Most film photographers remember pulling their first developed negatives from the tank, holding them up to the light, and seeing actual frames. Images they made, chemistry they mixed, a process they completed by hand. It feels different from dropping a roll at a lab. It feels like something you built.
It is not a difficult skill. Your first roll takes an afternoon, mostly waiting, and by the third or fourth the whole thing is a rhythm. Chemistry works out at under a euro a roll. You decide how your negatives look. And for a lot of people it becomes their favourite part of shooting film.
This guide covers black and white, the right place to start, from the kit and the chemistry to finding your development time, the full step sequence, and what to do when a strip looks wrong. Prefer to watch first? Skip to the video.
Why start with black and white
Black and white forgives small mistakes. The developer runs at 20°C, which is room temperature, so there is no water bath to hold and a degree either way only shifts the contrast a little. Colour runs at 38°C and a degree either way shows. Learn the handling on black and white and colour later is the same routine with a thermometer that matters more.
The chemistry is three bottles, developer, fixer and a wetting agent, with a stop bath as an optional fourth. A €15 bottle of Rodinal develops around 40 rolls at its stronger dilution and over 80 at its weaker one. Fixer is reused for dozens of rolls. Once you own the tank, each roll costs less than a euro in chemistry against €7 to €12 for develop-only at a lab.
What you need
The Black & White Starter Kit has everything on this list except a stop bath, or you can put the same kit together from the parts.
- Developing tank and reels. Once the film is inside and the lid is on, everything else happens in daylight. Paterson reels adjust between 35mm and 120.
- Changing bag. Total darkness for the two minutes it takes to load the reel. Works in any room.
- Thermometer. To check the developer is at 20°C before you pour.
- Measuring graduates. A 600 ml one for the working solution and a 45 ml one for the concentrate. Small amounts of Rodinal are hard to measure in a big jug.
- Storage bottle. For the fixer between sessions. Developer is mixed fresh each time and poured away.
- Film clips, one weighted, for drying.
- Chemistry. A developer, a fixer, and a wetting agent. Which ones, below. All of it is in the black and white chemistry collection.
Worth having
- Scissors for trimming the 35mm leader, and a cassette opener. A bottle opener also works. Both go inside the bag with the film.
- Stop bath. Plain water stops black and white development well enough, which is why the kit leaves it out. A bottle of Ilfostop or Adostop stops it instantly, is reused for many rolls, and changes colour when it is spent.
- A timer. Your phone. Not needed with the AGO Film Processor, which times every step.
- Distilled water for the final rinse if your tap water leaves marks on glasses. It will leave them on film too.
- Negative sleeves for the finished strips.
Choosing your developer
Unlike colour, black and white has no single standard developer. Any of these four is a good first bottle, and the film you shoot works with all of them.
- Rodinal, also sold as Adonal. The classic. Lasts for years in the bottle, mixes in seconds, works with almost any film. Sharp, with visible grain that many people shoot black and white for.
- Ilford ID-11, the same formula as Kodak D-76. A powder you mix into a litre of stock. Finer grain and smoother tones than Rodinal, and the reference developer most published times are based on.
- Ilford Ilfosol 3. A liquid all-rounder with fine grain. The easiest of the three to measure and mix.
- Ilford Ilfotec DD-X. The one for pushing, that is shooting film at a higher ISO than the box says. If you ever shoot a roll at the wrong ISO, here is how to rescue it.
Two habits to build from the first roll. Developer is one-shot. Mix the working solution, develop one tank, pour it away. That is what makes results repeatable. Fixer is reused. Mix a litre of Ilford Rapid Fixer or Adofix, pour it back into its bottle after every roll, and keep a tally on the label. Ilford rates a litre of working fixer at 24 rolls. A wetting agent is a few drops in the last rinse and a bottle lasts a year.
Finding your development time
Ilford HP5 Plus at ISO 400 in Rodinal, for example, comes out as 6 minutes at 1+25 or 11 minutes at 1+50 for 35mm at 20°C. Write the number down before you open the changing bag. If your developer is a degree or two off 20°C, the chart has a temperature converter, or the AGO does the correction for you.
How much to mix
One roll of 35mm in a Paterson tank needs 290 ml of working solution, one roll of 120 needs 500 ml, and two 35mm rolls in the same tank need 590 ml. At 1+25 that is 1 part concentrate in 26 parts total, so 290 ÷ 26 = 11.2 ml of Rodinal topped up with water at 20°C to 290 ml. At 1+50 it is 290 ÷ 51 = 5.7 ml. The 45 ml graduate is for exactly this.
