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Hello and welcome to No Effort November,

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a series of videos for the month of November

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in which I repeatedly commit to the notion
of simpler videos

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then swiftly fail spectacularly.

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It’s a bit of a tradition around here and
we’re mixing things up

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by including a segment in an ongoing series.

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How novel!

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You’re right, there’s no reason to have
made this introduction

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but too bad I already did.

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Again, it’s traditional.

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So, I just made a video about the origins
and early days of photography.

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If you haven’t seen it there’s a clicky thing.

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And links are everywhere else, too.

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We were using this old camera,

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took some pictures,

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and finally unloaded it.

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Then I abruptly stopped and here we are!

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This roll of 120 film is ready for development

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and that is what we’re going to do in this video.

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By the way, apparently I need to clarify that
the 120 film format is still very much in production -

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in fact here is some brand new
film I have in both color and black-and-white .

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So destroying this roll wasn’t hurting anything precious.

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Also it’s not that I find 120 film to be
a terrible format;

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it’s just that this batch of this particular film stock I bought
on eBay a decade ago

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absolutely is so ruining a roll left me with no hard feelings.

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I have no experience with this brand’s current production

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and from what I’ve absorbed in comments it’s probably better these days.

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But anyway…

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We’re going to be subjecting this roll of
film to a surprisingly similar

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(though heavily refined)

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chemical process to Daguerre’s original method.

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First, though, it’s important that we understand
what this and other modern film’s emulsion

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- that’s the light-sensitive layer -

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actually is.

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You may have heard the term “grain” before.

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Possibly from me back when I made that video
on why old movies are HD and analog video isn’t.

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The gelatin-based emulsion carries a whole
bunch of light-sensitive silver halide crystals within it.

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Like a soup.

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But very congealed.

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Those crystals literally are the grain

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and will eventually form the final image after development.

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But right now they’re still almost entirely
as they were before the exposure even happened.

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See, when it was exposed in the camera,

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the parts of the emulsion that were hit with light
did undergo reduction reactions —

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that’s what happens when silver halides get hit with photons.
 But…

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not in great amounts.

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In fact, the exposure to light when an image
is taken hardly changes the film at all

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on a chemical level.

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Only tiny tiny bits of the silver halide crystals — literally 
just a few molecules here and there —

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were reduced to pure silver in the exposure.

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That is why the image captured on the film
right now is called the latent image.

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It’s chemically there, but not visible yet.

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Although it’s not much, the individual halide
crystals that were hit with sufficient light

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now have what you might call a seed of pure
silver within them.

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And a chemical developer will use that seed
as a catalyst of sorts

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and convert the entire crystal 
(and any others that have that silver seed) into pure silver

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which will makes it visible.

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In a somewhat weird way,

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black and white film is sort of a random distribution
of physical one-bit pixels.

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Yeah, that’s kind of a stretch, and might
sound weird coming from me

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given that I made a video on why phosphor dots in color CRTs
are decidedly not pixels.

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But because of how the grain interacts with the developer,

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whether or not you can see an individual grain in the end

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is more or less down to whether or not it got hit with light in the exposure.

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When stepping back and looking at the whole
image,

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the density of the crystals and thus the apparent darkness

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is affected by how much light hit that spot of the film.

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Dark areas got hit with a lot of light so
most of the grains become activated and developed,

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whereas light areas had few grains get hit
so only a few show up here and there.

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This is, by the way, the reason faster films tend to be grainier.

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For a film stock to be more sensitive to light,

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the halide crystals in the emulsion need to somehow be more prone to undergoing that initial photon-induced reduction reaction.

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In this world of crystals and photons it’s
all a game of probabilities,

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and the simplest way to increase the chance that a crystal
will undergo sufficient reduction in the exposure

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is to make it bigger.

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Making the targets larger means less light
is needed to capture a latent image

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simply because there are more chances for each crystal
to be affected given the same amount of incoming light,

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but the downside is that larger targets
limit the resolution of the film

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because each element of the image’s underlying structure
is physically larger

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and so there are fewer of them in a given area.

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So, now that we know those basics, we need
to get this film in contact with a chemical

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which will finish the job and convert the
grains with silver seeds into pure silver.

