My first home colour film experiment
I’ve been developing my own black and white film for quite a while now so doing my own colour isn’t a huge leap. I had always heard rumours that “it’s way more difficult and labour-intensive without the forgiveness” when compared to doing your own black and white. Then I did some reading and found advice from more level-headed individuals that said it’s not at all more difficult. Plus, it’s fairly inexpensive. So I decided to order up some kits, twenty more rolls of film, and give it a go. There’s this misconception that because in the olden days of a few years ago it was all done by machine it must be impossible to do by hand at home. I keep having to remind people that before machines did and made everything for us, we did it ourselves, by hand. Besides, with the loss of Carsand-Mosher from downtown, Halifax — for me anyway — has become a boring, homogenous wasteland when it comes to photo service. As a film user I’m a damn pariah in these parts. But for the sake of reducing my carbon footprint, I’m not letting anyone send a friggin three-dollar roll of film to Montreal or Toronto to be run through a twenty minute process. Madness.
People sometimes wonder how I make wet darkroom prints in my tiny, zero bedroom apartment. So, I thought I’d take a few simple snaps and show you how it’s done. It’s really pretty simple, and works quite well. So, imagine all of this in the dark, with only a dim red safelight to provide illumination.