WEBVTT Kind: captions Language: en 00:00:00.179 --> 00:00:03.043 Hello and welcome to No Effort November, 00:00:03.043 --> 00:00:05.143 a series of videos for the month of November 00:00:05.143 --> 00:00:08.416 in which I repeatedly commit to the notion of simpler videos 00:00:08.416 --> 00:00:10.639 then swiftly fail spectacularly. 00:00:10.639 --> 00:00:13.750 It’s a bit of a tradition around here and we’re mixing things up 00:00:13.750 --> 00:00:16.995 by including a segment in an ongoing series. 00:00:16.995 --> 00:00:18.323 How novel! 00:00:18.563 --> 00:00:21.256 You’re right, there’s no reason to have made this introduction 00:00:21.256 --> 00:00:22.918 but too bad I already did. 00:00:22.918 --> 00:00:24.455 Again, it’s traditional. 00:00:24.749 --> 00:00:29.919 So, I just made a video about the origins and early days of photography. 00:00:29.919 --> 00:00:32.476 If you haven’t seen it there’s a clicky thing. 00:00:32.476 --> 00:00:34.515 And links are everywhere else, too. 00:00:34.515 --> 00:00:36.474 We were using this old camera, 00:00:36.474 --> 00:00:37.681 took some pictures, 00:00:37.681 --> 00:00:39.320 and finally unloaded it. 00:00:39.320 --> 00:00:42.839 Then I abruptly stopped and here we are! 00:00:42.839 --> 00:00:45.951 This roll of 120 film is ready for development 00:00:45.951 --> 00:00:48.912 and that is what we’re going to do in this video. 00:00:48.912 --> 00:00:55.417 By the way, apparently I need to clarify that the 120 film format is still very much in production - 00:00:55.417 --> 00:01:00.126 in fact here is some brand new film I have in both color and black-and-white . 00:01:00.126 --> 00:01:03.629 So destroying this roll wasn’t hurting anything precious. 00:01:03.629 --> 00:01:07.575 Also it’s not that I find 120 film to be a terrible format; 00:01:07.575 --> 00:01:12.660 it’s just that this batch of this particular film stock I bought on eBay a decade ago 00:01:12.660 --> 00:01:16.728 absolutely is so ruining a roll left me with no hard feelings. 00:01:16.728 --> 00:01:19.560 I have no experience with this brand’s current production 00:01:19.560 --> 00:01:24.145 and from what I’ve absorbed in comments it’s probably better these days. 00:01:24.145 --> 00:01:25.401 But anyway… 00:01:25.867 --> 00:01:29.399 We’re going to be subjecting this roll of film to a surprisingly similar 00:01:29.399 --> 00:01:30.824 (though heavily refined) 00:01:30.824 --> 00:01:34.003 chemical process to Daguerre’s original method. 00:01:34.003 --> 00:01:39.478 First, though, it’s important that we understand what this and other modern film’s emulsion 00:01:39.478 --> 00:01:41.325 - that’s the light-sensitive layer - 00:01:41.325 --> 00:01:43.110 actually is. 00:01:43.110 --> 00:01:45.664 You may have heard the term “grain” before. 00:01:45.664 --> 00:01:51.339 Possibly from me back when I made that video on why old movies are HD and analog video isn’t. 00:01:51.339 --> 00:01:56.935 The gelatin-based emulsion carries a whole bunch of light-sensitive silver halide crystals within it. 00:01:56.935 --> 00:01:58.045 Like a soup. 00:01:58.045 --> 00:02:00.095 But very congealed. 00:02:00.095 --> 00:02:03.033 Those crystals literally are the grain 00:02:03.033 --> 00:02:06.604 and will eventually form the final image after development. 00:02:06.604 --> 00:02:13.186 But right now they’re still almost entirely as they were before the exposure even happened. 00:02:13.186 --> 00:02:15.209 See, when it was exposed in the camera, 00:02:15.209 --> 00:02:19.663 the parts of the emulsion that were hit with light did undergo reduction reactions — 00:02:19.663 --> 00:02:24.051 that’s what happens when silver halides get hit with photons. But… 00:02:24.051 --> 00:02:25.727 not in great amounts. 00:02:25.727 --> 00:02:30.927 In fact, the exposure to light when an image is taken hardly changes the film at all 00:02:30.927 --> 00:02:32.679 on a chemical level. 00:02:32.679 --> 00:02:38.809 Only tiny tiny bits of the silver halide crystals — literally just a few molecules here and there — 00:02:38.809 --> 00:02:41.761 were reduced to pure silver in the exposure. 00:02:41.761 --> 00:02:47.070 That is why the image captured on the film right now is called the latent image. 