If you are using the AGO
The AGO's black and white programme has a rotary time reduction you can switch on. Continuous rotation develops faster than inversions, so it takes 15% off the chart time for you. Enter the chart time as it is and let the machine do the arithmetic. The reduction is only for horizontal rotary mode, which is the default. And because the reel turns lying down, one roll needs 250 ml instead of 290 and two rolls need 350 ml instead of 590.
Watch it once first
The full process with the Starter Kit, start to finish. Seeing it makes the written steps much easier to follow.
Step by step
Read the whole sequence once before you start. A couple of steps have no room for hesitation, and the order below is the order that works: the chemistry is mixed and checked before the film goes anywhere near the bag.
Mix the chemistry and confirm your time
Mix the developer to the dilution you chose, in the volume your tank needs, with water at 20°C. Mix or pour out the fixer, and the stop bath if you have one. Check the developer with the thermometer and let it sit if it is off. Room-temperature water usually needs only a few minutes to settle, which is why this step comes first. Lay out the tank, reel, scissors and opener, and set the timer to your chart time.
5 to 10 minLoad the film, in the dark
In the changing bag, open the cassette, trim the leader to a straight edge, and feed the film onto the reel. Paterson reels ratchet: hold the reel by its two sides and rock them back and forth, and the film walks in. It should feel smooth. If it fights you, back up a little and try again. Drop the loaded reel into the tank, fit the funnel and the lid, and from here every step happens in room light.
For 120, unroll the film from its backing paper, peel off the tape at the end, and load the film the same way. The paper stays out.
A word on this step. Loading the reel is where beginners get stuck. Practise with an old, already-developed roll in daylight with your eyes open, then with your eyes shut. By the time you do it in the bag it should feel familiar.
About 5 minDevelop
This step has a rhythm. Follow it exactly and use the same rhythm every roll.
- Pour and start. Pour the developer in through the funnel and start the timer as you finish pouring.
- First 30 seconds. Turn the tank fully upside down and back, over and over, without stopping. Then tap the base on the counter to shake loose any air bubbles on the film.
- Every 30 seconds after that. Four inversions, then rest. Repeat until the timer ends.
- Ten seconds before time. Start pouring out. The tank takes about ten seconds to drain.
With the AGO. Clip the AGO to the tank, pour in the developer, and press start. It rotates the reel continuously, times the step, and watches the temperature of the chemistry through the tank wall. It does not heat, but it does not need to at 20°C: if the developer drifts anywhere between 18 and 24°C it adjusts the remaining time to match.
6 to 11 min typicalStop
Development keeps going until the developer is out of the emulsion. With water: fill the tank with water at about 20°C, invert it five times, pour it out, and do it once more. With a stop bath: pour it in, invert for 30 seconds, and pour it back into its bottle for next time.
1 minFix
Pour in the fixer, invert for the first 30 seconds, then four inversions every minute. Rapid fixers take 2 to 5 minutes at their working dilution, so read the bottle. A quick way to know your own fixer's time: drop a snip of film leader into a cup of it and note how long it takes to go clear. Fix for twice that. When clearing takes twice as long as it did fresh, the fixer is finished. Pour it back into its bottle and add one to the tally.
2 to 5 minWash
Fixer left in the film turns it brown over the years, so wash properly. Ilford's method uses three tankfuls of water at roughly the developer's temperature: fill and invert 5 times, empty, fill and invert 10 times, empty, fill and invert 20 times, empty. It uses less than a litre of water and takes five minutes. A running tap for 5 to 10 minutes also works.
5 minWetting agent
Fill the tank one last time, with distilled water if your tap water is hard, add a few drops of wetting agent, and let the reel sit in it for a minute. It breaks the surface tension so the water runs off instead of drying in spots. Pour it away.
1 minDry, cut and sleeve
Lift the film off the reel, hang it by one clip somewhere dust-free with the weighted clip at the bottom, and leave it alone. Do not wipe it. Wet film scratches permanently, so give it an hour or two before you touch it. Then cut it into strips of six frames for 35mm or three for 120, slide them into negative sleeves, and keep the sheets flat in a binder. Stored like that, black and white negatives last for decades. Scan them at home or take them to a darkroom for printing. Our scanning collection covers the options from a phone to a dedicated film scanner.
