Developing film is a lot like cooking to me. More art than science.

This is a collection of my development recipes that I use on a consistent basis. I consider these recipes to be tried and true and have given me great results despite my lack of consistency with agitation strength, temperature, and time.

Terminology

Inversion

To perform an inversion, the lid must be securely put onto the tank first. The Patterson tanks do tend to leak a bit, so that's something to keep in mind. I usually have a paper towel under the tank just in case. When I do an inversion, I place the tank between my hands (one hand on top of the lid, the other under the bottom of the tank). I twist the tank while flipping it upside down, and then reverse the motion to bring the tank back upright. This single move is one inversion.

Agitation

I develop my film in the 2 reel or 3 reel plastic Patterson tanks. They come with a little plastic twisty rod that's used to twist the center column of the tank attached to the reels. One agitation is a twist clockwise and then back counter-clockwise (or counter-clockwise and then clockwise). I try to be gentle with this twisting action.

Slosh

Sloshing the tank means that I swirl the tank around as if it were a glass of wine. There is no set number of times, but I generally swirl the tank around about 5 - 10 times.

Rodinal 1+100

This is my go-to recipe for all of my black and white film development and is the product of years of research and trial and error. The basic procedure stays the same throughout, the only variance is the developer dilution which is based on the film used and whether or not it needs to be pushed.

One of the main reasons that I like this method is that I can develop at room temperature and not worry too much about temperature variance.

Dilutions

These are the Rodinal dilutions for the black and white films that I use:

  • Fuji Neopan 100 Acros: 1 + 100

  • Bergger BRF-400: 1 + 50 (1 + 25 pushed to 800 / 1 + 12.5 pushed to 1600)

  • Ilford Delta 100: 1 + 100

  • Ilford Pan F 50: 1 + 50

Prep

  • Developer: 10mL of Rodinal developer for 1010mL total volume (1 + 100)

  • Stop: 16mL of Kodak Stop Bath for 1000mL total volume

  • Fixer: 200mL of Kodak Fixer for 1000mL total volume (1 + 4)

  • Photo-Flo: About 10mL for 1000mL total volume

Presoak

2 minutes in room temperature water

Development

18 minute duration

  1. 15 seconds of gentle agitations per minute for 3 minutes

  2. 1 inversion with counter tap every 3 minutes

  3. Pour out developer

Stop Bath

1 minute duration

  1. Pour in the stop bath and agitate for 30 seconds

  2. Pour out the stop bath and fill the tank with warm water

  3. Agitate for 15 seconds and pour out water

Fix

6+ minute duration

  1. 4 initial agitations 

  2. 4 agitations per minute

  3. Pour out fixer

Rinse

  1. Fill tank with warm water

  2. 5 agitations

  3. Fill tank with warm water 

  4. 10 agitations

  5. Fill tank with warm water

  6. 20 agitations

  7. Fill tank with warm water

  8. 40 agitations

  9. Fill tank with warm water and slosh the tank 3 additional times

  10. Pour out water

Photo-Flo

1 minute duration

  1. Add the Photo-Flo to the tank and fill with warm water

  2. Agitate for 10 seconds and tap the tank against the counter

  3. Dump the water

Hang Film to Dry

C41.R500D (C41+1@40C)

C-41 Cross Processing Development for Fuji Reala 500D Film (3 rolls)

This recipe is very specific to my film. My Fuji Reala 500D film is about 10 years expired, so this development compensates for the loss of speed by push processing by 1 stop. I also develop the film at a slightly higher temperature than the standard 38C since I found that this results in better color and finer grain.

I tend to call this recipe C41.R500D which is to describe the process as Fuji Reala 500D developed in C-41 chemicals, or C41+1@40C which describes a generic C-41 development pushed 1 stop and developed at 40C. Both names mean more or less the same thing, though the more generic C41+1@40C could be applied to other color films.

Prep

  • Rem-Jet Rinse: 1L of 40C water mixed with 2Tbsp of baking soda

  • Developer: 1L of C-41 Developer

  • Blix: 1L of C-41 Bleach + Fixer

  • Stabilizer: 1L of C-41 Stabilizer

Water Bath

  1. Fill cooler with water and heat to 50C

  2. Put Developer and Blix chemical bottles into the water bath and let them heat up to 40C.

  3. Put 1L beaker into water bath.

Rem-Jet Removal

2.5 minute duration while the Develop and Blix are heating up in the water bath

  1. Pour in the rem-jet rinse

  2. Agitate for 30 seconds

  3. At 2:00, agitate for 30 seconds

  4. Dump the rem-jet rinse

  5. Fill tank with water bath water

  6. Slosh tank around a few times

  7. Dump water.

Development

I use the powdered 1L UniColor Press Kit since I don't develop a lot of film at once.