00:02:47.070 --> 00:02:49.936 It’s chemically there, but not visible yet. 00:02:49.936 --> 00:02:54.717 Although it’s not much, the individual halide crystals that were hit with sufficient light 00:02:54.717 --> 00:02:58.930 now have what you might call a seed of pure silver within them. 00:02:58.930 --> 00:03:03.158 And a chemical developer will use that seed as a catalyst of sorts 00:03:03.158 --> 00:03:08.693 and convert the entire crystal (and any others that have that silver seed) into pure silver 00:03:08.693 --> 00:03:10.338 which will makes it visible. 00:03:10.338 --> 00:03:12.199 In a somewhat weird way, 00:03:12.199 --> 00:03:18.499 black and white film is sort of a random distribution of physical one-bit pixels. 00:03:19.166 --> 00:03:23.779 Yeah, that’s kind of a stretch, and might sound weird coming from me 00:03:23.779 --> 00:03:29.762 given that I made a video on why phosphor dots in color CRTs are decidedly not pixels. 00:03:29.762 --> 00:03:33.163 But because of how the grain interacts with the developer, 00:03:33.163 --> 00:03:36.249 whether or not you can see an individual grain in the end 00:03:36.249 --> 00:03:40.756 is more or less down to whether or not it got hit with light in the exposure. 00:03:40.756 --> 00:03:43.326 When stepping back and looking at the whole image, 00:03:43.326 --> 00:03:46.828 the density of the crystals and thus the apparent darkness 00:03:46.828 --> 00:03:50.908 is affected by how much light hit that spot of the film. 00:03:50.908 --> 00:03:56.374 Dark areas got hit with a lot of light so most of the grains become activated and developed, 00:03:56.374 --> 00:04:02.446 whereas light areas had few grains get hit so only a few show up here and there. 00:04:02.446 --> 00:04:06.896 This is, by the way, the reason faster films tend to be grainier. 00:04:06.896 --> 00:04:09.803 For a film stock to be more sensitive to light, 00:04:09.803 --> 00:04:18.329 the halide crystals in the emulsion need to somehow be more prone to undergoing that initial photon-induced reduction reaction. 00:04:18.329 --> 00:04:22.462 In this world of crystals and photons it’s all a game of probabilities, 00:04:22.462 --> 00:04:28.069 and the simplest way to increase the chance that a crystal will undergo sufficient reduction in the exposure 00:04:28.069 --> 00:04:29.879 is to make it bigger. 00:04:29.879 --> 00:04:35.084 Making the targets larger means less light is needed to capture a latent image 00:04:35.084 --> 00:04:41.399 simply because there are more chances for each crystal to be affected given the same amount of incoming light, 00:04:41.399 --> 00:04:45.713 but the downside is that larger targets limit the resolution of the film 00:04:45.713 --> 00:04:50.338 because each element of the image’s underlying structure is physically larger 00:04:50.338 --> 00:04:53.409 and so there are fewer of them in a given area. 00:04:53.409 --> 00:04:58.774 So, now that we know those basics, we need to get this film in contact with a chemical 00:04:58.774 --> 00:05:03.550 which will finish the job and convert the grains with silver seeds into pure silver. 00:05:04.537 --> 00:05:05.662 But how? 00:05:05.662 --> 00:05:10.493 We can’t expose it to more light or the image will be damaged or destroyed. 00:05:10.493 --> 00:05:12.872 Well, we use one of these. 00:05:12.872 --> 00:05:15.999 This is a developing tank and it’s pretty clever. 00:05:15.999 --> 00:05:20.765 This lid here is light-tight yet allows liquids to travel through it freely. 00:05:20.765 --> 00:05:23.504 This is done by creating a simple maze. 00:05:23.504 --> 00:05:25.918 Since light can’t bend around corners, 00:05:25.918 --> 00:05:30.466 if you create a path with a series of 90 degree turns it won’t get through. 00:05:30.466 --> 00:05:34.498 Make the walls of the path black and you make it even more effective. 00:05:34.498 --> 00:05:37.663 This arrangement is often called a light trap. 00:05:37.663 --> 00:05:42.559 Which is annoying because entomologists are clogging up the Googles with that search term. 00:05:42.559 --> 00:05:47.234 There are a few different designs out there, but the cross-section of this lid looks like this - 00:05:47.234 --> 00:05:51.451 liquids can easily get around these bends, but light can’t. 00:05:51.451 --> 00:05:53.517 Dead simple yet effective. 00:05:53.517 --> 00:05:57.912 By the way you can make a doorless entryway to a darkroom using this method 00:05:57.912 --> 00:05:59.809 but hold your horses we’re not there yet. 00:05:59.809 --> 00:06:02.972 Inside the tank are a couple of film reels. 