5 Reasons to Shoot and Self-Develop Black and White Negatives

Only shoot colour? Have your black and white negs developed? Find out why you should be doing your own black and white.

1. Feeling the pinch? If you haven’t much money and you already have your own scanner, it’s cheap. The chemicals don’t cost much, the equipment can be found for next to nothing second hand, and black and white film can be bought at ridiculuously low cost.

2. You don’t need a darkroom, just a cupboard you can make pitch black (I do it at night!), for loading the film into the developing tank. Once that’s done, the rest you can do in the light in your kitchen.

3. Developing is easy, there is a lot more leeway with temperature and mixing of the chemicals than you are lead to believe. There is a wealth of info on the web to get you started.

4. It’s amazingly satisfying to be freed from the lab. You can experiment with development as well as in the camera. You can even make your own developing fluid from household substances if you like!

5. With the skills you’ll learn, the door is open to making your own prints, C-41 development and all sorts of possibilities.

Every black and white lomograph you see here and in my home were self developed. So what are you waiting for?

written by adam_g2000 on 2012-04-20 #gear #tutorials #black-and-white #photography #tipster #development #quickie-tipster #self-develop #film-processing