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But how?

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We can’t expose it to more light or the
image will be damaged or destroyed.

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Well, we use one of these.

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This is a developing tank and it’s pretty clever.

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This lid here is light-tight yet allows liquids
to travel through it freely.

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This is done by creating a simple maze.

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Since light can’t bend around corners,

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if you create a path with a series of 90 degree turns it won’t get through.

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Make the walls of the path black and you make
it even more effective.

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This arrangement is often called a light trap.

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Which is annoying because entomologists are
clogging up the Googles with that search term.

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There are a few different designs out there,
but the cross-section of this lid looks like this -

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liquids can easily get around these
bends, but light can’t.

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Dead simple yet effective.

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By the way you can make a doorless entryway
to a darkroom using this method

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but hold your horses we’re not there yet.

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Inside the tank are a couple of film reels.

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This tank can develop up to two rolls of 35mm
film at a time,

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but the reels can be expanded in width to accommodate 120 and other 60mm wide roll film formats at its largest width,

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and there’s also an intermediary width to accommodate 127 film,

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a not-quite-dead format that’s barely hanging on.

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That film is 46mm wide, by the way.

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Of course, you still have to get the film
onto this reel and into the tank.

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And that has to be done in complete darkness.

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Now you can choose to do this in a completely dark room.

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Here’s an approximation of what that looks like.

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[crinkly shuffling noises]

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Or you can put the tank, reel, and your film
into a changing bag like this.

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A double-zipper creates a light-proof seal on one end

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and sleeves with little elastic-lined holes for your arms on the other allow you to fiddle around in there

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without worrying about light hitting your film.

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Of course, that seal around your arms isn’t perfect by any means

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so you probably don’t want to do this outside in the sun

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but under most indoor lighting situations it’s fine.

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But what are you actually doing in the dark?

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Well, since I’ve already ruined this roll, I can show you.

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First, though, a note on developing tank styles.

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Generally they’re divided into stainless
steel and plastic tanks,

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and personally I find plastic tanks the way to go because of
these film reels.

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They’re self-loading.

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A simple arrangement consisting of a captive
ball bearing and a ramp

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creates a sort of ratchet mechanism.

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Film can easily slip past the ball bearing
when moving forward,

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but if it moves backward it rolls the ball bearing up the ramp,

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causing it to jam the film in place.

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By allowing each side of the reel to move slightly,

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a simple repetitive twisting motion is all it takes to load the film.

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Here is a...

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blank roll of 35mm film I developed accidentally one time.

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Because it’s clear it helps reveal how this works.

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Each time I move the right side forward,

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the ball wants to roll backwards but in doing so rides up the ramp and jams against the film.

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So it pushes the film forward.

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On the stationary left side, the ball rolls forward as the film moves 
and so leaves room for it to pass.

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However, when I return the right side to the
original position, the roles are reversed.

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The film moves back slightly, causing the
left-hand ball bearing to roll up the ramp and jam the film in place,

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and now the right side slips past without issue.

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Just do this twisting motion a bunch of times
and the reel pushes the film onto itself,

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with the film following these ridges in a
spiral to the center.

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So, for this 120 film all we need to do is
unlock the reel,

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pull the sides apart to their widest position, 
lock it again,

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and now it’s ready to be loaded.

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One thing I always make sure to do is use
a toothpick or something

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to ensure the ball bearings can move freely - often they get
kinda stuck when the reel dries

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and that’s not good.

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While you weren’t looking, I wound this
destroyed roll onto a second spool

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so it’s positioned as if it were run through a camera.

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And now I’ll show you what I’m about to do inside this bag.

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I’ll start unrolling the paper and keep
going until I get to the actual film.

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On this end it’s not taped to the paper.

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Now I’ll carefully grab the end of the film
and slide it into the film reel like so.

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The backing paper always makes this a little
chaotic but we’re gonna do the same

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twisting motion that we just did and the ball bearing ratchet ramp things
will do their magic.

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Eventually we’ll reach the end and we have
to cut off this bit of tape to free the film entirely from the paper.

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Then we just keep twisting to make sure it’s
completely loaded

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and it’s ready to go into the tank.