00:06:02.972 --> 00:06:07.501 This tank can develop up to two rolls of 35mm film at a time, 00:06:07.501 --> 00:06:15.142 but the reels can be expanded in width to accommodate 120 and other 60mm wide roll film formats at its largest width, 00:06:15.142 --> 00:06:19.021 and there’s also an intermediary width to accommodate 127 film, 00:06:19.021 --> 00:06:22.542 a not-quite-dead format that’s barely hanging on. 00:06:22.542 --> 00:06:26.152 That film is 46mm wide, by the way. 00:06:26.152 --> 00:06:30.292 Of course, you still have to get the film onto this reel and into the tank. 00:06:30.292 --> 00:06:33.276 And that has to be done in complete darkness. 00:06:33.276 --> 00:06:36.595 Now you can choose to do this in a completely dark room. 00:06:36.595 --> 00:06:38.547 Here’s an approximation of what that looks like. 00:06:39.107 --> 00:06:42.240 [crinkly shuffling noises] 00:06:42.960 --> 00:06:47.518 Or you can put the tank, reel, and your film into a changing bag like this. 00:06:47.518 --> 00:06:50.845 A double-zipper creates a light-proof seal on one end 00:06:50.845 --> 00:06:56.286 and sleeves with little elastic-lined holes for your arms on the other allow you to fiddle around in there 00:06:56.286 --> 00:06:59.036 without worrying about light hitting your film. 00:06:59.036 --> 00:07:02.299 Of course, that seal around your arms isn’t perfect by any means 00:07:02.299 --> 00:07:05.129 so you probably don’t want to do this outside in the sun 00:07:05.129 --> 00:07:08.318 but under most indoor lighting situations it’s fine. 00:07:08.318 --> 00:07:11.119 But what are you actually doing in the dark? 00:07:11.119 --> 00:07:15.330 Well, since I’ve already ruined this roll, I can show you. 00:07:15.330 --> 00:07:18.848 First, though, a note on developing tank styles. 00:07:18.848 --> 00:07:22.532 Generally they’re divided into stainless steel and plastic tanks, 00:07:22.532 --> 00:07:27.969 and personally I find plastic tanks the way to go because of these film reels. 00:07:27.969 --> 00:07:29.837 They’re self-loading. 00:07:29.837 --> 00:07:33.619 A simple arrangement consisting of a captive ball bearing and a ramp 00:07:33.619 --> 00:07:36.076 creates a sort of ratchet mechanism. 00:07:36.076 --> 00:07:39.630 Film can easily slip past the ball bearing when moving forward, 00:07:39.630 --> 00:07:44.022 but if it moves backward it rolls the ball bearing up the ramp, 00:07:44.022 --> 00:07:46.844 causing it to jam the film in place. 00:07:46.844 --> 00:07:50.472 By allowing each side of the reel to move slightly, 00:07:50.472 --> 00:07:54.830 a simple repetitive twisting motion is all it takes to load the film. 00:07:54.830 --> 00:07:55.928 Here is a... 00:07:55.928 --> 00:08:00.737 blank roll of 35mm film I developed accidentally one time. 00:08:00.737 --> 00:08:03.818 Because it’s clear it helps reveal how this works. 00:08:03.818 --> 00:08:06.205 Each time I move the right side forward, 00:08:06.205 --> 00:08:11.991 the ball wants to roll backwards but in doing so rides up the ramp and jams against the film. 00:08:11.991 --> 00:08:14.065 So it pushes the film forward. 00:08:14.065 --> 00:08:20.368 On the stationary left side, the ball rolls forward as the film moves and so leaves room for it to pass. 00:08:20.368 --> 00:08:25.243 However, when I return the right side to the original position, the roles are reversed. 00:08:25.243 --> 00:08:31.530 The film moves back slightly, causing the left-hand ball bearing to roll up the ramp and jam the film in place, 00:08:31.530 --> 00:08:35.007 and now the right side slips past without issue. 00:08:35.007 --> 00:08:39.793 Just do this twisting motion a bunch of times and the reel pushes the film onto itself, 00:08:39.793 --> 00:08:43.315 with the film following these ridges in a spiral to the center. 00:08:43.834 --> 00:08:48.369 So, for this 120 film all we need to do is unlock the reel, 00:08:48.369 --> 00:08:52.459 pull the sides apart to their widest position, lock it again, 00:08:52.459 --> 00:08:54.570 and now it’s ready to be loaded. 00:08:54.570 --> 00:08:57.688 One thing I always make sure to do is use a toothpick or something 00:08:57.688 --> 00:09:03.150 to ensure the ball bearings can move freely - often they get kinda stuck when the reel dries 00:09:03.150 --> 00:09:05.186 and that’s not good. 00:09:05.186 --> 00:09:09.598 While you weren’t looking, I wound this destroyed roll onto a second spool 00:09:09.598 --> 00:09:12.924 so it’s positioned as if it were run through a camera. 