First roll developed - mistakes made and lessons learned

**BigMackCam** · 11-26-2021, 01:23 PM - **13 Likes**

After receiving advice on developing B&W film at home (for which I'm eternally grateful to all who provided input), I recently developed my first roll of 120. Somewhat surprisingly, it was quite successful... but I made some mistakes and learned some lessons in the process.

I used a Paterson changing bag while preparing and loading my film. The first "issue" I ran into is that the bag feels much smaller than it looks when you're working inside it, especially with the AP universal tank in it, and the top has a habit of sagging and getting in the way of things. After unrolling the film from the backing and separating the two, I needed to cut off the adhesive strip left on the film, and found it tricky to keep the bag out of the way of the scissor blades. I worried that I might cut through the bag and expose the film, ruining both. I decided that the kitchen scissors I used are too big, and I need to pick up an inexpensive smaller pair (possibly with rounded ends?).

Loading the 120 film onto a reel was a little challenging, despite several practice runs in advance (with different film stock - relevant, perhaps?). After a number of unsuccessful attempts, I placed the unmounted film in the tank without the reel and secured the top, took my arms out of the bag, and made myself a restorative cup of tea! While drinking that, I looked on YouTube for some tips, and found that straightening the curl in the end of the film roll (by gently bending it back on itself) can help. On my next attempt, this is what I did, and it worked perfectly - I was able to load the film without any problems whatsoever.

At the developing stage, I had jugs containing 590ml of developer solution, the same quantity of water (instead of acid stop) and fixer solution, plus an empty jug for measuring water washes and several plastic bottles full of room temperature tap water - but I didn't label the jugs them. The developer was obvious, but When it came to the "stop", I couldn't remember which jug had water and which had fixer solution - and because Ilford Rapid Fixer is low odour, simply sniffing the contents of the jugs didn't help. Eventually, by looking at the liquid at an angle, I could see that the fixer solution was a bit thicker and the mix was swirling in the reflected light (I don't know if that makes sense?). Even so, I wasn't entirely certain I got those jugs the right way round until after the process was completed. Also, in my haste, I discarded the fixer solution rather than pouring it into an awaiting storage bottle (to my horror, as I'm an evironmentally-aware chap). Wasted fixer, and a bit of silver in the drainage system - oops

After the final washing and wetting, it was time to hang the film to dry - and at this point I noticed that when cutting the adhesive strip from the end whilst in the changing bag, I'd cut too much off. I hadn't cut into the final photo, but I didn't leave enough spare for the hanging clip. As a result, I had to clip over the edge of that last photo (though I was still able to save it by cropping after scanning). Also, the film looked really wet (looking back, I guess it would

), so I decided to use my fingers as a squeegee - but I was wearing a woolly sweater, and hadn't realised that some of the strands from that sweater were on my wet fingers. When I squeegeed the film, I transferred the strands onto the film

I managed to remove most of them, and thankfully none of them contaminated the photos - but I was annoyed at myself for that one!

To those of you seasoned in film development, I'm sure the above doesn't sound too bad, but I found it all a bit stressful on this first occasion. For my next roll, I've learned some lessons to make life easier:

1. Don't wear clothes that shed fibres
2. Use smaller scissors in the changing bag
3. Leave the 120 film attached to the backing paper at the adhesive strip, and push the scissors up against that while cutting to avoid removing too much of the film, and to keep the cut straight
4. Bend back the ends of the film before trying to load onto the reel
5. Label all jugs of solution
6. Have a reminder list of steps at hand, so I don't forget to save the fixer

Despite my mistakes, I got a pretty decent-looking set of negatives and - considering they were only test shots - I got some keepers that I'm quite pleased with, if only for the fact that they're my first home-developed shots

Cross-posted from the "Post your B&W photos" thread, here are four of my favourites:

Last edited by BigMackCam; 11-26-2021 at 10:41 PM.

**FozzFoster** · 11-26-2021, 01:27 PM - **1 Like**

love reading your progress on your home developing project - thanks for sharing - well done

**Michail_P** · 11-26-2021, 01:35 PM - **1 Like**

Your photos are pretty interesting, considering the nature of the shooting. Thank you for sharing your experience. It would definitely benefit guys like me that consider shooting 120 soon enough...

