The Developing Process

To start off my photography blog, I'm going to write about the steps of developing a print in a dark room. In our particular dark room, the chemicals sit in plastic containers in the middle of the room with the enlargers on either side. The red light is from the Safety Light, which is there so that we can see without exposing the photo paper.

Once the photo paper has been exposed under the enlarger, we move it into the developer. It has to be pushed down so it is completely submerged. One way to evenly spread the developer is to gently lift the container and then set it back down, thus creating small waves. The paper has to sit in the developer for 2-3 minutes. Personally, I think that this is the best part of the entire process, when I can watch my picture form in the developer. Sometimes it is too dark, or too light, but every time I fell proud that I was able to make that print happen.

After those 2-3 minutes, we lift the paper using the tongs out and drop it into the stop bath. Make sure not to contaminate the tongs by bringing them into contact with the stop bath. The picture sits in the stop bath for about 30 seconds. Though this is a short period of time, it is important because it stops the photo from developing.

After the stop bath is the fixer. The picture is safe to take out after one minute, where it can be dropped into the lower rinse, then brought outside to look at. If you are happy with it, you can put it back into the fixer for 5 minutes to keep it. If you aren't happy with it, you can just throw it away.

After those 5 minutes, the paper goes into the lower rinse. The picture can be in the lower rinse for as long as it needs to be without hurting it. Once the upper rinse is empty, the pictures can be moved there. The important thing is that they must be in there for 5 minutes completely undisturbed. So if someone drops another picture in after other pictures have started, the 5 minutes must start again.

Once the 5 minutes have passed undisturbed, they can be put through the dryer. It is very important that only one picture is put through at a time so that they don't get caught. Make sure that the picture is face up. If the picture comes out of the dryer and it is still sticky, do not put it back in again. Just leave it out and it will dry. Don't stack sticky prints, or they will stick together. If all goes well then your print is done!