00:09:12.924 --> 00:09:16.389 And now I’ll show you what I’m about to do inside this bag. 00:09:16.709 --> 00:09:21.390 I’ll start unrolling the paper and keep going until I get to the actual film. 00:09:21.630 --> 00:09:24.467 On this end it’s not taped to the paper. 00:09:24.467 --> 00:09:30.362 Now I’ll carefully grab the end of the film and slide it into the film reel like so. 00:09:30.949 --> 00:09:34.499 The backing paper always makes this a little chaotic but we’re gonna do the same 00:09:34.499 --> 00:09:40.283 twisting motion that we just did and the ball bearing ratchet ramp things will do their magic. 00:09:40.283 --> 00:09:46.679 Eventually we’ll reach the end and we have to cut off this bit of tape to free the film entirely from the paper. 00:09:46.679 --> 00:09:49.577 Then we just keep twisting to make sure it’s completely loaded 00:09:49.577 --> 00:09:52.260 and it’s ready to go into the tank. 00:09:52.260 --> 00:09:55.860 The reel needs to go onto this spool thing before we do that, though - 00:09:55.860 --> 00:09:59.196 this is actually an important part of the tank’s light-tightness, 00:09:59.196 --> 00:10:03.997 as this pokey bit will go inside of it and form a light maze for the fill hole. 00:10:03.997 --> 00:10:06.739 There’s a retaining ring that I... can’t find right now 00:10:06.739 --> 00:10:09.799 which you can clamp onto the spool to keep the reel from riding up 00:10:09.799 --> 00:10:13.647 but I don’t really need it because of the style of development I use. 00:10:13.647 --> 00:10:18.987 I’ll talk about that in just a moment but now I’ve got to do what I just showed you inside this bag. 00:10:18.987 --> 00:10:20.680 Gotta make sure I have the film, 00:10:20.680 --> 00:10:22.980 a reel opened up to the 120 position, 00:10:22.980 --> 00:10:24.101 a pair of scissors, 00:10:24.101 --> 00:10:25.044 the tank bottom, 00:10:25.044 --> 00:10:26.103 the spool doohickey, 00:10:26.103 --> 00:10:28.765 and the lid all inside the bag. 00:10:28.765 --> 00:10:30.294 Now I’ll zip it up. 00:10:30.294 --> 00:10:31.431 Zip it up again. 00:10:31.431 --> 00:10:35.555 Stick my arms in there, and feel around for everything and just get going. 00:10:35.555 --> 00:10:36.886 Eventually… 00:10:36.886 --> 00:10:39.603 Tada! Film ready for developing. 00:10:39.603 --> 00:10:42.654 And now we’ll get to Steve Ballmer’s favorite part. 00:10:42.654 --> 00:10:47.833 Here are just a few of the many black and white film developers available out there. 00:10:47.833 --> 00:10:53.500 We’ve got the ol’ mainstay Kodak D-76 (though this pouch is long-expired), 00:10:53.500 --> 00:10:55.670 Arista Premium film developer, 00:10:55.670 --> 00:10:57.003 Adox Adonal, 00:10:57.003 --> 00:10:58.897 and R09 One Shot - 00:10:58.897 --> 00:11:01.809 those last two are purportedly the same thing. 00:11:01.809 --> 00:11:04.153 But there are so many more out there, 00:11:04.153 --> 00:11:09.744 and people have also been making their own concoctions for about as long as film photography has existed. 00:11:09.744 --> 00:11:12.659 There are even formulations using instant coffee, 00:11:12.659 --> 00:11:16.988 and so-called caffenol has long been thriving in the homebrew scene. 00:11:16.988 --> 00:11:20.866 These chemicals have a very delicate balancing act ahead of them. 00:11:20.866 --> 00:11:24.964 They contain reducing agents — which ones exactly will depend on the developer — 00:11:24.964 --> 00:11:29.331 which continue the process of the silver halides reducing to metallic silver, 00:11:29.331 --> 00:11:31.470 but they need to be selective. 00:11:31.470 --> 00:11:37.561 Ideally, we only want the developer to reduce the halide crystals that already have that silver seed in them 00:11:37.561 --> 00:11:40.251 from the exposure to light in the camera. 00:11:40.251 --> 00:11:44.310 Through various chemical tinkering such as adjusting the pH of the solutions, 00:11:44.310 --> 00:11:48.231 adding compounds which accelerate the reduction reaction once in-progress 00:11:48.231 --> 00:11:54.336 but also inhibitors so that it doesn’t happen to crystals which don’t already have that seed of silver, 00:11:54.336 --> 00:11:56.914 we arrived at these solutions. 00:11:56.914 --> 00:12:02.756 Now, when you’re using many of these chemicals, you need to look up the specific film stock you’re developing 00:12:02.756 --> 00:12:06.543 to get a development time and adjust for temperature. 