Actual Developing and Fixing Process for Black and White Film

Development in a daylight tank with intermittent motion is the most common method for 35mm and medium format films (roll films), but it is also suitable for sheet film. The use of such a tank enables the user to produce clean, uniformly developed negatives, while allowing accurate control of development factors.
When developing film, regular movement patterns should be followed to develop the film evenly and keep it free of flow marks. Irregularities in development due to improper agitation are a major cause of many poor quality negatives. Negative effects such as edge enhancement, streaking, irregular densities, and spotting can be caused by insufficient agitation or by excessive agitation.

• When films are agitated little or not at all, or are left undisturbed for long periods without agitation, the accumulation of development by-products is not adequately replaced by fresh developer solution. This can produce uneven development results.
• Excessive agitation may result in increased development at the edges of the film or plate due to the increased turbulence of the developer at the edges of the film or plate, or due to the perforations of the developing bars.

Step 1: Development

Pour your mixed developer solution quickly but steadily. Once your tank is filled with chemistry, start your timer and begin moving the tank. Depending on the tank you are using, different styles of movement can be used, ranging from total inversion movement to simply using a spindle to rotate the film.

Development recommendations are usually printed on the inside or outside of the film packaging (also: XXXXMassive Dev Chart).
The development times suggested there usually result in a level of development suitable for the types of work for which the particular material is most often used. (XXXXSee Delta 3200 – actually a push development)

Longer or shorter times should only be used if one’s own experience shows that increasing or decreasing the degree of development is necessary for one’s own method of working and the type of camera or enlarging equipment used.

Developing times are also included with most developers. However, the times given in conjunction with each developer formula and on the labels of packaged developers are necessarily average times that will give good results with most materials.

Most commonly used is Inversion (Agitation): move the tank continuously for the first 30 seconds and then every 60 seconds for 10-15 seconds. This scheme is a standard method; however, it can be modified depending on the processing method, developer type, or for a change in contrast.
When you are finished developing, pour the used developer into a suiteable container for waste container if you used a one-shot developer, or return the developer to its bottle if it is reusable.
Fill the tank with water and empty it again. This step acts as a stop bath to stop the development process and is an alternative to using the proper stop bath chemistry.

also see: factors influencing the development

Step 2: Fixing

After the development step, empty your tank and fill the tank with your working solution of fixer. Similar to during development, you should move the tank continuously for the first 30 seconds, then every 60 seconds for 10 seconds. Fixing usually takes about 5 minutes total, a minute or so longer won’t hurt, but the total time is not as critical as during development. After you have fixed your film, be sure to dump the solution back into the bottle using the funnel or graduator provided for the fixer.

Step 3: Washing and Drying the Film

Now that the fixation is complete, you are essentially done developing your film and can now remove the cap from your tank; however, I would recommend leaving your film on the spools for the washing process.

See: Washing Films