What you need to develop films

In this tutorial, I want to encourage you to develop your film yourself. We will go through all the basics that are needed to develop a film.

Film and Developer

There are plenty of options for films. In the beginning, to get familiar with the whole process it does not really matter. After a while, you will find your personal favorite combination of film and developer. For starters are also a lot of kits available. For example, Fotoimpex in Berlin has several options and they ship worldwide.

What you need to start is a film, a developer, and a fixer. This kit is a good starting point and a film that can be used for a big range of photography. As a cheaper alternative, the Foma films are extremely good when it comes to the price value aspect. I shoot them for more than a decade and I am still amazed how good the results are. The film from Foma you can either find at Fotoimpex here or Foma also has its own website here.

Ilford HP5 plus kit + developer and fixer

The equipment

The next thing you will need for all kinds of film development (Black and White and color) is a development tank. Also, there are good starter kits available at Fotoimpex. This kit also comes along with a different developer, so that you have already two different options and can compare the behavior and outcome of the process.

film development kit

What´s next?

Besides a camera and a completely dark room, this is all you need. In the next tutorials, we go through the development process and further editing of negatives.

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