**ismaelg** · 11-26-2021, 02:00 PM - **1 Like**

Wow Mike! Those turn out great! I need to pony up the courage to try that myself. I'm here mailing 3 rolls of 120 for development.
Just curious, what camera did you use for that?

Thanks,
Ismael

**Cerebum** · 11-26-2021, 02:04 PM - **1 Like**

These are really good shots. I bet you are chuffed to bits

**niels hansen** · 11-26-2021, 02:06 PM - **1 Like**

not bad

**BigMackCam** · 11-26-2021, 02:08 PM - **3 Likes**

Originally posted by ismaelg

Wow Mike! Those turn out great! I need to pony up the courage to try that myself. I'm here mailing 3 rolls of 120 for development.
Just curious, what camera did you use for that?

Thanks, Ismael

A man of your talents will have no trouble with it, I'm sure

I used a 1962 Agfa Isola II. It has a simple (but surprisingly decent) 75mm f/6.3 triplet lens, a choice of two apertures - f/6.3 or f/11 - and two shutter speeds - 1/100s and 1/30s (or "B" mode). Setting exposure is therefore a matter of getting as close as possible whilst accepting you'll probably be a bit over or under... and I was estimating the settings using "Sunny-11" (Sunny-16 is a bit optimistic at my latitude

). For focusing distance estimation, I used a Soviet Blik rangefinder - hand-held, as mounting it on the camera makes the shutter button difficult to use.

The film was Fomapan 200, and I developed it in Fomadon R09 (Rodinal) at 1+50 for 10 minutes, with gentle, constant agitation for the first minute and two gentle inversions in the first 10 seconds of every subsequent minute. I used water as a stop bath rather than an acetic or citric acid stop, and Ilford Rapid Fixer at 1+4. I followed the Ilford "reduced water" washing method, with a final rinse having three or four drops of Adox Adoflo II wetting agent added...

Last edited by BigMackCam; 11-26-2021 at 04:08 PM.

**BigMackCam** · 11-26-2021, 02:12 PM

Originally posted by FozzFoster

love reading your progress on your home developing project - thanks for sharing - well done

Originally posted by Michail_P

Your photos are pretty interesting, considering the nature of the shooting. Thank you for sharing your experience. It would definitely benefit guys like me that consider shooting 120 soon enough...

Originally posted by Cerebum

These are really good shots. I bet you are chuffed to bits

Originally posted by niels hansen

not bad

Thanks for the nice feedback, folks

I'm definitely pleased (and not just a little relieved

) that the development worked well enough to give me some useable negatives. I'll have a bit more confidence for round 2

**TwoUptons** · 11-26-2021, 02:39 PM - **2 Likes**

I'm just glad you'll have this thread ready to go for when a concerned neighbour calls the police...

"We saw him in the dark without a shirt on, holding a pair of children's scissors, muttering about wooly threads and getting the right bottle of fixer... frankly, he seemed a bit off..."

And if you think 120 is a pain to load into a Patterson tank, try 4x5...

-Eric

**BigMackCam** · 11-26-2021, 02:54 PM

Originally posted by TwoUptons

I'm just glad you'll have this thread ready to go for when a concerned neighbour calls the police...

"We saw him in the dark without a shirt on, holding a pair of children's scissors, muttering about wooly threads and getting the right bottle of fixer... frankly, he seemed a bit off..."

And if you think 120 is a pain to load into a Patterson tank, try 4x5...

LOL

"Yes, officer - and he said he's got a tank... We're all very worried!"

**NZ_Ross** · 11-26-2021, 02:54 PM - **1 Like**

Originally posted by BigMackCam

Thanks for the nice feedback, folks I'm definitely pleased (and not just a little relieved ) that the development worked well enough to give me some useable negatives. I'll have a bit more confidence for round 2

You are braver than me Mike, I just send my negatives away for developing and scanning

**BigMackCam** · 11-26-2021, 02:59 PM - **1 Like**

Originally posted by NZ_Ross

You are braver than me Mike, I just send my negatives away for developing and scanning

Nothing wrong with using a lab, Ross. I'll be shooting some colour film too, and I'll definitely be sending that off to a lab... temperature controlling my chemicals and equipment is a step too far for me, I think, though I'll still digitise at home...