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The reel needs to go onto this spool thing
before we do that, though -

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this is actually an important part of the tank’s light-tightness,

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as this pokey bit will go inside of it and form a light maze for the fill hole.

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There’s a retaining ring that I... can’t find right now

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which you can clamp onto the spool to keep the reel from riding up

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but I don’t really need it because of the style of development I use.

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I’ll talk about that in just a moment but
now I’ve got to do what I just showed you inside this bag.

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Gotta make sure I have the film,

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a reel opened up to the 120 position,

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a pair of scissors,

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the tank bottom,

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the spool doohickey,

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and the lid all inside the bag.

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Now I’ll zip it up.

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Zip it up again.

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Stick my arms in there, and feel around for
everything and just get going.

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Eventually…

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Tada! Film ready for developing.

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And now we’ll get to Steve Ballmer’s favorite part.

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Here are just a few of the many black and
white film developers available out there.

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We’ve got the ol’ mainstay Kodak D-76
(though this pouch is long-expired),

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Arista Premium film developer,

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Adox Adonal,

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and R09 One Shot -

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those last two are purportedly the same thing.

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But there are so many more out there,

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and people have also been making their own concoctions for about as long as film photography has existed.

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There are even formulations using instant coffee,

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and so-called caffenol has long been thriving in the homebrew scene.

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These chemicals have a very delicate balancing
act ahead of them.

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They contain reducing agents — which ones exactly 
will depend on the developer —

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which continue the process of the silver halides
reducing to metallic silver,

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but they need to be selective.

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Ideally, we only want the developer to reduce
the halide crystals that already have that silver seed in them

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from the exposure to light in the camera.

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Through various chemical tinkering such as
adjusting the pH of the solutions,

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adding compounds which accelerate the reduction reaction
once in-progress

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but also inhibitors so that it doesn’t happen to crystals which don’t already have that seed of silver,

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we arrived at these solutions.

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Now, when you’re using many of these chemicals,
you need to look up the specific film stock you’re developing

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to get a development time and adjust for temperature.

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Just like most reactions more temperature equals more faster,

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and depending on the film’s properties

202
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(and also whether you want to pull- or push-process 
the film to a lower or higher equivalent speed)

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you’ll have a somewhat narrow time window for best results.

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Many films have a chart printed on the inside
of their box for common developers,

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but I don’t bother with any of this nonsense

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because I have been enlightened to the world of stand development.

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It turns out that so long as you’re OK with
the process taking much longer,

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as in an hour,

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you can develop pretty much any film without thinking about it.

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I enjoy not thinking about things on occasion,

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especially when it frees me from wondering whether I’m doing things the quote unquote “best way,”

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so this was right up my alley.

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This particular developer goes by many names
but traditionally it’s been known by its original name Rodinal.

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And it is a very old formulation.

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As in from 1891.

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Also, it was originally developed by Agfa.

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Now the “One Shot” on this bottle might
give you a hint about what makes it kinda special.

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Many other developers are meant to be reused
after developing a roll of film.

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They’re very concentrated and usually require
less than 10 minutes to develop film,

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so although the reduction reaction they cause does slightly
weaken them by way of oxidation,

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it takes quite a few rolls of film for that to be noticeable.

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These developers, though, are much more dilute.

223
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Well actually in the bottle it’s very concentrated
but you use a very high dilution ratio in water

224
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resulting in a pretty weak working
solution which is only good for one roll.

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With the advised 1 to 25 and 1 to 50 dilutions
the film development still happens pretty quickly,

226
00:13:54,762 --> 00:14:00,269
but if you go to a 1:100 dilution
something vaguely magical occurs.

227
00:14:00,269 --> 00:14:06,419
With a 1:100 dilution ratio, what the film is 
and to some extent how you shot it...

228
00:14:06,419 --> 00:14:08,279
doesn't really matter.

229
00:14:08,279 --> 00:14:10,091
It’ll just work.

230
00:14:10,091 --> 00:14:17,147
Now this is postulation on my part but I think
the reason this is possible is that at such a weak concentration,

231
00:14:17,147 --> 00:14:24,323
there’s only just enough developer in the solution
 to attain normal image density before it is all oxidized.

