Great! You now have made some photographs and need to develop your film. Some people can’t wait to develop their film and look at their negatives.  So they do it as soon as they can.  Then there are others like me who wait until they have a certain number of rolls.  Then I set aside a couple of hours and get it done.  There’s a reason for that. I really don’t enjoy developing film very much.  It’s pretty mechanical and not a very creative process compared to other parts of my photographic life. That having been said, it is absolutely essential and has to be done. I’ll bet there are a bunch of photographers out there that never get around to developing their film (as well as those that never print their negatives).  A striking example was the discovery after Gary Winogrand’s death that more than 2,500 roles of his exposed film were not developed. To repeat … develop your film. There just might be some keepers lurking about!

A critical prerequisite is the establishment of your personal film speed and development time. As I have mentioned before, I’m not a prolific tester.  But it’s essential to establish the proper film speed for each of the films you use and the correct development times for those films with your developer(s) of choice (see a previous discussion of this in My Photographic Process – Step 1 and 2 – Film Speed and Development Time Testing).

I’m not going to get into a discussion here on how to develop film, what types of tanks and reels (or trays for large format negatives) to use, or manual verses automated processing (OK, I have used a Jobo processor for over twenty years and I would not be without it!).  I am hoping you know how to do that and if you don’t there are many fine books that can describe the step by step process, and if you prefer to watch things there are may how to demonstrations available on YouTube.

So now you have developed your film. Congratulations! A critical step accomplished!  What next?  Well, it is essential that you store them in an archival and protective manner, and in a way that you can easily and quickly access them for printing.  Again, there are a number of approaches to this. One thing you don’t want to do is shove them into some paper envelopes that are then stuffed into an empty VC paper box!  Here’s what I do and it works for me. I use clear Print File pages for all my film sizes. They’re archival, protective and keep dust away from my negatives. They are also pretty inexpensive and can be easily found.  What’s more, they also have holes on the left side of the pages so they can fit nicely into loose leaf notebooks, or better yet into Vue All archival binder containers that seal shut to provide further protection for your precious negatives.  They too are inexpensive and easily obtained.  I don’t know how else to say it, but protect your negatives or you’re bozo!

The other thing I like about the Print File system is that there is space on the pages so that you can number them and write a short description of what is contained on the negatives. I think this is essential, and the number on each page corresponds with the one on its associated Staples Clear Sheet Protector that holds my proof sheet (more to come on that when I discuss my next step!).  So easy, and to my way of thinking, so logical!

What matters though is not what I do, but that you develop your film and store it in a safe manner for easy retrieval that works for you.

Now, do it!