Why spent $7-$15 dollars to get a single roll developed at a professional lab when you can develop your films at home yourself at less than half the cost? If you’re a film shooter like some of us here at the Phoblographer and if you like to shoot a couple of rolls during a portrait session or a good few when you’re travelling, paying for film development might just burn a hole in your pocket.
Film development is not cheap. And let’s face it, it’s getting even pricier these days – with many film labs closing all over the world, there’s considerably less competition and those that are left are getting an even greater demand as more and more people rediscover film so they can jack up the rates if they want.
This is why I always encourage my fellow film shooters to develop their own films. Not only is it cheaper, it gets a photographer to be more involved in the process of creating his/her photographs. And best of all, it’s really a lot easier than people think – you can start learning on your own by watching YouTube video tutorials of it.
On their recent trip to Istanbul to teach a street photography workshop, photographers Eric Kim and Charlie Kirk both attended Istanbul-based photographer Taylan Bagci’s Workshop on Darkroom to get some good insights on the science of film development as well as printing.
Luckily for us, they were both kind enough to document their experience, which took a couple of hours, and share it in a five-part series. It’s another free and easily accessible resource on film development that both seasoned film developers and newbies can use to help with their developing and printing techniques.
So look, you can continue spending your hard-earned cash on paying labs to develop your rolls or you can at least look into learning the process and doing it yourself. I would recommend the latter.
Watch the first video from the workshop after the jump.
Via Eric Kim Street Photography Blog