00:12:06.543 --> 00:12:10.322 Just like most reactions more temperature equals more faster, 00:12:10.322 --> 00:12:12.341 and depending on the film’s properties 00:12:12.341 --> 00:12:18.086 (and also whether you want to pull- or push-process the film to a lower or higher equivalent speed) 00:12:18.086 --> 00:12:22.376 you’ll have a somewhat narrow time window for best results. 00:12:22.376 --> 00:12:27.436 Many films have a chart printed on the inside of their box for common developers, 00:12:27.436 --> 00:12:29.692 but I don’t bother with any of this nonsense 00:12:29.692 --> 00:12:34.529 because I have been enlightened to the world of stand development. 00:12:34.529 --> 00:12:38.565 It turns out that so long as you’re OK with the process taking much longer, 00:12:38.565 --> 00:12:40.147 as in an hour, 00:12:40.147 --> 00:12:44.354 you can develop pretty much any film without thinking about it. 00:12:44.354 --> 00:12:47.085 I enjoy not thinking about things on occasion, 00:12:47.085 --> 00:12:52.766 especially when it frees me from wondering whether I’m doing things the quote unquote “best way,” 00:12:52.766 --> 00:12:55.231 so this was right up my alley. 00:12:55.231 --> 00:13:01.684 This particular developer goes by many names but traditionally it’s been known by its original name Rodinal. 00:13:01.684 --> 00:13:04.517 And it is a very old formulation. 00:13:04.517 --> 00:13:07.303 As in from 1891. 00:13:07.303 --> 00:13:10.272 Also, it was originally developed by Agfa. 00:13:10.272 --> 00:13:15.535 Now the “One Shot” on this bottle might give you a hint about what makes it kinda special. 00:13:15.535 --> 00:13:20.399 Many other developers are meant to be reused after developing a roll of film. 00:13:20.399 --> 00:13:25.271 They’re very concentrated and usually require less than 10 minutes to develop film, 00:13:25.271 --> 00:13:30.639 so although the reduction reaction they cause does slightly weaken them by way of oxidation, 00:13:30.639 --> 00:13:34.796 it takes quite a few rolls of film for that to be noticeable. 00:13:34.796 --> 00:13:37.831 These developers, though, are much more dilute. 00:13:38.311 --> 00:13:43.735 Well actually in the bottle it’s very concentrated but you use a very high dilution ratio in water 00:13:43.735 --> 00:13:48.660 resulting in a pretty weak working solution which is only good for one roll. 00:13:48.660 --> 00:13:54.762 With the advised 1 to 25 and 1 to 50 dilutions the film development still happens pretty quickly, 00:13:54.762 --> 00:14:00.269 but if you go to a 1:100 dilution something vaguely magical occurs. 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... 00:14:06.419 --> 00:14:08.279 doesn't really matter. 00:14:08.279 --> 00:14:10.091 It’ll just work. 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, 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. 00:14:24.323 --> 00:14:28.314 Film processed this way in a sense can’t be overdeveloped, 00:14:28.314 --> 00:14:30.477 or at least it’s really hard to do that, 00:14:30.477 --> 00:14:35.427 and the long time you leave the film in the solution ensures it will completely reduce 00:14:35.427 --> 00:14:40.378 pretty much all the crystals that should be while leaving the rest alone. 00:14:40.378 --> 00:14:44.508 It’s pretty great, and will help compensate for underexposure, too, 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. 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, 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 00:15:01.764 --> 00:15:05.012 (though to be fair that’s only been maybe half-a-dozen). 00:15:05.012 --> 00:15:09.290 And as a bonus, Rodinal is a very shelf-stable formula. 00:15:09.290 --> 00:15:13.083 This bottle is pushing 10 years old and still works fine. 00:15:13.083 --> 00:15:17.870 And since you use so little of it with each go, it’s quite cheap, too. 00:15:17.870 --> 00:15:22.234 You can develop well over 100 rolls with a half-liter bottle like this. 00:15:22.234 --> 00:15:23.637 So let’s get going. 00:15:23.637 --> 00:15:26.140 Welcome to this gross utility sink. 00:15:26.140 --> 00:15:29.759 Generally you want to give your film a rinse before you start developing it. 00:15:29.759 --> 00:15:34.579 Letting the gelatin soak in some water first helps to ensure development happens uniformly. 00:15:34.579 --> 00:15:38.393 Also if you noticed the bright blue color of this film, 00:15:38.393 --> 00:15:40.550 well rinsing it takes that off. 