Hi. My name is Danni (of course). I have a roll of film that needs developing ASAP! It's due by tomorrow! I don't know how to develop them because all stores are closed and I don't happen to have a dark room in my house. What can I do to develop my pics? Please tell me ASAP. Thanx!

-- Danni Chung (unlimited012@hotmail.com), May 23, 1999

Answers

Dear Danni,

Late reply only found this on 18/11/00. Developers can be formulated from substances found in garden centres and chemists.

ferrous sulphate (Sulphate of Iron - Agricultural) and ascorbic acid (vitamin C) are well known developers. The problem would then be fixing, but this can be done with strong household ammonia. So it would be possible to develop a film with "household chemicals", but in practise its quite tricky. Hope this is interesting generally.

Dallas Simpson, Photographic Artist.

-- Dallas Simpson (dallassimpson@waterpump.f9.co.uk), November 18, 2000.

What you want to do is buy some, develpoing chemical for the film. Then you'd need a stopper to stop the process then the fixer.. you'd need sonmthing called a can or tank it allows you to pour the liquid in without being exposed to light so you can do it IN THE LIGHT.. THen you'd quickly pour the diluted developer into the can and shake it aa bit every 30 secs for 5 mins. Then pour put he develpoer and it can be reused.. and pour in the stop fast.. swish that a few times for a minuite or so,, then you'd need to pour that out and pour in the fixer shake for 5 mins once every 30 secs. Then after puribng that aout, u need to pur in Water to rince of chemicals.. then you have your negatives... (leave the negatives in the (dark) for 1 hour.. then after that, you'd need togo into a dark room and you can use a red light... and you'll need some paper developing paper.. pour develpoing chemical (for paper only it is a different one) into one tray, pur the stoper into another (it can be the same one ued for the Film) then you can pour in the fixer... place the negatives in the machine and turn it on for 10 seconds which will expose the paper and then place the paper into the developing fluid.. you'll notice a change in color (the pics will begin to develop) and then place it into the stopper for a few secs. then the fixer for 15 mins.. then Water for an hour.. and you have your picture.. Well take care and good luck.

-- Taheer (taheer@wowmail.com), April 18, 2002.