1 to 2 hBy hand or with the AGO
By hand is the right way to learn. A tank, a timer and the inversion rhythm above will give you good negatives from the first roll, and black and white is forgiving enough that you can concentrate on the handling. The AGO Film Processor takes over the part that gets tedious once you develop most weeks: it turns the reel for you, times every step, corrects for temperature drift, and uses about 40% less chemistry from two rolls up. The same machine then runs colour negative, slide film and colour prints, where the temperature it watches is the whole game. The best way to develop film at home compares the two routes across film types and volume.
See the AGO Film ProcessorWhen a strip looks wrong
Hold the dry film against a window. A good black and white negative has clear edges with the film's name and frame numbers printed along them, dark skies and highlights, and shadows you can still see detail through.
| What you see | Likely cause | Fix |
|---|---|---|
| Clear film, edge markings present | The film was never exposed. Camera or loading, not chemistry | Check the camera. The chemistry did its job |
| Clear film, no edge markings at all | Fixer went in before the developer, or the developer was dead | Label the bottles. Test new developer on a scrap of film first |
| Thin, flat negatives | Developer too cold, too short, or too dilute | Check the thermometer and the chart row |
| Dense, dark, blocked-up negatives | Developer too warm or too long | Check the thermometer in iced water; it should read 0°C |
| Streaks running along the film | Uneven agitation, or a lid that leaked | Same rhythm every roll, tap for bubbles, check the seal |
| Milky or purple haze | Not fixed long enough, or fixer exhausted | Put it back in fresh fixer, then wash again. Fully reversible |
| Chalky drips and spots | Hard water, no wetting agent, or wiped while wet | Wetting agent in distilled water, hang, leave alone |
| Crescent-shaped marks or one blank patch | Film kinked or touched itself on the reel | Practise loading in daylight; feed, do not force |
Habits that make it repeatable
- Same rhythm, same dilution, same temperature every roll, and change one thing at a time when you want a different look.
- Label every bottle with what it is, the date it was mixed, and a tally of rolls for the fixer.
- Test a fresh batch on a snip of film. It should go black in the developer within a minute and clear in the fixer within two.
- Squeeze the air out of stored bottles or use a bottle you can collapse. Air is what kills developer stock.
- Gloves, ventilation, and no fixer down the sink. Fixer carries dissolved silver. Most recycling centres take it.
Ready for colour
Once a black and white roll has come out of your own tank, colour is the same tank, the same reel and the same inversions. The only new demand is holding 38°C for a few minutes.
- How to develop colour film at home, the C-41 guide, with the kits we stock and the step times for each.
- Still deciding between the tank and the machine? The best way to develop film at home.
- Shot a roll at the wrong ISO? Push it.
- Stuck with a strip that looks wrong? The Discord and the Facebook group are where home developers compare negatives.
Common questions
Do I need a darkroom to develop black and white film at home?
No. The only darkness needed is the couple of minutes it takes to load the film onto the reel and seal the tank, and a changing bag does that in any room. Every chemistry step happens in normal light.
How long does it take?
About 30 to 40 minutes of hands-on work: 10 minutes mixing and loading, 20 to 30 minutes of chemistry steps depending on your film and developer. Then an hour or two of drying you do not have to watch.
Do I need a stop bath?
Not for black and white. Two fills of plain water stop development well enough for consistent results, which is why the Starter Kit does not include one. A dedicated stop bath stops development instantly and protects the fixer, and one bottle lasts for many rolls.
What black and white films can I develop at home?
Any standard black and white film: Ilford HP5 Plus, Delta, FP4 Plus, Kodak Tri-X and T-Max, Fomapan, Kentmere and the rest. The exceptions are chromogenic films such as Ilford XP2 Super and Kodak T400 CN, which are black and white films built for the C-41 colour process.
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.
How much does it cost per roll?
Under €1 in chemistry once you own the tank. A €15 bottle of Rodinal develops 40 to 80 rolls depending on dilution, and a litre of working fixer does about 24. The Starter Kit at €135 pays for itself after roughly 10 to 15 rolls at lab prices.
Can I reuse black and white developer?
Most are designed as one-shot: mix the working solution, develop one tank, pour it away. That is what keeps results consistent. Fixer is the reusable one. Pour it back after every roll, keep a tally, and replace it when a snip of film takes twice as long to clear as it did when fresh.
What is the best black and white developer for a beginner?
Rodinal, also sold as Adonal. It lasts for years in the bottle, mixes in seconds and works with nearly any film. Ilford ID-11 or Ilfosol 3 if you prefer finer grain. All three are in our black and white chemistry collection.