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, 00:15:45.860 --> 00:15:48.505 but water washes it away pretty quickly. 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. 00:15:56.301 --> 00:16:01.173 Using a 1:100 dilution that would suggest I need about 6 CCs of Rodinal, 00:16:01.173 --> 00:16:03.110 which is what I’ll go ahead and use. 00:16:03.110 --> 00:16:05.210 There is some nuance here, though. 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. 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, 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. 00:16:24.620 --> 00:16:28.427 We need more solution in the tank because the reel is much taller, 00:16:28.427 --> 00:16:32.930 but we might not actually need any more chemical developer in the solution. 00:16:32.930 --> 00:16:36.611 I have developed a roll of 120 film using only 4 CCs Rodinal, 00:16:36.611 --> 00:16:41.920 but the negatives were kind of thin - meaning none of the film got very dark. 00:16:41.920 --> 00:16:44.329 Because of that, and because this film is pretty old, 00:16:44.329 --> 00:16:48.759 I’m going to stick with 1:100 dilution and use 6 CCs. 00:16:48.759 --> 00:16:51.825 Plus, with stand development you don’t agitate much 00:16:51.825 --> 00:16:56.103 so developer not near the film is probably gonna stay not near the film. 00:16:56.610 --> 00:16:59.753 I mean this is photography, it’s more art than science. 00:17:00.447 --> 00:17:02.868 Ooh that’s gonna cause me some grief... 00:17:02.868 --> 00:17:05.620 So, here’s 6 CCs of the developer. 00:17:05.620 --> 00:17:07.890 That’s really all we need. 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. 00:17:13.733 --> 00:17:16.742 With the film already rinsed, we can simply pour this in, 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 00:17:21.098 --> 00:17:24.143 and make sure everything gets sloshed together nicely 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, 00:17:29.368 --> 00:17:33.164 also I’m missing that retaining ring so I’d rather not invert it so much), 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 00:17:38.943 --> 00:17:43.820 to dislodge any bubbles that might have formed on the film during agitation. 00:17:43.820 --> 00:17:47.413 Now, just leave it alone for a half hour. 00:17:47.413 --> 00:17:50.744 Let it stand, hence stand development. 00:17:51.651 --> 00:17:56.075 This isn’t very exciting, but the developer’s slowly seeping its way into the emulsion 00:17:56.075 --> 00:17:59.973 and latching onto the crystals which have those tiny silver molecules 00:17:59.973 --> 00:18:03.873 and finishing the job of reduction into metallic silver. 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, 00:18:10.317 --> 00:18:12.154 and wait another half-hour. 00:18:12.154 --> 00:18:16.644 Pedants wish for me to inform you that because I’ve done that middle agitation, 00:18:16.644 --> 00:18:19.668 this is in fact semi-stand development. 00:18:20.362 --> 00:18:23.168 While we’re waiting, let’s talk about fixer. 00:18:23.168 --> 00:18:25.748 You might have noticed that prior to development, 00:18:25.748 --> 00:18:27.998 film appears opaque. 00:18:27.998 --> 00:18:33.525 That’s what all the crystals of undeveloped silver halides look like suspended in the gelatin. 00:18:33.525 --> 00:18:38.625 Remember how I said in the previous video that fixing got rid of undeveloped halides? 00:18:38.625 --> 00:18:43.065 Well, watch what happens when I put this bit of film into some fixer. 00:18:43.065 --> 00:18:45.528 Before long it becomes transparent. 00:18:45.528 --> 00:18:49.289 With none of the halide crystals converted to silver by the developer, 00:18:49.289 --> 00:18:54.750 the fixer dissolves them all, leaving nothing but the gelatin base and the plastic backing. 00:18:54.750 --> 00:18:57.996 However, the fixer cannot dissolve pure silver, 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. 00:19:04.380 --> 00:19:07.934 Through the magic of video editing, our time is up. 00:19:07.934 --> 00:19:12.185 Since we used a one-shot developer, we’ll just pour it down the drain. 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. 00:19:17.561 --> 00:19:19.873 Now here’s an optional step. 00:19:19.873 --> 00:19:21.457 Stop bath. 00:19:21.457 --> 00:19:25.790 The reducing agents in the developer require a high pH to work effectively. 00:19:25.790 --> 00:19:29.926 If you use a stop bath, which is usually just dilute acetic acid, 00:19:29.926 --> 00:19:34.827 the pH is lowered to the point of stopping any further development action. 