25 frames / a whole roll developed by me for the first time in 30 years – #FullRollFriday – by Rock

You have probably guessed by the title that’s it’s been a long time since I developed my own film. It was something that I did all the time in my youth. In fact, it was a requirement of the courses in photography that I took that you had to do all your own developing (and printing). I pretty much kept to black and white. Eventually I lost access to darkroom facilities and equipment. Indeed, I even left photography for quite some time.

Roll on (sorry about the pun) 30 years or so and the decision to do it all again. I have been meaning to process my own stuff for a while now; just haven’t got around to it even though I have been gradually building up the necessary paraphernalia since last year. I finally took the plunge on the last weekend of May with a bottle of Bellini FX6a monobath and some ORWO N74 400 b/w film, both acquired from Nik & Trick in Folkestone, Kent.

Here is the entire roll, a test run, on a sunny day’s stroll around the local Plantlife nature reserve on the edge of my village – in glorious black and white. If you’re interested, the camera was an AGFA Selectronic 2 with it’s standard prime 50/1.4 fitted with an old BDB orange filter. Everything was shot at f22 on the X setting (which is 1/100th sec).

Through the tunnel under the railway to enter the reserve…

Fields…

Trees…

Flowers…

Views…

Farming…

End…

Well, it’s not exactly the end: you’ve not had the promised 25 frames yet. I got rather impatient to finish the roll and get it into my ancient Paterson 35 tank! Rather than blank the last few, I snapped 4 images in the garden…

There you go, the whole roll. I remembered the old trick from my school days about no fully winding the film back (hold the camera to the ear and hear it pop off the spool and then stop)  – no need to crack open the canister. This helps with loading onto the reel, especially in the confines of a changing bag. The monobath was at 23/24 degrees C, perhaps a tad warm, and I allowed 11 minutes development time. I agitated with the stirrer every minute for 3 turns.

I really enjoyed my return to film processing. Using a monobath is super easy, but the results can be limited. My photos look grainy and not particularly sharp. How much this has to do with the Bellini chemical or the fast film or the crap scanner I use, I’m not sure. I think 11 minutes was too long too. I like grain so not too bothered. Some negatives have a mark along their bottom, but overall I’m quite chuffed.

Comments appreciated, especially those with experience of this monobath. Cheers, Rock  ( www.rocksreflex.com / instagram pending )

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