Hacks for Developing and Enlarging in a Hot and Humid Climate

Four things:

1. Film Handling: Just say no to loading 120 in a change bag at 27 degrees
2. Film Handling: Don’t fully rewind your film, so you can lead on your spool outside the change bag 
3. Temperature control; pre mixing and plastic ice cubes
4. Temperature control; it takes much longer to warm up than cool down

Scooter, Adelaide St (Image R.Crapnell Ilford HP5)

Developing and enlarging film at home is fun. However, as finding a tutor can be tough for the amateur enthusiast so we have to rely on books and even the instawebs to learn the processes. Luckily, there is a wealth of material out there.

However, even in my short journey I have discovered that there is one major problem with book-learnin’ photography in a subtropical environment; the vast majority of that great literature was written by people who seemed to do most of their development in temperate environments.

As developing film and printing photographs is highly sensitive to both time and temperature, this presents some problems for the beginner with limited equipment. Using chemicals that are recommended to be used at 20^oC in a 27^oC environment presents issues of rapid warming, even over the course of ten minutes. To make things worse, the higher the temperature, the more rapid any chemical reaction so warm conditions will dictate faster times and so therefore higher relative errors related to timing.

While stumbling through teaching myself film photography, I came up with a few hacks that make managing temperature easier in a hotter climate. Once I got the hang of temperature control I found that although a hotter environment is a hassle during the film handling stage, it actually delivers some advantages when souping chemicals for development and enlarging. 

Film Handling in a Hot Change Bag: Just Say No to Loading 120 Format Film in a Change Bag at 27 degrees

Change bags get hot and humid very quickly, with disastrous effects on loading 120 format film onto developing reels. In short, those wide and long sheets of acetate buckle very quickly in the heat, making it impossible to load a developing reel.

I have ruined several rolls trying to load 120 in a bag when it is too hot. After the second roll, I used the dud film to practice loading the film in the open air and it worked fine each time. However, even when I started the roll on the spool outside the bag, once in the bag it only took a few seconds for the broad sheet of acetate to warp and jam the spool.

Just don’t load 120 format film onto reels in a change bag when it is too hot. Wait till night time, then do it on the desk top in the dark room.

Film Handling in a Hot Change Bag: Don’t fully rewind your film

Following from the observation above regarding 120 film, even 35mm film can be hard to mount on a developing reel when it is too hot.

However, the problem is not so acute with the stiffer, thinner 35mm film and the key is to get in and out of the bag as quickly as possible. One way to help this is to make sure you don’t rewind your film all the way back into the can when you finish it. This is easily done by feel on a manual camera (wait till the tension goes slack on the rewind wheel, then give it one more turn) but is, well, impossible on an automatic one. Even then, there are plenty of tricks for getting the tongue of a roll out of the can.

Then, after clipping off the tongue of the film, use the frames that were already exposed while winding the film on to start loading the spool., it is possible to start loading a reel before putting it in the change bag. Then when the bag is closed, just crank the film on a bit at a time, leading out film from the can as required. When the film is spooled on, the can makes a handy guide for making a nice square clip at the end.

If you can start the roll outside the bag, you are saving precious seconds that will reduce the time the film is exposed to the sauna-like conditions of a change bag on a hot day. It also means that when you are winding the film on, you can better control the exposed film by only extracting the length you need one turn at a time and thus limit the chance of contact with fingers, skin or fabric inside the bag.

In fact, this tip is good whether you work in a hot climate or not.

Temperature Control: Premixing and Plastic Ice Cubes

It is always better to use distilled or at least filtered water when mixing chemicals. However, tap water is good enough when you are just learning as its convenience far outweighs the benefits of distilled or filtered water when so many other factors will affect the print. Also, since tap water in a hot climate will usually be warmer than the required temperatures for souping, you don’t have to worry about contaminated water from heating systems.

When mixing chemicals immediately before use, it is better to get the water temperature right before souping. This is one way in which a warmer climate has an advantage over a cool one, because usually the water will just have to be cooled, removing the temptation to mix hot tap water with your chemicals. Tap water is bad enough, but water out of a kettle or hot water system should be avoided even in the learning stages; just don’t use it. So, simply fill a large bucket or jug with water out of the tap and cool it with ice cubes. The nice thing here is that if you cool too much you can just add more warm water from the cold water tap.

If your chemicals are already deployed in trays or tanks, it can be more difficult to manage temperature. Use some plastic ice cubes (plastic moulds filled with water) to moderate temperatures in this case as they will not dilute the chemicals. Also, by removing the cubes one at a time, you can moderate the rate of heat exchange till your tray stays stable for longer. Make sure you take the cubes out and swish the water around before you put a print through, though, or you may have radically different development rates across the print.

Temperature Control: It takes longer to heat up than cool down

Ice cubes bring down temperatures fast, while warming by ambient air temperature takes longer. Cooling down too fast means you can spend a lot of time getting the chemicals back up to operating temperature.

If you have already mixed your chemicals, simply adding slightly warmer water from the cold tap is not the answer as it will dilute the temperatures too much. Adding hot water from a tap or kettle delivers more heat for less volume, carries its own dangers of contaminants. To accelerate warming, you can try dispensing the chemistry into more trays to increase the surface area and make it warm more quickly, or use small amounts of water heated in a microwave or very clean pot (that is not used for cooking!).