00:19:34.827 --> 00:19:39.045 Now, at the risk of making an opinion known online, 00:19:39.045 --> 00:19:42.582 I don’t think it’s necessary for pretty much any film development. 00:19:42.582 --> 00:19:45.849 I just rinse the film with water and move on to fixer. 00:19:45.849 --> 00:19:50.994 If you were using a film and developer with a really sensitive development time, 00:19:50.994 --> 00:19:52.913 maybe you’d want to use stop bath, 00:19:52.913 --> 00:19:57.435 but especially because I use stand development I just don’t see the point. 00:19:57.435 --> 00:20:00.702 Also a lot of fixers are acidic so again… 00:20:00.702 --> 00:20:02.170 yeah. 00:20:02.170 --> 00:20:05.646 Anyway, after rinsing it a few times I’ll pour in the fixer. 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. 00:20:13.504 --> 00:20:16.057 That’s probably way more time than I actually need. 00:20:16.057 --> 00:20:19.103 How long you should fix depends on your fixer. 00:20:19.103 --> 00:20:22.109 I’ll make up fresh solution… at some point. 00:20:22.109 --> 00:20:27.363 But anyway, just like we saw earlier the fixer’s making the film all clear-like 00:20:27.363 --> 00:20:30.021 except for where the developer made it all silvery-like 00:20:30.021 --> 00:20:31.824 and after we’re done with this step, 00:20:31.824 --> 00:20:35.279 we can pour the fixer back into the bottle and start rinsing. 00:20:35.279 --> 00:20:38.134 At this point the film has been developed. 00:20:38.134 --> 00:20:39.649 At least I hope so. 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 00:20:45.792 --> 00:20:48.577 (well, chemicals other than water). 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 - 00:20:54.152 --> 00:20:57.164 Fun fact, this thing is a greedy cup siphon! 00:20:57.164 --> 00:21:00.325 But since this film isn’t super duper important to me, 00:21:00.325 --> 00:21:02.787 I’m just gonna let the water trickle over it for a while, 00:21:02.787 --> 00:21:07.314 do some swirls, some of these maneuvers, and then there’s one last step. 00:21:07.314 --> 00:21:08.649 Photo-Flo. 00:21:08.649 --> 00:21:14.522 More generically known as wetting agent, this stuff is basically rinse aid for your dishwasher. 00:21:14.522 --> 00:21:18.363 In fact I’ve often wondered if there would be any harm in just using that. 00:21:18.363 --> 00:21:22.076 Anyway, it’s a mild surfactant which lowers the surface tension of water 00:21:22.076 --> 00:21:24.923 and makes it sheet off of the film in a… 00:21:24.923 --> 00:21:27.465 film so that you don’t get water spots. 00:21:27.465 --> 00:21:33.068 Technically this is optional but if you have hard water… you should definitely not skip this. 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, 00:21:37.225 --> 00:21:38.897 swirl the film around in it, 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, 00:21:43.086 --> 00:21:46.848 and finally you can open up the reel and retrieve your developed film. 00:21:48.000 --> 00:21:50.284 This does not look right. 00:21:50.951 --> 00:21:53.013 Ohhhh…. no. 00:21:53.267 --> 00:21:56.544 Remember how I was saying that this film is awful? 00:21:56.544 --> 00:21:59.095 Well, yeah. 00:21:59.095 --> 00:22:01.022 Shouldn't have used it. 00:22:01.022 --> 00:22:04.078 Now this could simply be because of its age. 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 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. 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. 00:22:23.208 --> 00:22:25.871 This definitely doesn’t look like a light leakage problem — 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. 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, 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. 00:22:40.846 --> 00:22:44.381 Luckily for you I decided to go back out into the wilderness 00:22:44.381 --> 00:22:48.172 and recreate the shot with a roll of this less-terrible film. 00:22:48.172 --> 00:22:50.363 And then I did the developing rigmarole again. 00:22:50.363 --> 00:22:52.149 And here’s that film. 00:22:52.149 --> 00:22:54.734 And I call this is a no-effort video.... 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) 00:22:59.451 --> 00:23:02.401 we can handle it, though you still want to be careful. 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, 00:23:07.325 --> 00:23:09.655 and are best to handle it by the edges. 