Processing Black and White Photos

Here is what you should have:

• black and white film that has been exposed;
• complete darkness;
• a dry counter top;
• a bottle cap opener to open the 35 mm film cartridge;
• scissors;
• a film developing tank;
• reels that fit into the tank (one per roll of film);
• film processing chemicals - developer and fixer;
• optional chemicals (recommended) - stop bath, hypo clearing agent and wetting agent;
• a container in which chemicals can be mixed;
• a stirring rod to mix chemicals;
• a graduated beaker for measuring amounts of chemicals;
• chemical storage bottles;
• a darkroom thermometer;
• a timer (a stopwatch will do);
• a funnel;
• running water that can be maintained at a constant temperature;
• a washing hose;
• a sponge squeegee to remove water from the film (not essential, but helpful);
• clips for hanging negatives; and
• a dust-free location to hang the film to dry.

PROCESS:
In modern automatic processing machines, this step is replaced by mechanical squeegee or pinching rollers. These treatments remove much of the carried-over alkaline developer, and the acid, when used, neutralizes the alkalinity to reduce the contamination of the fixing bath with the developer.

• The fixer makes the image permanent and light-resistant by dissolving any remaining silver halide salts. Fixer is sometimes called hypo, a misnomer originating from casually shortened form of the alchemist's name hyposulphite. Neither hyposulphite, hyposulfite, nor hypo is used to mean thiosulfate in modern chemistry.^[2]

• Washing in clean water removes any remaining fixer. Residual fixer can corrode the silver image, leading to discolouration, staining and fading. The washing time can be reduced and the fixer more completely removed if a hypo clearing agent is used after the fixer.

• Film may be rinsed in a dilute solution of a non-ionic wetting agent to assist uniform drying, which eliminates drying marks caused by hard water. (In very hard water areas, a pre-rinse in distilled water may be required - otherwise the final rinse wetting agent can cause residual ionic calcium on the film to drop out of solution, causing spotting on the negative.)

• Film is then dried in a dust-free environment, cut and placed into protective sleeves.

• Once the film is processed, it is then referred to as a negative. The next step in photographic processing is to enlarge the negative.

• The negative will be placed in an enlarger and mirrored onto a sheet of photo paper. There are many different techniques that can be used during the enlargement process. Two examples of enlargement techniques are dodging and burning.

Black and white reversal processing

This process has three additional stages:

1. Following the stop bath, the film is bleached to remove the developed negative image. The film then contains a latent positive image formed from unexposed and undeveloped silver halide salts.
2. The film is fogged, either chemically or by exposure to light.
3. The remaining silver halide salts are developed in the second developer, converting them into a positive image.
4. Finally, the film is fixed, washed, dried and cut.

(you need a dark room to develop the B&W film)

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• Agitation: Gentle movement of liquid photo-processing chemicals (developer, stop-bath, fixer) during processing of film or paper in order to achieve uniform results
• Enlarger: a specialized transparency projector used to produce photographic prints from film or glass negatives using the gelatin-silver process, or transparencies.
• Developer: a chemical that makes the latent image on the film or print visible.
• Stop Bath: Stop bath is a chemical bath usually used in processing traditional black-and-white photographic films, plates, and paper used after the material has finished developing. The purpose of the stop bath is to halt the development of the film, plate, or paper by either washing off the developing chemical or neutralizing it. With the former, a simple water rinse can be used between developer and fixer, but the development process continues (though possibly at a very low level) for an indefinite and uncontrolled period of time during the rinsing.
• Fixer: The fixer stabilises the image, removing the unexposed silver halide remaining on the Photographic film or photographic paper, leaving behind the reduced metallic silver that forms the image, making it insensitive to further action by light