**NZ_Ross** · 11-26-2021, 03:06 PM - **1 Like**

Originally posted by BigMackCam

Nothing wrong with using a lab, Ross. I'll be shooting some colour film too, and I'll definitely be sending that off to a lab... temperature controlling my chemicals and equipment is a step too far for me, I think, though I'll still digitise at home...

I have read a bit about home developing, and watched Youtube articles. It looks like an interesting process, even using enlargers etc.

Time and patience are my opponents in considering doing that, but hats off to those like you who are rediscovering the craft of film developing

**StiffLegged** · 11-26-2021, 03:13 PM - **1 Like**

Good shadow details there Mike, so the exposures weren't far off. Congratulations on your first trip through the soup!

35mmfilmfan · 11-26-2021, 03:16 PM - **1 Like**

If it's any help, when I did my own processing, I recorded a cassette tape (remember them ?) with music on one track (Tubular Bells) and explicit timed instructions on the other, one tape for each type of film. To this day, whenever I watch The Exorcist, I worry that the light is on !

11-26-2021, 01:23 PM - 13 Likes	#1
BigMackCam Digitiser of Film Join Date: Mar 2010 Location: North East of England Posts: 20,670	First roll developed - mistakes made and lessons learned After receiving advice on developing B&W film at home (for which I'm eternally grateful to all who provided input), I recently developed my first roll of 120. Somewhat surprisingly, it was quite successful... but I made some mistakes and learned some lessons in the process. I used a Paterson changing bag while preparing and loading my film. The first "issue" I ran into is that the bag feels much smaller than it looks when you're working inside it, especially with the AP universal tank in it, and the top has a habit of sagging and getting in the way of things. After unrolling the film from the backing and separating the two, I needed to cut off the adhesive strip left on the film, and found it tricky to keep the bag out of the way of the scissor blades. I worried that I might cut through the bag and expose the film, ruining both. I decided that the kitchen scissors I used are too big, and I need to pick up an inexpensive smaller pair (possibly with rounded ends?). Loading the 120 film onto a reel was a little challenging, despite several practice runs in advance (with different film stock - relevant, perhaps?). After a number of unsuccessful attempts, I placed the unmounted film in the tank without the reel and secured the top, took my arms out of the bag, and made myself a restorative cup of tea! While drinking that, I looked on YouTube for some tips, and found that straightening the curl in the end of the film roll (by gently bending it back on itself) can help. On my next attempt, this is what I did, and it worked perfectly - I was able to load the film without any problems whatsoever. At the developing stage, I had jugs containing 590ml of developer solution, the same quantity of water (instead of acid stop) and fixer solution, plus an empty jug for measuring water washes and several plastic bottles full of room temperature tap water - but I didn't label the jugs them. The developer was obvious, but When it came to the "stop", I couldn't remember which jug had water and which had fixer solution - and because Ilford Rapid Fixer is low odour, simply sniffing the contents of the jugs didn't help. Eventually, by looking at the liquid at an angle, I could see that the fixer solution was a bit thicker and the mix was swirling in the reflected light (I don't know if that makes sense?). Even so, I wasn't entirely certain I got those jugs the right way round until after the process was completed. Also, in my haste, I discarded the fixer solution rather than pouring it into an awaiting storage bottle (to my horror, as I'm an evironmentally-aware chap). Wasted fixer, and a bit of silver in the drainage system - oops After the final washing and wetting, it was time to hang the film to dry - and at this point I noticed that when cutting the adhesive strip from the end whilst in the changing bag, I'd cut too much off. I hadn't cut into the final photo, but I didn't leave enough spare for the hanging clip. As a result, I had to clip over the edge of that last photo (though I was still able to save it by cropping after scanning). Also, the film looked really wet (looking back, I guess it would ), so I decided to use my fingers as a squeegee - but I was wearing a woolly sweater, and hadn't realised that some of the strands from that sweater were on my wet fingers. When I squeegeed the film, I transferred the strands onto the film I managed to remove most of them, and thankfully none of them contaminated the photos - but I was annoyed at myself for that one! To those of you seasoned in film development, I'm sure the above doesn't sound too bad, but I found it all a bit stressful on this first occasion. For my next roll, I've learned some lessons to make life easier: 1. Don't wear clothes that shed fibres 2. Use smaller scissors in the changing bag 3. Leave the 120 film attached to the backing paper at the adhesive strip, and push the scissors up against that while cutting to avoid removing too much of the film, and to keep the cut straight 4. Bend back the ends of the film before trying to load onto the reel 5. Label all jugs of solution 6. Have a reminder list of steps at hand, so I don't forget to save the fixer Despite my mistakes, I got a pretty decent-looking set of negatives and - considering they were only test shots - I got some keepers that I'm quite pleased with, if only for the fact that they're my first home-developed shots Cross-posted from the "Post your B&W photos" thread, here are four of my favourites: Last edited by BigMackCam; 11-26-2021 at 10:41 PM.

