# First Print!



## khushi2004 (Mar 16, 2004)

I have just developed my first film roll, though i don;t know how good it is just followed the instruction written on dark room lab.
How can i know my development is good, do i hv to think b4 developing if it is can you suggest me some ideas.
And now i am eager the print it out in next class, what i have to care in printing what sort of things i have to be aware of, how can i get good print.
Thank you
Regards


----------



## oriecat (Mar 16, 2004)

Congratulations!   Welcome to our special club.


----------



## Firelance (Apr 8, 2004)

I'll post my first one here...

Hi khushi, I do this darkroom stuff at school, and I've developed quite some films now this year. Not that I'm an expert, I'm also just a beginner, but I can tell you that there's not really a 'standard' for a good developed film. Some have high and some have rather low contrast, others are a bit purple looking (because of the fixer...) anyway, you can say that you're film is well developed when you can see a clear image.
If you see nothing, or very few (ater a while...?) then you just made a bad dilution with your devolper, you didn't develop long enough, or, of the bar with the holes on the film is well processed, it's something with your camera...

Yea, sometimes it's too black, sometimes too light, but these can be solved by some enlarger-techniques...

Anyway, I heard that if you shake your film tank continiously, you get a very high contrast   (did not yet try it though)

good luck


----------



## Bruno (May 6, 2004)

The best way I found to develop my film is to tilt the tank to about a 45 degree angle and just spin it slowly the whole time.  That will ensure that the fixer gets all the parts of the film equally.  Good luck.


----------



## ksmattfish (May 6, 2004)

Firelance said:
			
		

> Anyway, I heard that if you shake your film tank continiously, you get a very high contrast   (did not yet try it though)



Increasing agitation is one way of increasing contrast.  If you find that your negs tend to be low contrast, you can increase the amount of time you agitate while the film is in the developer.  If you find that your negs tend to be higher contrast han you'd like, cut down on the agitation.

A tip I use for even development is to not fill the dev tank all the way.  I have a tank that holds 4 120 size reels with just enough room to stack a 35mm reel on the top.  I put film in the 3 bottom reels and leave the reels on top empty.  Then I just use enough chems to completely cover the 3 reels on the bottom.  This insures that the developer mixes thoroughly every time I invert the tank.


----------

