Chemicals I use for film and silver gelatin prints
For the last four or five years I’ve mixed most of the solutions used for film and paper processing myself from raw chemicals.
The main ones I use are:
Mytol
510 Pyro
Citric acid stop bath
Agfa 304 fixer
ID-78 paper developer
Proper care should be taken when handling any chemicals – suitable eye protection, gloves and mask should be worn as appropriate, and some chemicals should be used in a well ventilated area.
| Mytol film developer | |
| This is a home-made version of Xtol and I use it for developing Ilford HP5 | |
| Water at 27C | 750ml |
| Sodium sulfite | 85g |
| Sodium metaborate | 12g |
| Sodium ascorbate | 12g |
| Phenidone | 0.15g |
| Sodium metabisulfate | 3g |
| Water to make 1 litre | |
| For HP5 at ISO 400 at 1+1 | 12 mins at 20C |
| 510 Pyro film developer (formulated by Jay DeFehr) | |
| I use this for developing Fomapan sheet film | |
| TEA (Triethanolamine) at 80C | 50ml |
| Ascorbic acid | 5g |
| Pyrogallol | 10g |
| Phenidone | 0.375g |
| TEA to make 100ml | |
| For Fomapan 200 at 1+100 | 6 mins at 21C |
| For kallitypes I may extend development to ~10 mins to achieve sufficiently dense negatives |
| Stop bath for film and paper | |
| Water | 1 litre |
| Citric acid | Approx 2 teaspoonfuls |
| (Yes, that’s it!) | |
| Only water used for 510 Pyro, though |
| Agfa 304 fixer for film and paper | |
| Water | 750ml |
| Sodium thiosulfate | 200g |
| Ammonium chloride | 50g |
| Sodium metabisulfite | 10g |
| Water to make 1 litre |
| ID-78 paper developer formulated by Ian Grant | |
| I use this for most paper, including Lupex silver chloride paper | |
| Water at 52C | 750ml |
| Phenidone | 1.25g |
| Sodium sulfite | 125g |
| Hydroquinone | 30g |
| Potassium carbonate | 96.25g |
| Sodium hydroxide | 5.3g |
| Potassium bromide | 11.25g |
| Water to make 1 litre | |
| Dilute 1+9 to use Can also be used 1+4 for higher contrast |
Sources for chemicals in the UK:
Nik & Trick
Firstcall
Process Supplies
It can also be worth searching Ebay and Amazon
Other resources:
Pictorial Planet – lots of information about mixing and using various darkroom chemicals.
The Darkroom Cookbook – a must read for anyone interested in darkroom chemistry.