Yes, you can develop film at home, anywhere, and black and white in particular forgives small mistakes. You need a tank, a changing bag, a thermometer and a few bottles of chemistry. The film needs darkness only for the two minutes it takes to load it onto the reel, and you can do that inside a changing bag wherever you are, or in any room you can make fully dark. Every step after that happens in normal light. Picture the end of a roll, the last frame winding on, a small plastic cylinder holding pictures you cannot see yet. You can post it to a lab and wait a week, or you can have the negatives hanging at your window tonight.
Which process you learn depends on the film in your camera. Black and white develops at 20°C, which is room temperature, and it is the forgiving place to start. Colour negative film all goes through one process, C-41, at 38°C. Each has its own step-by-step guide, and this page is the short version of how to process film at home either way, so you can pick one and go.
Black and white, step by step
Three bottles of chemistry at room temperature and about 40 minutes of hands-on work. Start here if you have never developed a roll.
Read the B&W guide
Colour (C-41), step by step
Portra, Gold, Fujicolor and CineStill all run the same baths at 38°C. The four kits we stock, and the times for each.
Read the C-41 guideWhy develop film at home?
Money is the easy part to count. A lab in Europe charges €10 to €20 to develop a roll of colour and €7 to €12 for black and white, before scanning. At home the chemistry costs €2 to €4 a colour roll and under €1 a black and white one, so the tank and the rest pay for themselves inside a year if you shoot a roll a month. The savings calculator at the bottom of this page works it out for the film you shoot.
Money gets people started, and speed keeps them going. A roll shot in the afternoon can be hanging to dry that evening, and seeing the negatives while you still remember the light is how exposure gets better. You also get to choose the developer, which changes the grain and the contrast. You can push a roll you shot at a higher ISO than the box says, or rescue one shot at the wrong ISO. A lab runs every roll the same way.
What you need to develop film at home
The hardware is the same for black and white and colour, so you buy it once and it does both.
- Developing tank and reels. Paterson Super System 4 is the usual choice. The reels adjust between 35mm and 120, so one reel covers both.
- Changing bag. Total darkness for the couple of minutes it takes to load the reel and close the tank. It works in any room.
- Thermometer. Digital, reading to half a degree. Black and white wants 20°C and colour wants 38°C.
- Measuring graduates and storage bottles. A large graduate for the working solution, a small one for measuring concentrate, and bottles for the chemistry you reuse.
- Film clips, one weighted, for hanging the film to dry.
- Chemistry. For black and white that is a developer, a fixer and a wetting agent (stop bath optional); for colour, a C-41 kit with developer, bleach and fixer or blix, and a stabiliser.
The kit builder puts it together part by part and tells you if anything is missing.
Black and white film development
The developer runs at 20°C, so there is no water bath to manage, and a degree either way only shifts the contrast a little. Two fills of plain water between developer and fixer stop development well enough, and a stop bath does it instantly if you want one. Rodinal, Ilford ID-11, Ilfosol 3 and Ilfotec DD-X are all good first developers. Developer is mixed fresh for each tank and poured away, while the fixer goes back in its bottle and lasts for dozens of rolls. You can develop 120 film at home the same way as 35mm, on the same adjustable reel, with 500 ml of chemistry a roll in a Paterson tank instead of 290 ml.
Times depend on the film, the developer and the dilution, and the free Massive Dev Chart lists them. A session is 30 to 40 minutes of hands-on work, and then comes the best moment of the whole evening. You lift the film off the reel and hold the wet strip up to the window, and there are your frames, which you have not seen until now. You hang it up and leave it alone for an hour or two while it dries.
The black and white guide has the full sequence, how much developer to mix for your tank, a video of the whole process and a table for when a strip looks wrong.
C-41 colour film development
Every colour negative film is developed in C-41. Kodak Portra and Gold, Fujicolor, CineStill 800T and even Ilford XP2 go through the same baths for the same times at one temperature, so you learn it once. The baths are a developer, then bleach and fixer (or the two combined as blix), then a stabiliser or final rinse. When the film comes out it is orange. That orange mask belongs there, and scanning software removes it when it inverts the image.
The temperature is the hard part. The developer has to sit at 38°C for about three and a quarter minutes, and a couple of degrees off shows up as a colour cast. Most people hold it with a sous vide stick in a water bath. Everything else is the same tank and reel as black and white, and a session takes about 20 minutes once the chemistry is warm.
The four kits we stock are CineStill CS41, ADOX C-TEC, Bellini C-41 and Kodak C-41. How many rolls a litre does depends on the kit, from 8 to 16, and the guide has the table. Per roll it comes to €2 to €4.
The C-41 guide compares the kits, explains both ways to hold 38°C, and gives the step times for each kit.
By hand or with the AGO
Developing by hand means turning the tank over four times every 30 seconds for the whole developer step, and in colour, watching a thermometer while you do it. For a roll or two a month that is part of the fun. If you develop most weeks, it is the part that gets tedious.
What the AGO takes over
The AGO Film Processor clips onto a Paterson tank, from one reel up to eight, and agitates the reels inside it. It does not heat the chemistry. You still bring it to temperature, and the AGO measures it inside the tank and lengthens or shortens the development time to match as it drifts. It times every step and tells you when to pour. Because the tank lies on its side, two rolls of 35mm need 350 ml of each bath instead of 590 ml. For black and white you enter the time from the chart and the programme makes the rotary adjustment itself. The same machine runs C-41, E-6, ECN-2 and RA-4 prints. The best way to develop film at home compares the two routes in detail.
See the AGO Film ProcessorWhere to start
| Your situation | Where to go |
|---|---|
| Never developed a roll | Black and white first. The B&W guide |
| Black and white works, ready for colour | Same tank and reels, add a C-41 kit and a way to hold 38°C. The C-41 guide |
| You only shoot colour | Starting with C-41 is fine. Practise loading the reel with a spare roll first. The C-41 guide |
| Developing most weeks, or tired of the thermometer | By hand or with the AGO |
Common questions about developing film at home
Do I need a darkroom to develop film at home?
You can do it anywhere with a changing bag. Only loading the film onto the reel needs darkness, about two minutes, and you do that inside the bag, or in any room you can make fully dark, such as a bathroom at night. Once the tank is closed, every step happens in normal light.
Is developing film at home hard?
No. Black and white forgives small mistakes, because a degree either way at 20°C only shifts the contrast a little. Colour is the same handling with one extra job, holding the developer at 38°C. Loading the reel is where beginners get stuck, so practise with a spare roll in daylight first.
How long does it take to develop film at home?
Black and white is 30 to 40 minutes of hands-on work. Colour takes 15 to 30 minutes to warm the chemistry to 38°C, then about 20 minutes of steps. Both need an hour or two to dry.
Is it cheaper to develop film at home?
Yes. A lab in Europe charges €10 to €20 a roll for colour and €7 to €12 for black and white, before scanning. At home the chemistry is €2 to €4 a colour roll and under €1 a black and white roll. The equipment pays for itself inside a year at a roll a month.
What chemicals do you need to develop film?
For black and white, a developer, a fixer and a wetting agent, with a stop bath as an option. For colour, a C-41 kit with developer, bleach and fixer or blix, and a stabiliser.
What film formats can I develop at home?
35mm, 120, 127, 110, 220 and sheet film. 35mm and 120 are where most people start, and one Paterson reel adjusts to both.
Do I need an AGO to develop film at home?
No. A tank, a changing bag, a thermometer and the chemistry are enough, and in colour a sous vide stick or a sink of hot water holds 38°C. The AGO takes over the agitation, the timing and the temperature correction, which matters most when you develop often or shoot colour.