Before you begin: Determine the amount of time you will need to use for your developer by this chart (use the drop-down menus on the upper left hand side and hit search) as times will vary depending on film used, developer used, and temperature of water.

1 minute – Presoak: fill your canister with 68-70 degree water and let sit for 1 minute. Drain.

Developer time – determined by the chart: dilute developer with water if directions indicate to do so (e.g. D-76 requires 1:1 dilution. Use a thermometer to verify appropriate temperature of chemicals – 68 – 70 degrees. Adjust times of development according to temperature of chemistry. (If you know your developer is warm, use a cooler water to compensate.)

Fill canister. (Amount is indicated on the bottom of plastic canisters.) Agitate for the first 30 seconds by gently tilting the canister in a circular motion with your wrist. Then agitate 3 tilts every 45 seconds or minute until time complete. Over agitation can lead to graininess in the images. Drain developer into a discard canister for safe disposal, or down the drain (most people just dump it down the drain).

1 minute – Stop Bath: fill your canister with water, agitate, and drain. Repeat two or three times.

4-5 minutes – Fixer: Agitate for the first 45 seconds, then every 30 seconds until complete. Do not discard used fixer. Have a jug reserved for used fixer as it can be used over again until it is exhausted. Use Hypoclear to determine if used fixer is exhausted before use.

1 minute – Rinse: Fill canister with water, agitate, drain. Repeat 3x.

2 minutes – Hypoclear: Agitate constantly for 2 minutes. Do not discard used Hypoclear either, this can be reused like fixer. To determine if Hypoclear needs to be refreshed, observe its color. If it looks purple, then you should probably make a new batch.

10-15 minutes – Final Wash: You may use the Ilford method for the final wash, or you can open up your canister and let it sit under a stream of cool running tap water.

30 seconds – Photoflo: While still on the canister reel, dip negatives into a prepared diluted solution of Photo Flo and twist.

Optional: After disassembling the reel to extract negatives, dip fingers in Photoflo and use your index and middle finger as a gentle squeegee to pull off a lot of the moisture.

Hang dry in an area with little dust. (I use a thin rope clipped to my shower curtain and clip the film onto it with clothespins.) This will take hours if there is no heater forcing them dry, or under an hour if you hang them under something like a bathroom heater fan.

Examine dry negatives to inspect for watermarks, review my page “Cleaning Negatives.”