4:40 minute duration

  1. 10 seconds initial agitation

  2. 4 agitations per 30 seconds

Rinse

  1. Pour in 1L water from the water bath

  2. Agitate for 30 seconds

  3. Dump the water

  4. Pour in another 1L of water from the water bath

  5. Slosh tank around a few times and dump the water

Blix

For cinema films I've noticed that they require much longer blix times; around 2x as long generally. My blix times increase as I run more rolls through the chemical as well.

10+ minute duration

  1. 4 agitations per 30 seconds

Rinse

  1. About 4 minute duration 

  2. Take off tank lid

  3. Fill tank with water bath water

  4. Agitate 5 times

  5. Dump water and fill tank again with the water bath water

  6. Agitate 10 times

  7. Dump water and fill tank again with the water bath water

  8. Agitate 20 times 

  9. Dump water and fill tank again with the water bath water

  10. Agitate 40 times

  11. Dump water

  12. Take off inner tank lid

  13. Fill the tank with any remaining water bath water, slosh tank and dump as many times as needed to get to 4 minutes total in duration or the water stops running pink

Stabilizer

1 minute duration

  1. 10 seconds initial agitation

Hang Film to Dry

C41.V500T (C41@40C)

C-41 Cross Processing Development for Kodak Vision3 500T Film (3 rolls)

This another film specific recipe. The rem-jet layer on the film is much stickier than Fuji's. That means an additional rem-jet removal step is necessary and that the C-41 chemicals will be contaminated with rem-jet. As with the other cinema film recipe, the film at a slightly higher temperature than the standard 38C since I found that this results in better color and finer grain.

Prep

  • Rem-Jet Rinse: 1L of 40C water mixed with 2Tbsp of baking soda

  • Developer: 1L of C-41 Developer

  • Blix: 1L of C-41 Bleach + Fixer

  • Stabilizer: 1L of C-41 Stabilizer

Water Bath

  1. Fill cooler with water and heat to 50C

  2. Put Developer and Blix chemical bottles into the water bath and let them heat up to 40C.

  3. Put 1L beaker into water bath.

Rem-Jet Removal

2.5 minute duration while the Develop and Blix are heating up in the water bath

  1. Pour in the rem-jet rinse

  2. Agitate for 30 seconds

  3. At 2:00, agitate for 30 seconds

  4. Dump the rem-jet rinse

  5. Fill tank with water bath water

  6. Slosh tank around a few times

  7. Dump water.

Development

I use the powdered 1L UniColor Press Kit since I don't develop a lot of film at once.

3:15 minute duration

  1. 10 seconds initial agitation

  2. 4 agitations per 30 seconds

Rinse

  1. Pour in 1L water from the water bath

  2. Agitate for 30 seconds

  3. Dump the water

  4. Pour in another 1L of water from the water bath

  5. Slosh tank around a few times and dump the water

Blix

For cinema films I've noticed that they require much longer blix times; around 2x as long generally. My blix times increase as I run more rolls through the chemical as well.

10+ minute duration

  1. 4 agitations per 30 seconds

Rinse

  1. About 4 minute duration

  2. Take off tank lid

  3. Fill tank with water bath water

  4. Agitate 5 times

  5. Dump water and fill tank again with the water bath water

  6. Agitate 10 times

  7. Dump water and fill tank again with the water bath water

  8. Agitate 20 times

  9. Dump water and fill tank again with the water bath water

  10. Agitate 40 times

  11. Dump water

  12. Take off inner tank lid

  13. Fill the tank with any remaining water bath water, slosh tank and dump as many times as needed to get to 4 minutes total in duration or the water stops running pink

Rem-Jet Removal 2

  1. Unspool the film in the water bath

  2. Using a Pec-pad, gently wipe the rem-jet off of the film

  3. Re-spool the film

Stabilizer

1 minute duration

  1. 10 seconds initial agitation

Hang Film to Dry