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11-26-2021, 01:27 PM - 1 Like	#2
FozzFoster Custom User Title Join Date: Jan 2016 Location: Alberta Photos: Albums Posts: 6,806	love reading your progress on your home developing project - thanks for sharing - well done

11-26-2021, 01:35 PM - 1 Like	#3
Michail_P Site Supporter Join Date: Nov 2019 Location: Kalymnos Photos: Gallery Posts: 3,006	Your photos are pretty interesting, considering the nature of the shooting. Thank you for sharing your experience. It would definitely benefit guys like me that consider shooting 120 soon enough...

11-26-2021, 02:00 PM - 1 Like	#4
ismaelg Loyal Site Supporter Join Date: Apr 2009 Location: Puerto Rico Photos: Gallery Posts: 2,681	Wow Mike! Those turn out great! I need to pony up the courage to try that myself. I'm here mailing 3 rolls of 120 for development. Just curious, what camera did you use for that? Thanks, Ismael

11-26-2021, 02:04 PM - 1 Like	#5
Cerebum Site Supporter Join Date: Oct 2017 Location: Lancaster Photos: Gallery Posts: 3,828	These are really good shots. I bet you are chuffed to bits

11-26-2021, 02:06 PM - 1 Like	#6
niels hansen Site Supporter Join Date: Aug 2017 Posts: 343	not bad

11-26-2021, 02:08 PM - 3 Likes	#7
BigMackCam Digitiser of Film Join Date: Mar 2010 Location: North East of England Posts: 20,670 Original Poster	Originally posted by ismaelg Wow Mike! Those turn out great! I need to pony up the courage to try that myself. I'm here mailing 3 rolls of 120 for development. Just curious, what camera did you use for that? Thanks, Ismael A man of your talents will have no trouble with it, I'm sure I used a 1962 Agfa Isola II. It has a simple (but surprisingly decent) 75mm f/6.3 triplet lens, a choice of two apertures - f/6.3 or f/11 - and two shutter speeds - 1/100s and 1/30s (or "B" mode). Setting exposure is therefore a matter of getting as close as possible whilst accepting you'll probably be a bit over or under... and I was estimating the settings using "Sunny-11" (Sunny-16 is a bit optimistic at my latitude ). For focusing distance estimation, I used a Soviet Blik rangefinder - hand-held, as mounting it on the camera makes the shutter button difficult to use. The film was Fomapan 200, and I developed it in Fomadon R09 (Rodinal) at 1+50 for 10 minutes, with gentle, constant agitation for the first minute and two gentle inversions in the first 10 seconds of every subsequent minute. I used water as a stop bath rather than an acetic or citric acid stop, and Ilford Rapid Fixer at 1+4. I followed the Ilford "reduced water" washing method, with a final rinse having three or four drops of Adox Adoflo II wetting agent added... Last edited by BigMackCam; 11-26-2021 at 04:08 PM.