232
00:14:24,323 --> 00:14:28,314
Film processed this way in a sense can’t be overdeveloped,

233
00:14:28,314 --> 00:14:30,477
or at least it’s really hard to do that,

234
00:14:30,477 --> 00:14:35,427
and the long time you leave the film in the solution ensures it will completely reduce

235
00:14:35,427 --> 00:14:40,378
pretty much all the crystals that should be while leaving the rest alone.

236
00:14:40,378 --> 00:14:44,508
It’s pretty great, and will help compensate for underexposure, too,

237
00:14:44,508 --> 00:14:51,097
producing an end result that sort of allows you to push process individual frames within a roll.

238
00:14:51,097 --> 00:14:56,445
It’s not perfect, and I’m sure there are photographers out there that would advise against it for one reason or another,

239
00:14:56,445 --> 00:15:01,764
but in my experience it has simply always worked no matter what film stock I’ve thrown at it

240
00:15:01,764 --> 00:15:05,012
(though to be fair that’s only been maybe half-a-dozen).

241
00:15:05,012 --> 00:15:09,290
And as a bonus, Rodinal is a very shelf-stable formula.

242
00:15:09,290 --> 00:15:13,083
This bottle is pushing 10 years old and still works fine.

243
00:15:13,083 --> 00:15:17,870
And since you use so little of it with each go, it’s quite cheap, too.

244
00:15:17,870 --> 00:15:22,234
You can develop well over 100 rolls with a
half-liter bottle like this.

245
00:15:22,234 --> 00:15:23,637
So let’s get going.

246
00:15:23,637 --> 00:15:26,140
Welcome to this gross utility sink.

247
00:15:26,140 --> 00:15:29,759
Generally you want to give your film a rinse
before you start developing it.

248
00:15:29,759 --> 00:15:34,579
Letting the gelatin soak in some water first
helps to ensure development happens uniformly.

249
00:15:34,579 --> 00:15:38,393
Also if you noticed the bright blue color of this film,

250
00:15:38,393 --> 00:15:40,550
well rinsing it takes that off.

251
00:15:40,550 --> 00:15:45,860
I don’t know if that is an anti-halation
layer which some films have or what exactly it is,

252
00:15:45,860 --> 00:15:48,505
but water washes it away pretty quickly.

253
00:15:48,505 --> 00:15:56,301
Now, looking at the bottom of the tank, I need to make 590 CCs of solution to completely submerge this reel.

254
00:15:56,301 --> 00:16:01,173
Using a 1:100 dilution that would suggest
I need about 6 CCs of Rodinal,

255
00:16:01,173 --> 00:16:03,110
which is what I’ll go ahead and use.

256
00:16:03,110 --> 00:16:05,210
There is some nuance here, though.

257
00:16:05,210 --> 00:16:11,294
A roll of 120 film is a lot wider than 35mm film, 
but it’s also much shorter.

258
00:16:11,294 --> 00:16:18,629
A 36 exposure roll of 35mm film has just about
the same total area as a roll of 120 film,

259
00:16:18,629 --> 00:16:24,620
so using 6 CCs of Rodinal in the solution could
actually be more developer than we need.

260
00:16:24,620 --> 00:16:28,427
We need more solution in the tank because
the reel is much taller,

261
00:16:28,427 --> 00:16:32,930
but we might not actually need any more chemical developer in the solution.

262
00:16:32,930 --> 00:16:36,611
I have developed a roll of 120 film using
only 4 CCs Rodinal,

263
00:16:36,611 --> 00:16:41,920
but the negatives were kind of thin - meaning none of the film got very dark.

264
00:16:41,920 --> 00:16:44,329
Because of that, and because this film is pretty old,

265
00:16:44,329 --> 00:16:48,759
I’m going to stick with 1:100 dilution and use 6 CCs.

266
00:16:48,759 --> 00:16:51,825
Plus, with stand development you don’t agitate much

267
00:16:51,825 --> 00:16:56,103
so developer not near the film is probably gonna stay not near the film.

268
00:16:56,610 --> 00:16:59,753
I mean this is photography, it’s more art than science.

269
00:17:00,447 --> 00:17:02,868
Ooh that’s gonna cause me some grief...

