I never tried anything like this. My dad did but then for a while he worked at Jessops in Leicester. I used to send my films to Bonusprint or Tueprint, the film would be developed and then returned with a 'free film. It was cheap and a few years ago I realised why because almost all of the photographs faded into oblivion.
Wouldn't those with a free films be colour? I only ever did black and white. After that I nearly always used colour slides (Kodachrome / Agfachrome / Fujichrome) which seemed expensive but included free processing. When you see old colour slides images I always think you can make a good guess as to which film they are on because of the slightly different tints e.g. Fuji seemed to come out bluer.
A couple of emails from Maurice Fisher of the Photographic Memorabilia website linked above adds some of his memories, which are copied below with his permission:
On the subject of loading a tank under hot bed clothes, I was somewhat more fortunate by having a reasonably dark under stairs cupboard. But I still managed to make mistakes. On one occasion I was asked by a relative, who knew my interest, to develop his summer holiday film. Well, he must have had the film in his camera for some time, because when I tried to feed it into the spiral, it would go so far but then no further. It had lost its natural curl in one picture length and just wouldn’t go in! So, getting hotter and hotter, plus being asked by my Mum through the closed door if I was alright in there, I decided to take a rest and try again later. So – stupidly – I just dropped the bare film into the tank, put on the lid, turned on the light and opened the cupboard door. The tank was light proof – right ? Well no, only if the reel was in there to baffle the entry spout and I didn’t put the reel in ! Oh dear, the light reached the film and made a large dense black circle on one negative. I was lucky in that it only affected one negative was badly affected, and I kept my mouth shut when asked by the relative what I thought might have gone wrong in that one picture.
For 10 or more years I laboured in my home darkroom to become proficient at colour negative printing. Though I say it myself, I think I achieved that end, after much time, materials and money wasted. But then, around the mid-1990s, I visited my wealthy older sister who had just acquired (at great cost) one of those new-fangled digital cameras. The definition was lousy (only 0.5MP or thereabouts) but she’d actually made colour prints from it by just connecting it to her PC and clicking on the print button. And there was the result, a full colour A4 requiring no skill or knowledge whatever. I gave up colour printing shortly thereafter! Just no point or satisfaction any longer. Having said that, my hard won colour darkroom skills certainly help me now when trying to colour balance an image on screen, so all was not wasted.
I welcome comments and hope to respond within a day or two, but my condition is making this increasingly difficult. Some days I might not look here at all. Also please note that comments on posts over two weeks old will not appear until they have been moderated.
I never tried anything like this. My dad did but then for a while he worked at Jessops in Leicester. I used to send my films to Bonusprint or Tueprint, the film would be developed and then returned with a 'free film. It was cheap and a few years ago I realised why because almost all of the photographs faded into oblivion.
ReplyDeleteWouldn't those with a free films be colour? I only ever did black and white. After that I nearly always used colour slides (Kodachrome / Agfachrome / Fujichrome) which seemed expensive but included free processing. When you see old colour slides images I always think you can make a good guess as to which film they are on because of the slightly different tints e.g. Fuji seemed to come out bluer.
DeleteA couple of emails from Maurice Fisher of the Photographic Memorabilia website linked above adds some of his memories, which are copied below with his permission:
ReplyDeleteOn the subject of loading a tank under hot bed clothes, I was somewhat more fortunate by having a reasonably dark under stairs cupboard. But I still managed to make mistakes. On one occasion I was asked by a relative, who knew my interest, to develop his summer holiday film. Well, he must have had the film in his camera for some time, because when I tried to feed it into the spiral, it would go so far but then no further. It had lost its natural curl in one picture length and just wouldn’t go in! So, getting hotter and hotter, plus being asked by my Mum through the closed door if I was alright in there, I decided to take a rest and try again later. So – stupidly – I just dropped the bare film into the tank, put on the lid, turned on the light and opened the cupboard door. The tank was light proof – right ? Well no, only if the reel was in there to baffle the entry spout and I didn’t put the reel in ! Oh dear, the light reached the film and made a large dense black circle on one negative. I was lucky in that it only affected one negative was badly affected, and I kept my mouth shut when asked by the relative what I thought might have gone wrong in that one picture.
For 10 or more years I laboured in my home darkroom to become proficient at colour negative printing. Though I say it myself, I think I achieved that end, after much time, materials and money wasted. But then, around the mid-1990s, I visited my wealthy older sister who had just acquired (at great cost) one of those new-fangled digital cameras. The definition was lousy (only 0.5MP or thereabouts) but she’d actually made colour prints from it by just connecting it to her PC and clicking on the print button.
And there was the result, a full colour A4 requiring no skill or knowledge whatever. I gave up colour printing shortly thereafter! Just no point or satisfaction any longer. Having said that, my hard won colour darkroom skills certainly help me now when trying to colour balance an image on screen, so all was not wasted.