The Chemical Side of Photography

As a film photographer one of the benefits in my opinion is the hands on approach that you have in regards to your final print.  I personally specialize in black and white photography so my thoughts on the chemical side of photography will be slanted in that direction. I enjoy handling and developing film.  I personally find 120 roll film and large format sheet film the easiest to work with.  The few times that I do handle small format 35mm film I find it much more difficult than the larger films.  The process of traditional photography and its magic never gets old to me.  I’ve used plenty of non-film based cameras and while they can be the right tool for certain jobs, I miss the process of developing real film and printing in the darkroom.  Of course I can scan my film with my Epson V750 pro scanner and bring it into Lightroom and/or Photoshop and make all of the same type of edits that I do in the darkroom, but there is that lacking of the physical process that I personally miss.  Hitting the print button from Photoshop can absolutely produce beautiful prints, it just doesn’t give me the same level of satisfaction and sense of accomplishment as I get from making hand made silver gelatin prints in the darkroom.  I do use my digital printer as a way to produce proof sheets just as I do in the darkroom.  For example, if I am scanning a series of negatives for whatever reason I will make the edits as I normally would and then use templates that I created in Lightoom to produce what looks like a contact proof sheet.  I place this along with the real contact sheets form the darkroom in my negative portfolio for reference in the future.

For me it is not all about the appearance of the final print because I can produce beautiful prints on my large format Epson 3880 using Hahnemuhle baryta fine art paper.  For non-professional or family events I do own a couple digital cameras and to me this medium is easy, mindless and exactly what I am looking for in this type of photography.  I own the very small and powerful Canon S95 that I wouldn’t trade for anything and the next step up is the Nikon P7000 that borders on becoming a full DSLR without the ability to change lenses.  Both cameras shoot RAW format and produce fantastic photographs.  These two cameras go everywhere with me and I use them all the time.  Speaking of powerful, that little Canon S95 has the best low-light capabilities that I have seen in just about any compact or DSLR except for the professional high end Nikon D3S.  I suppose that a price of $399 for the S95 vs. $5200 for the D3S isn’t a fair match, but the fact that I even compare them is a testament to the capabilities of the S95.

The Chemistry

You don’t need to be a chemist to be a successful black and white film photographer.  After you learn the basics and do it for a while it becomes second nature to you.  It all begins with our original exposure of the film where the latent image is waiting to be activated and altered by the silver halide crystals.  The image will ultimately be reduced to to metallic silver by your developer.  I’ve written an article on how to choose a black and white film developer that you may want to read.  The physical and chemical process is part of why I love traditional black and white film photography.  Not only do I have total control over the development and printing process from an artistic perspective but I get the personal satisfaction of having made something with my hands.  I think this is something that we miss in the high-tech world today that we live in.  I personally think as we get further into the technology world and Internet social media culture where we are producing fewer actual things that traditional photography will become even more appealing to some people.

The same reduction to metallic silver takes place when we are printing as it does with our films in the darkroom.  You will have more density in areas that received the most light in your exposure.  The key point to really remember about your density is your developer (time and temperature) and your agitation technique will play a big role in the final outcome.   You can probably guess that we need to get rid of the residual silver halides that didn’t get activated so we put our film in an acid stop bath and fixer to halt the development process and also fix the image onto the film/paper thereby neutralizing the alkaline in our developer before removing the remaining silver halide from the emulsion. If we didn’t remove the remaining silver halide from our film/prints you can probably guess they would be activated by light over time and ruin your film/print.

The Developer

I think Ansel Adams said it best when he recommend the use of as few developers as possible.  I’ve seen people wildly use developers and have no idea how to control the outcome because too many variables are involved (e.g., developer, time, temp, agitation, etc).  I’ve talked to many people that have no idea why they are using their current developer or more likely developers. If there is any advice you should ever take it would be to focus on one developer until you master it and I am willing to bet that a single developer could accomplish the vast majority of your objectives.  You may never need another developer ever again if you choose wisely.  Spend your time taking photographs or learning more about composition as opposed to wasting your time chasing the perfect developer.  It is a fruitless monster that eats your time and has no return.

When you choose your developer one thing I must stress is consistent use of temperature throughout your process unless you are using Diafine.  For more reasons that I can get into in this article you should strive for the standard temperature of 68F/20C.  At warmer temperatures the film emulsion swells in addition to other factors that you should avoid.  If you use roll film and develop in tanks or you are a large format sheet photographer and develop in trays the same principles still apply.  A water bath is a good way to help control your developer temperature.  If you use steel tanks for development these are good conductors and respond very well to temperature adjustments.  A water bath is just a tray or sink of water at a controlled temperature to help stabilize the temperature of your tank or trays.  You can use larger darkroom trays or even pans or Tupperware from your kitchen.  One of the best investments you can make is a quality thermometer for use in your darkroom.  The gold standard in my opinion is the Kodak Type 3 process thermometer.  You can find them on e-bay for a very reasonable price.  This is a tool that can make or break you and it will be something that you use for a lifetime so don’t cut corners on your thermometer.

A good test for roll film users is to measure your temperature at the start of the development process and then again at the end of your cycle.  Just mix up some developer, shoot a roll of sample images and perform the test.  You want the test variables to be as close to your actual process as possible.  If you have a difference of more than 1 degree then you need to find a way to minimize this gap in your process.  A water bath as mentioned above is a good choice.

Stop Bath

After development comes the stop bath.  The job of the stop bath is very simple.  It is to stop the development of your film and to preserve the life of your fixer.  The stop bath process is typically only 30 seconds so it is fast and easy.  I use an acid stop bath as opposed to a water stop bath.

Fixer

Between the fixing and washing of your film these are very important steps to remove all the unwanted silver halides from your finished negative.  If the residual halides are left on our negatives and prints for that matter then our film and paper will deteriorate over time and this is not a desirable outcome.  As you can imagine the silver halides are light sensitive and if you left them on your film and prints that would not be good.  The stop bath and fixer also neutralizes the alkaline in our developer which is important as well.

I hope you can use this information to help build or confirm your base of knowledge in traditional black and white film photography.

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Tim Layton

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Tim Layton

© Tim Layton – All Rights Reserved – 2011. You may not republish or use any information or media of any format, in part or in whole, without my written permission. For permission and more information you can contact Tim Layton on the web at blog.blackandwhitefineart.net or via email at tim@blackandwhitefineart.net or via the telephone at 636.422.0002