270
00:17:02,868 --> 00:17:05,620
So, here’s 6 CCs of the developer.

271
00:17:05,620 --> 00:17:07,890
That’s really all we need.

272
00:17:07,890 --> 00:17:13,733
And now I’ll fill this up with water to
at least 590ml and we have our working solution.

273
00:17:13,733 --> 00:17:16,742
With the film already rinsed, we can simply pour this in,

274
00:17:16,742 --> 00:17:21,098
then use the little agitating stick thing that comes with tank to spin the
reel back and forth

275
00:17:21,098 --> 00:17:24,143
and make sure everything gets sloshed together nicely

276
00:17:24,143 --> 00:17:29,368
(you can also put on this lid and invert the tank 
but that tends to leak a little bit so I prefer this method,

277
00:17:29,368 --> 00:17:33,164
also I’m missing that retaining ring so I’d rather not invert it so much),

278
00:17:33,164 --> 00:17:38,943
and last but not least you want to smack the tank against the bottom of the sink or some other hard surface

279
00:17:38,943 --> 00:17:43,820
to dislodge any bubbles that might have formed on the film during agitation.

280
00:17:43,820 --> 00:17:47,413
Now, just leave it alone for a half hour.

281
00:17:47,413 --> 00:17:50,744
Let it stand, hence stand development.

282
00:17:51,651 --> 00:17:56,075
This isn’t very exciting, but the developer’s
slowly seeping its way into the emulsion

283
00:17:56,075 --> 00:17:59,973
and latching onto the crystals which have those tiny silver molecules

284
00:17:59,973 --> 00:18:03,873
and finishing the job of reduction into metallic silver.

285
00:18:03,873 --> 00:18:10,317
After a half hour is up, agitate it again
to ensure whatever’s left of working developer can get where it needs to go,

286
00:18:10,317 --> 00:18:12,154
and wait another half-hour.

287
00:18:12,154 --> 00:18:16,644
Pedants wish for me to inform you that because
I’ve done that middle agitation,

288
00:18:16,644 --> 00:18:19,668
this is in fact semi-stand development.

289
00:18:20,362 --> 00:18:23,168
While we’re waiting, let’s talk about fixer.

290
00:18:23,168 --> 00:18:25,748
You might have noticed that prior to development,

291
00:18:25,748 --> 00:18:27,998
film appears opaque.

292
00:18:27,998 --> 00:18:33,525
That’s what all the crystals of undeveloped
silver halides look like suspended in the gelatin.

293
00:18:33,525 --> 00:18:38,625
Remember how I said in the previous video
that fixing got rid of undeveloped halides?

294
00:18:38,625 --> 00:18:43,065
Well, watch what happens when I put this bit of film into some fixer.

295
00:18:43,065 --> 00:18:45,528
Before long it becomes transparent.

296
00:18:45,528 --> 00:18:49,289
With none of the halide crystals converted
to silver by the developer,

297
00:18:49,289 --> 00:18:54,750
the fixer dissolves them all, leaving nothing but the gelatin
base and the plastic backing.

298
00:18:54,750 --> 00:18:57,996
However, the fixer cannot dissolve pure silver,

299
00:18:57,996 --> 00:19:04,380
so whatever grains were successfully reduced in the development process 
will stay behind and form the image.

300
00:19:04,380 --> 00:19:07,934
Through the magic of video editing, our time is up.

301
00:19:07,934 --> 00:19:12,185
Since we used a one-shot developer, 
we’ll just pour it down the drain.

302
00:19:12,185 --> 00:19:17,561
If we were using something like D-76, we would
pour it back into the bottle for later use.

303
00:19:17,561 --> 00:19:19,873
Now here’s an optional step.

304
00:19:19,873 --> 00:19:21,457
Stop bath.

305
00:19:21,457 --> 00:19:25,790
The reducing agents in the developer require
a high pH to work effectively.

306
00:19:25,790 --> 00:19:29,926
If you use a stop bath, which is usually just dilute acetic acid,

307
00:19:29,926 --> 00:19:34,827
the pH is lowered to the point of stopping any further development action.

