This assignment simply aims at getting everyone familiar with basic darkroom work. The theory of darkroom chemistry is discussed in Chemistry . The processing work itself is discussed in "Basic Darkroom Operations" and some of the details are reviewed in "Technical Darkroom Issues." The definitive source on darkroom theory and technique is Ansel Adams's book, The Print. (See the bibliography). You should take pictures early in the two-week period so that we can meet in the darkroom for an instructional session. The critique meeting will aim specifically at darkroom issues as reflected in the prints that we review. Please see special comments on the HSS darkroom before you start.
Film and paper development involve very simple chemical principles even though contemporary commercial chemicals have become fairly sophisticated. Black and white photography is based on micro-crystals of a light sensitive silver salt (often silver bromide) that are suspended in a gelatinous emulsion coated on a clear plastic sheet (film) or opaque durable white paper (prints). The principle of "development" is based on chemical kinetics. The developer is a mild reducing agent that will reduce Ag+ to free metallic Ag. Micro-crystalline silver salt which has been "activated" by light will reduce faster than micro-crystals that have not been activated, in proportion to the extent of activation. Thus, development for a carefully limited time will deposit microscopic silver crystals wherever light struck the emulsion. If development continues too long, all silver will be reduced and the negative or print will be black. Normal development leaves unreduced silver salts in the emulsion and these would eventually reduce to silver in the air and light. The fixing process simply removes the residual silver salts so that no further deposition of silver can take place. The range of grays (the "gray scale") from black to white is a function of the silver density deposited in the emulsion.
Begin by acquainting yourselves with the darkroom environment. There is a "wet side" and a "dry side;" materials should not be intermingled between sides! Chemical spills should always be cleaned up immediately. The dry counter should be kept clean and clear of debris. Familiarize yourself with the position of the light switches, and accustom yourself to the normal darkroom light level with safety lights on.
Film development. Select a clean development tank and make sure that all parts are present and in good condition. Since loading film in the tank requires complete darkness, you should clear and clean a dry area and lay out the tank parts so that you will be able to find them when you need them. You will also need scissors so that you can cut the film strip; and you will need a prying instrument if your film is in a commercial metal canister. When you have loaded and closed the development tank, you can turn on the lights; you can pause development at this point. [The critical part of film loading is feeding the film onto the spool. It is a good idea to take some practice runs in the light with a length of film stock sacrificed for this purpose.]
Before you begin to develop the film, you need to know the exact temperature of the developer solution. [If you are mixing fresh solution, you should do this before you load the tank so that it has time to adjust to room temperature.] All solutions should be reasonably close to the same temperature. Development times assume a temperature of 20 oC and you can find these in the technical data provided for the developer. [See web sites for Kodak and Ilford.] Look up the development time for the developer you are using and the film that you are developing. If the developer temperature is not 20 oC, use the conversion table provided in the technical data to determine the proper development time. [Colder solution requires long time and warmer solution requires less time.] Also take note of the times required for fixing and washing your film.
Film development proceeds rapidly from this point on. Open the pour-cap to the tank and pour in enough developer to amply cover the film spool. Start the timer immediately; close the cap; and agitate the tank for 10 seconds with numerous inversions culminating in several sharps taps to the bottom of the tank (to dislodge any bubbles adhering to the film surface). Repeat agitation at least once every minute of development time. At the end of development, pour the developer into its storage bottle, and flush the tank with water once. Add stop solution and very briefly agitate. Remove stop solution to its storage bottle, and flush with water again. Add fixer and set the timer. Agitate while fixing in the same manner. Follow the same procedures with hypo-clearing solution (Orbit bath). After the hypo clear, you can remove the top from the tank and simply run water into the tank for about ten minutes. At the very end, remove the spool from the tank; take the film strip off the spool; immerse the strip in Photo Flo solution momentarily; and squeegee the length of film dry with a clean dampened film squeegee. Hang the film strip to dry. When the film is dry, use a sharp pair of scissors to cut it into six-frame segments and store these in a plastic sheath (obtainable at photo supply stores).
Printing.
To print a negative (or portion thereof), mount the negative in the negative carrier for the enlarger and open up the enlarger lens as far as you can so as to produce the brightest image possible. Turn lights down to the safety light and focus the image on the printing easel. Move the enlarger head up-or-down to select the portion of the negative you want to print. Refocus and compose. When you have settled on an image and focused it as well as possible, close the lens back to minimum light (usually f/16). Set the timer for 3 or 4 second intervals and expose a test strip of paper by moving an opaque shade across the strip. Develop this strip and inspect it under the light.
You may have to open the lens a stop to admit more light and you may have to run another test strip. Eventually, you should be able to use the test strip to estimate the exposure time for a "working print." The working print, once developed, gives you a good opportunity to study all aspects of the image completely. Is it the composition you want? Are there any disturbing parts that should be cut out? Are there any particles or hairs that need to be cleaned off the negative? When these details have been taken care of, it is time to consider the exposure itself. Begin by examining the white zones. The exposure should be sufficiently long to bring out texture and detail in the white zones (presuming they exist in the negative) but not so long that the white zones begin to look muddy or gray. At this point, you may want to print another working print with enough exposure time to properly adjust the white zones.
Having established the exposure for the whites, it is now time to study the whole image from the point of view of contrast. An exciting photographic image has a wide range of contrasting grays from white to black. If your image, printed on low contrast paper with white light, looks rather muddy gray with little contrast range (even though it has been properly exposed for the whites), you need to use a higher contrast paper or, with multigrade papers (like Ilford Multigrade IV Deluxe) you need to use one of the filters from the Ilford filter kit. [Lowest numbers represent low contrast and highest numbers represent high contrast.] Some adjustment of exposure time may be necessary but, once again, you are trying to expose for best detail in the white zones. The result should be an image with more interesting contrasts of black to white. [Much of this will depend on the negative itself, of course, and you will learn to judge how to print particular negatives by examining the contrast that you see.] You are now ready to process the print chemically.
For Ilford developers, see the technical information at http://www.ilford.com/html/us_english/bw.html and download the appropriate PDF files for printing.
Arrange the trays in the sink for development, stop, fixing 1, fixing 2, hypo-clear, and water washing.
If you use old solutions which have been left in the trays or stored in bottles, make sure that you know how old they are and how many papers were processed. If you do not know this information, throw the solutions away and make fresh solutions! If you save your solutions for later work or for use by other students, be sure to carefully mark the creation date and the number of prints processed.
Set the process timer for the appropriate times. Ilford RC paper developer is fast, requiring only one minute for development if you dilute it 1-9. Place the print face down in the developer tray (to avoid fogging by the safelights) and start the process timer. Agitate the print by rocking the tray. Be sure to thoroughly stop development by completely immersing your print in the stop bath and agitating it for at least 30 seconds. The Ilford RC fixer is also a rapid processing agent. We use two fixing solutions so that fixer 1 absorbs the residual chemicals and fixer 2 completes the process and remains fairly pure. (Periodically, fixer 2 should be moved to fixer 1 and new fixer solution made for fixer 2.) The print should be fixed with agitation for at least 30 seconds total, but do not over-fix the print. With about 60 seconds in hypo-clearing agent, your print should be well washed after about five more minutes in running water. Do not leave prints in the water wash too long because water can begin to penetrate the edges of the resin coating.
To dry RC papers, either pat dry with paper towels or use a clean squeegee on a flat surface. Set the prints out to air dry.
Updated on August 2, 2002; click here to return to Course HomePage.