Learning darkroom skills with my dad's old camera

I dug out my dad's old film camera from the attic and got curious about pre-digital photography. I bought a developing kit and turned my bathroom into a temporary darkroom. It took patience, but seeing the images come to life was worth the wait. Do you have any tips for someone new to film developing?

4 comments

4 Comments

dianaw8928d ago

Hey, after @jamie101's foggy mess, what's the biggest rookie mistake to avoid in the darkroom?

torres.sage24d ago

Forgetting to set your timer. You get in the zone, lose track, and leave your paper swimming in the developer way too long. Suddenly your perfect print is just a black rectangle. Or you pull it out too early and the whole thing looks weak and washed out. That little beep is your best friend in the dark.

kaibell24d ago

Watch how many things fall apart without a simple timer. Cooking, workouts, even parking meters. We get distracted by the flow and lose the frame. It's like our brains need that external click to keep reality in check. The darkroom just makes the cost of losing time visible in black and white.

jamie10128d ago

Man, that takes me back. I once tested a roll of old film I found in a thrift store camera, just to see if anything was on it. The developer was way warmer than I thought, everything came out super foggy and weird, like ghost photos. Learned to always check the temp with a real thermometer after that mess.