308
00:19:34,827 --> 00:19:39,045
Now, at the risk of making an opinion known online,

309
00:19:39,045 --> 00:19:42,582
I don’t think it’s necessary for pretty much any film development.

310
00:19:42,582 --> 00:19:45,849
I just rinse the film with water and move on to fixer.

311
00:19:45,849 --> 00:19:50,994
If you were using a film and developer with a really sensitive development time,

312
00:19:50,994 --> 00:19:52,913
maybe you’d want to use stop bath,

313
00:19:52,913 --> 00:19:57,435
but especially because I use stand development I just don’t see the point.

314
00:19:57,435 --> 00:20:00,702
Also a lot of fixers are acidic so again…

315
00:20:00,702 --> 00:20:02,170
yeah.

316
00:20:02,170 --> 00:20:05,646
Anyway, after rinsing it a few times I’ll pour in the fixer.

317
00:20:05,646 --> 00:20:13,504
This bottle is nowhere near fresh so I’m going to allow the film 
12 minutes of fixing time with some agitation every minute.

318
00:20:13,504 --> 00:20:16,057
That’s probably way more time than I actually need.

319
00:20:16,057 --> 00:20:19,103
How long you should fix depends on your fixer.

320
00:20:19,103 --> 00:20:22,109
I’ll make up fresh solution… at some point.

321
00:20:22,109 --> 00:20:27,363
But anyway, just like we saw earlier the fixer’s making the film all clear-like

322
00:20:27,363 --> 00:20:30,021
except for where the developer made it all silvery-like

323
00:20:30,021 --> 00:20:31,824
and after we’re done with this step,

324
00:20:31,824 --> 00:20:35,279
we can pour the fixer back into the bottle and start rinsing.

325
00:20:35,279 --> 00:20:38,134
At this point the film has been developed.

326
00:20:38,134 --> 00:20:39,649
At least I hope so.

327
00:20:39,649 --> 00:20:45,792
You want to rinse the film for a good long
while to make sure you get as many residual chemicals off of it as possible

328
00:20:45,792 --> 00:20:48,577
(well, chemicals other than water).

329
00:20:48,577 --> 00:20:54,152
There are products like this which you can
hook up to a faucet to make this more effective and less wasteful -

330
00:20:54,152 --> 00:20:57,164
Fun fact, this thing is a greedy cup siphon!

331
00:20:57,164 --> 00:21:00,325
But since this film isn’t super duper important to me,

332
00:21:00,325 --> 00:21:02,787
I’m just gonna let the water trickle over it for a while,

333
00:21:02,787 --> 00:21:07,314
do some swirls, some of these maneuvers, and then there’s one last step.

334
00:21:07,314 --> 00:21:08,649
Photo-Flo.

335
00:21:08,649 --> 00:21:14,522
More generically known as wetting agent, 
this stuff is basically rinse aid for your dishwasher.

336
00:21:14,522 --> 00:21:18,363
In fact I’ve often wondered if there would
be any harm in just using that.

337
00:21:18,363 --> 00:21:22,076
Anyway, it’s a mild surfactant which lowers
the surface tension of water

338
00:21:22,076 --> 00:21:24,923
and makes it sheet off of the film in a…

339
00:21:24,923 --> 00:21:27,465
film so that you don’t get water spots.

340
00:21:27,465 --> 00:21:33,068
Technically this is optional but if you have
hard water… you should definitely not skip this.

341
00:21:33,068 --> 00:21:37,225
After you’re done rinsing, you just add a few mls of the stuff to clean water,

342
00:21:37,225 --> 00:21:38,897
swirl the film around in it,

343
00:21:38,897 --> 00:21:43,086
then struggle to get it out of the tank 
because the Photo-Flo made it all slippery,

344
00:21:43,086 --> 00:21:46,848
and finally you can open up the reel and retrieve your developed film.

345
00:21:48,000 --> 00:21:50,284
This does not look right.

346
00:21:50,951 --> 00:21:53,013
Ohhhh…. no.

347
00:21:53,267 --> 00:21:56,544
Remember how I was saying that this film is awful?

348
00:21:56,544 --> 00:21:59,095
Well, yeah.

349
00:21:59,095 --> 00:22:01,022
Shouldn't have used it.

