Film Photography: Developing & Digitising Black & White Film at Home

Take full control of your film photography by learning to develop black & white film at home, and then by digitising and retouching your photographs in Adobe Photoshop.

Being able to develop black & white film at home can give you a lot of freedom and room for experimentation, and it's not as complicated as it may seem! All you need is a few chemicals, basic equipment and attention, patience and precision when following the instructions—and you’ll learn to achieve great results and never go back to a black & white photo processing lab!

I am Dominic Righini-Brand, and even though most of my professional photography is digital, I still love chemical photography and shooting with black & white film! I first leaned how to process black and white film nearly 20 years ago when I was a high school student and have been doing it ever since!

In this class you will learn:

• what equipment & chemicals you need to develop black & white film;
• how to process black & white film in the home environment;
• best practices for archiving your negatives;
• how to digitise your negatives;
• how to clean, retouch and enhance your scanned photographs in Adobe Photoshop;
• and how to save your photographs for print or web.

This class is suitable for anyone who is already shooting on film and wants to level up their chemical photography skills. To complete this class you will need a basic understanding of black & white film photography—you will need to be able to successfully shoot a black & white film to be able to develop it afterwards.

Chemicals:

• Ilford Ilfotec LC29 developer or equivalent;
• Ilford Rapid Fixer or equivalent;
• Ilford Ilfostop Stop Bath (optional);
• Ilford Ilfotol (optional).

Equipment:

• Development tank;
• Changing bag or lightproof space;
• Scissors;
• Bottle opener or church key;
• 100ml measuring cylinder;
• 1 litre measuring jug;
• A large jug (1–2 litre) for mixing chemicals;
• Thermometer;
• Running water supply (with warm water);
• Clock/timer or a timer app on your phone;
• Safety glasses;
• Rubber gloves (if you have a skin condition).

I cannot wait to see you in the class and hear about your experience with black & white film photography!

Contest:

To celebrate the launch of this class will be running a special contest and giving away 3 photographic prints and one lucky winner will also get a 30-minute video call with us to discuss their photographic work! To enter simply watch the whole class, leave a review and drop us an e-mail or a message on Instagram or Facebook with the screenshot showing that you have completed watching the class. 

Entry deadline is at midnight EST on Thursdays, 12 October 2017, and the winners will be randomly picked and announced the following day, so good luck!

• Introduction & Overview
• Black & White Film Photography Nowadays
• Preparing Your Film for Processing
• Loading the Development Tank
• Chemicals & Equipment
• Developing Your Film
• Stop Bath
• Fixing Your Film
• Washing Your Negatives
• Drying Your Negatives
• Archiving Your Negatives
• Digitising Your Negatives
• Image Resolution & Colour Mode
• Cleaning & Retouching Photographs in Photoshop
• Tonal Adjustments
• Sharpening Photographs in Photoshop
• Saving Images for Print & Web
• What Next & Conclusion