After shooting all the frames on a 35mm film, the film needed to be processed in a complete dark environment. In order to do so, the film from the film canister was loaded onto a film reel which holds the film in spiral shape. It is important to take as much time as necessary during that process so that the film is held evenly spaced, otherwise parts of the film might not get properly developed. When the film is on the reel, it is placed inside a developing tank which is closed with a lid. The lid prevents any light from reaching the film, so the rest of the film processing can be done in daylight. The lid also has an opening for pouring water and chemicals in and out of the developing tank, which is sealed by a separate cap.
To develop my film, I prepared 300ml of water at 20°C temperature and added one shot (25ml) of developer. I poured the developer in the tank and started the timer. For the next 12 minutes (the time my film ‘Kentmere Pan 400’ needs to be processed) the tank had to be agitated every minute. This is necessary to make sure that the developer reaches every frame. When the development time had elapsed, the developer was poured down the grain. The tank was then rinsed by filling it with stop bath and agitated again for 30 seconds. After pouring the stop bath away, fix solution was added to the container. It stayed there for 3 minutes, while the tank was agitated 4 times per minute. Once the film was clear, it was washed with several rinses of water and finally agitated within 5 drops of Ilfotol wetting agent.
A drying cabinet was used to dry the film, before it was cut in stripes and made ready for the enlarging and printing in the darkroom.
Documentation of MEDI512 "Experiment" 