Tortorella wrote: > Thank you very much, Scott. I have been wanting to try developing my > own prints, but I have feared doing so. I tend to be a > perfectionist, and I fear disappointment. I do not have the > equipment, either. What would I need? It would be great to have > someone show me the correct way of doing it... > > Regards, > Glen > > You don't need a darkroom. I process mine at the kitchen sink in broad daylight. You will need a changing bag (get the largest you can afford), a daylight tank, chemicals (developer, stop bath, fixer, fixer remover, and a rinse agent), bottles to store the chemicals in once you mix them, and some graduated containers for measuring the chemicals. A darkroom thermometer is good to have, too. A lot of people use darkroom timers. A cheap stop watch works fine for me. I typically buy Kodak chemicals because that's what the local shops carry. But if you have a look at the B&H web site, or freestyle photo or digitaltruth.com you'll find plenty of options. My recommendation is to keep it simple. Buy a general purpose developer like D-76, Rodinal or HC-110 and stick with it until you get the hang of things. I don't believe the rest of the chemicals really affect the appearance of your photos, so just use whatever you can get.
Beyond developing, you'll need some way to present your photos. If you're up to building a darkroom, you'll need an enlarger and a bunch of other stuff. On the other hand, you can get flat bed scanners with film carriers or used dedicated film scanners fairly cheap. Either will work fine with black and white film. -- Scott Loveless http://www.twosixteen.com/fivetoedsloth/ -- PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List [email protected] http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net