350
00:22:01,022 --> 00:22:04,078
Now this could simply be because of its age.

351
00:22:04,078 --> 00:22:10,987
It expired in 2013 and because the film’s emulsion was in contact with the backing paper for a decade

352
00:22:10,987 --> 00:22:17,800
chemicals in the paper — particularly in the ink — may have leached into it
and made all this nonsense happen.

353
00:22:17,800 --> 00:22:23,208
That makes the most sense to me because I
can’t figure out how else the numbers would have gotten on there.

354
00:22:23,208 --> 00:22:25,871
This definitely doesn’t look like a light leakage problem —

355
00:22:25,871 --> 00:22:31,435
and they’re misaligned from where they actually are behind
the film when the image is taken.

356
00:22:31,435 --> 00:22:35,736
The 1 should be in the bottom-left corner
of the first image but it’s not,

357
00:22:35,736 --> 00:22:40,846
suggesting this came from the where the printed numbers
touch the film when it's rolled up.

358
00:22:40,846 --> 00:22:44,381
Luckily for you I decided to go back out into
the wilderness

359
00:22:44,381 --> 00:22:48,172
and recreate the shot with a roll of this less-terrible film.

360
00:22:48,172 --> 00:22:50,363
And then I did the developing rigmarole again.

361
00:22:50,363 --> 00:22:52,149
And here’s that film.

362
00:22:52,149 --> 00:22:54,734
And I call this is a no-effort video....

363
00:22:54,734 --> 00:22:59,451
Anyway, after hanging it up and allowing it
to dry (I usually wait at least a couple of hours)

364
00:22:59,451 --> 00:23:02,401
we can handle it, though you still want to be careful.

365
00:23:02,401 --> 00:23:07,325
If you’re not wearing some sort of gloves
you definitely want to not touch any part with an image on it,

366
00:23:07,325 --> 00:23:09,655
and are best to handle it by the edges.

367
00:23:09,655 --> 00:23:16,993
This is of course a negative image, but there’s
something about film that’s different from the earlier plate-based methods.

368
00:23:16,993 --> 00:23:22,966
With film, light is transmitted through it and the silver crystals block that transmission.

369
00:23:22,966 --> 00:23:26,838
We don’t have to come up with any tricks
for making this appear as a positive

370
00:23:26,838 --> 00:23:29,905
because this is not the final image.

371
00:23:29,905 --> 00:23:31,917
Oh but, because it’s now,

372
00:23:31,917 --> 00:23:33,638
I can just do this.

373
00:23:33,638 --> 00:23:37,604
However, there is a trick you can do to make this appear as a positive.

374
00:23:37,604 --> 00:23:42,102
And it’s not too far off from how the Ambrotype
makes an apparent positive.

375
00:23:42,102 --> 00:23:47,270
Although the silver in transparent films is
meant to block light traveling through it,

376
00:23:47,270 --> 00:23:48,904
it’s still silver.

377
00:23:48,904 --> 00:23:52,559
With the emulsion side up and the film against a dark background,

378
00:23:52,559 --> 00:24:01,517
if you can catch light in just the right way, the silver’s shine
will come through and make the exposed parts appear brighter than the background.

379
00:24:01,517 --> 00:24:06,452
This doesn’t work with all film stocks, or at least it’s much easier to do in some than others,

380
00:24:06,452 --> 00:24:12,080
and although it’s nifty it’s definitely not the optimal way to view the image.

381
00:24:12,080 --> 00:24:16,280
In the next video, we’ll talk about photographic printing.

382
00:24:16,280 --> 00:24:20,650
You know those scenes in movies where someone's in a room with a dim red light

383
00:24:20,650 --> 00:24:23,937
and they make photos appear in trays of liquid?

384
00:24:24,257 --> 00:24:25,049
Yeah.

385
00:24:25,049 --> 00:24:26,314
That.

386
00:24:26,314 --> 00:24:31,763
We’ll also talk a little more deeply about
35mm film and some of the factors and innovations

387
00:24:31,763 --> 00:24:37,478
that made it become the dominant film format
from the latter 20th century into the digital age.

388
00:24:37,478 --> 00:24:39,200
And also now.