11-26-2021, 02:12 PM	#8
BigMackCam Digitiser of Film Join Date: Mar 2010 Location: North East of England Posts: 20,670 Original Poster	Originally posted by FozzFoster love reading your progress on your home developing project - thanks for sharing - well done Originally posted by Michail_P Your photos are pretty interesting, considering the nature of the shooting. Thank you for sharing your experience. It would definitely benefit guys like me that consider shooting 120 soon enough... Originally posted by Cerebum These are really good shots. I bet you are chuffed to bits Originally posted by niels hansen not bad Thanks for the nice feedback, folks I'm definitely pleased (and not just a little relieved ) that the development worked well enough to give me some useable negatives. I'll have a bit more confidence for round 2

11-26-2021, 02:39 PM - 2 Likes	#9
TwoUptons Loyal Site Supporter Join Date: Nov 2015 Photos: Albums Posts: 4,213	I'm just glad you'll have this thread ready to go for when a concerned neighbour calls the police... "We saw him in the dark without a shirt on, holding a pair of children's scissors, muttering about wooly threads and getting the right bottle of fixer... frankly, he seemed a bit off..." And if you think 120 is a pain to load into a Patterson tank, try 4x5... -Eric

11-26-2021, 02:54 PM	#10
BigMackCam Digitiser of Film Join Date: Mar 2010 Location: North East of England Posts: 20,670 Original Poster	Originally posted by TwoUptons I'm just glad you'll have this thread ready to go for when a concerned neighbour calls the police... "We saw him in the dark without a shirt on, holding a pair of children's scissors, muttering about wooly threads and getting the right bottle of fixer... frankly, he seemed a bit off..." And if you think 120 is a pain to load into a Patterson tank, try 4x5... LOL "Yes, officer - and he said he's got a tank... We're all very worried!"

11-26-2021, 02:54 PM - 1 Like	#11
NZ_Ross Kiwi Pentaxian Join Date: Mar 2012 Location: Timaru Photos: Gallery \| Albums Posts: 4,225	Originally posted by BigMackCam Thanks for the nice feedback, folks I'm definitely pleased (and not just a little relieved ) that the development worked well enough to give me some useable negatives. I'll have a bit more confidence for round 2 You are braver than me Mike, I just send my negatives away for developing and scanning

11-26-2021, 02:59 PM - 1 Like	#12
BigMackCam Digitiser of Film Join Date: Mar 2010 Location: North East of England Posts: 20,670 Original Poster	Originally posted by NZ_Ross You are braver than me Mike, I just send my negatives away for developing and scanning Nothing wrong with using a lab, Ross. I'll be shooting some colour film too, and I'll definitely be sending that off to a lab... temperature controlling my chemicals and equipment is a step too far for me, I think, though I'll still digitise at home...

11-26-2021, 03:06 PM - 1 Like	#13
NZ_Ross Kiwi Pentaxian Join Date: Mar 2012 Location: Timaru Photos: Gallery \| Albums Posts: 4,225	Originally posted by BigMackCam Nothing wrong with using a lab, Ross. I'll be shooting some colour film too, and I'll definitely be sending that off to a lab... temperature controlling my chemicals and equipment is a step too far for me, I think, though I'll still digitise at home... I have read a bit about home developing, and watched Youtube articles. It looks like an interesting process, even using enlargers etc. Time and patience are my opponents in considering doing that, but hats off to those like you who are rediscovering the craft of film developing

11-26-2021, 03:13 PM - 1 Like	#14
StiffLegged Site Supporter Join Date: Jan 2018 Photos: Gallery Posts: 4,617	Good shadow details there Mike, so the exposures weren't far off. Congratulations on your first trip through the soup!

11-26-2021, 03:16 PM - 1 Like	#15
35mmfilmfan Pentaxian Join Date: Oct 2016 Location: Norfolk, UK Posts: 4,329	If it's any help, when I did my own processing, I recorded a cassette tape (remember them ?) with music on one track (Tubular Bells) and explicit timed instructions on the other, one tape for each type of film. To this day, whenever I watch The Exorcist, I worry that the light is on !