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. 00:23:16.993 --> 00:23:22.966 With film, light is transmitted through it and the silver crystals block that transmission. 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 00:23:26.838 --> 00:23:29.905 because this is not the final image. 00:23:29.905 --> 00:23:31.917 Oh but, because it’s now, 00:23:31.917 --> 00:23:33.638 I can just do this. 00:23:33.638 --> 00:23:37.604 However, there is a trick you can do to make this appear as a positive. 00:23:37.604 --> 00:23:42.102 And it’s not too far off from how the Ambrotype makes an apparent positive. 00:23:42.102 --> 00:23:47.270 Although the silver in transparent films is meant to block light traveling through it, 00:23:47.270 --> 00:23:48.904 it’s still silver. 00:23:48.904 --> 00:23:52.559 With the emulsion side up and the film against a dark background, 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. 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, 00:24:06.452 --> 00:24:12.080 and although it’s nifty it’s definitely not the optimal way to view the image. 00:24:12.080 --> 00:24:16.280 In the next video, we’ll talk about photographic printing. 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 00:24:20.650 --> 00:24:23.937 and they make photos appear in trays of liquid? 00:24:24.257 --> 00:24:25.049 Yeah. 00:24:25.049 --> 00:24:26.314 That. 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 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. 00:24:37.478 --> 00:24:39.200 And also now. 00:24:39.200 --> 00:24:44.466 120 is still alive, but 35mm is still the most mainstream film format. 00:24:44.466 --> 00:24:49.583 Despite all of Kodak’s attempts to come up with something new every decade or so. 00:24:49.583 --> 00:24:54.907 People rightfully think that Kodak let the digital age sneak up on them... because they did 00:24:54.907 --> 00:24:58.040 but hey, they were trend chasers back in their day. 00:24:58.040 --> 00:25:02.208 I mean, just look at 1982’s Disc film! 00:25:02.208 --> 00:25:07.996 I wonder what other thing from 1982 could possibly have inspired that logo… 00:25:08.770 --> 00:25:11.474 ♫ reductively smooth jazz ♫ 00:25:12.595 --> 00:25:18.240 By the way, apparently I need to clarify that 120 film... the format. 00:25:18.240 --> 00:25:19.445 Haaghh! 00:25:21.339 --> 00:25:23.540 120 film. The format! 00:25:24.000 --> 00:25:26.020 Then, I abruptly stopped. 00:25:26.020 --> 00:25:27.240 And here we are! 00:25:27.740 --> 00:25:28.240 Dangit. 00:25:28.240 --> 00:25:32.440 Yeah, that’s kind of a [weird, disappointed mouth noises] 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… 00:25:39.597 --> 00:25:41.476 That hesitation shouldn’t have been there. 00:25:41.476 --> 00:25:44.503 ...is more or less — did I skip a word? 00:25:44.797 --> 00:25:45.791 Because… 00:25:46.644 --> 00:25:48.352 it feels like I did. 00:25:48.352 --> 00:25:51.088 But, because of how grain… no! 00:25:51.088 --> 00:25:53.883 That word is missing from the script. 00:25:53.883 --> 00:25:56.510 Because of how *the* grain. Gotta remember to put that in. 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. 00:26:00.830 --> 00:26:01.843 That. 00:26:01.843 --> 00:26:02.963 Why? 00:26:03.310 --> 00:26:05.763 Whether or not you can see an ind… 00:26:05.763 --> 00:26:06.263 GARH 00:26:06.263 --> 00:26:08.859 But, because of how grain interact… 00:26:08.859 --> 00:26:10.782 (inhales through teeth) 00:26:12.543 --> 00:26:15.781 This line has taken up like 15 minutes. 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. 00:26:21.201 --> 00:26:25.018 With the film following these ridges in a spiral to the center. 00:26:25.338 --> 00:26:28.467 [loud grating noises] Could you even hear me over this? 00:26:28.467 --> 00:26:31.296 That’s a great question. We’ll find out in the edit! 00:26:31.296 --> 00:26:34.146 It takes quite a few rolls of film for that to be noticeable. 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. 00:26:39.422 --> 00:26:41.252 I need to remember to do that. 00:26:43.013 --> 00:26:44.935 If this isn’t in the bloopers I forgot. 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) 00:26:50.428 --> 00:26:53.463 someone was walking their dog, saw me, and said hello. 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 00:26:57.605 --> 00:26:59.551 was a little weird. 00:26:59.551 --> 00:27:01.987 Luckily with the re-shoot nobody saw me.