389
00:24:39,200 --> 00:24:44,466
120 is still alive, but 35mm is still the
most mainstream film format.

390
00:24:44,466 --> 00:24:49,583
Despite all of Kodak’s attempts to come
up with something new every decade or so.

391
00:24:49,583 --> 00:24:54,907
People rightfully think that Kodak let the
digital age sneak up on them... because they did

392
00:24:54,907 --> 00:24:58,040
but hey, they were trend chasers back in their day.

393
00:24:58,040 --> 00:25:02,208
I mean, just look at 1982’s Disc film!

394
00:25:02,208 --> 00:25:07,996
I wonder what other thing from 1982 could
possibly have inspired that logo…

395
00:25:08,770 --> 00:25:11,474
♫ reductively smooth jazz ♫

396
00:25:12,595 --> 00:25:18,240
By the way, apparently I need to clarify that
120 film... the format.

397
00:25:18,240 --> 00:25:19,445
Haaghh!

398
00:25:21,339 --> 00:25:23,540
120 film. The format!

399
00:25:24,000 --> 00:25:26,020
Then, I abruptly stopped.

400
00:25:26,020 --> 00:25:27,240
And here we are!

401
00:25:27,740 --> 00:25:28,240
Dangit.

402
00:25:28,240 --> 00:25:32,440
Yeah, that’s kind of a 
[weird, disappointed mouth noises]

403
00:25:32,440 --> 00:25:37,596
Whether or not you can see an individual grain...
in the end is more or less down to…

404
00:25:39,597 --> 00:25:41,476
That hesitation shouldn’t have been there.

405
00:25:41,476 --> 00:25:44,503
...is more or less — did I skip a word?

406
00:25:44,797 --> 00:25:45,791
Because…

407
00:25:46,644 --> 00:25:48,352
it feels like I did.

408
00:25:48,352 --> 00:25:51,088
But, because of how grain… no!

409
00:25:51,088 --> 00:25:53,883
That word is missing from the script.

410
00:25:53,883 --> 00:25:56,510
Because of how *the* grain. 
Gotta remember to put that in.

411
00:25:56,510 --> 00:26:00,830
Is more or less down to whether or not
IT got HIT with light in the exposure.

412
00:26:00,830 --> 00:26:01,843
That.

413
00:26:01,843 --> 00:26:02,963
Why?

414
00:26:03,310 --> 00:26:05,763
Whether or not you can see an ind…

415
00:26:05,763 --> 00:26:06,263
GARH

416
00:26:06,263 --> 00:26:08,859
But, because of how grain interact…

417
00:26:08,859 --> 00:26:10,782
(inhales through teeth)

418
00:26:12,543 --> 00:26:15,781
This line has taken up like 15 minutes.

419
00:26:15,781 --> 00:26:21,201
Just do this twisting motion a bunch of times
and the reel pushes the film onto itself.

420
00:26:21,201 --> 00:26:25,018
With the film following these ridges in a
spiral to the center.

421
00:26:25,338 --> 00:26:28,467
[loud grating noises] 
Could you even hear me over this?

422
00:26:28,467 --> 00:26:31,296
That’s a great question. We’ll find out in the edit!

423
00:26:31,296 --> 00:26:34,146
It takes quite a few rolls of film for that to be noticeable.

424
00:26:34,146 --> 00:26:39,422
There’s a … OK I want to go back in the edit and see if there was a weird noise that I made.

425
00:26:39,422 --> 00:26:41,252
I need to remember to do that.

426
00:26:43,013 --> 00:26:44,935
If this isn’t in the bloopers I forgot.

427
00:26:46,802 --> 00:26:50,428
The first time I did the photoshoot of the tea kettle (which was done in a park)

428
00:26:50,428 --> 00:26:53,463
someone was walking their dog, saw me, and said hello.

429
00:26:53,463 --> 00:26:57,605
Explaining that I had hauled a camping stove, tea kettle, tripod, video camera, and an antique camera all to make a terrible joke on the internet

430
00:26:57,605 --> 00:26:59,551
was a little weird.

431
00:26:59,551 --> 00:27:01,987
Luckily with the re-shoot nobody saw me.