Recent trends have been pointing back to past fashions and era’s of day’s gone by, even photography has been taking a step backwards, Martin Cohen has launched a D.I.Y course to learn how to print your photo’s in your very own home.
WHY FILM?
Film is ace. I've been taking pictures for about 5 years and have never thought twice about moving over to digital, pretty much because I can only get the look I want from film. At first I just used to get the films developed at labs but since they were only negative scans they looked rubbish and slowly realised the only way I was going to be happy with my shots was by developing and printing them myself. In the darkroom you get total control over the final print and have chance to bring out more detail in areas of the shot and balance the tones and if you are interested in grain this is the only way to get it nice and sharp.
IS IT EXPENSIVE?
Black and white film costs somewhere in the region of £3.50 to £5 depending where you buy it from (there are some good internet deals out there) but it becomes a lot cheaper when you start developing it yourself. Professional labs charge around £6/roll, if you develop it yourself it less than £1. Also, labs can take a few days to turn around the processing but it'll take less than 30 minutes to process a roll at home. I think the prices labs charges for black and white processing are ridiculous and that's what made me want to start teaching people how to develop and print. I don't think most people realise that it's such a straight forward process.
There's no difference in quality developing film at home either, you actually get more control over the final images and it give you chance to experiment with the developing times, something a lab would charge you extra for.
IS IT DANGEROUS?
As long a few safety tips are followed it's fine. Simple things like don't ingest and of the chemicals, don't get any in your eyes but if you do wash them straight away. I'd also say it's best to use gloves/tongs when developing prints and be careful not to get any developer on clothes as it may stain, I've ruined too many white t-shirts this way.
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Find out more about Martin Cohen's DIY photography here
