Dump the chemicals out at the appointed time and pour the next chemical in quickly, but carefully. Timing is important so don’t hang around. You reuse the chemicals, so have some way of quickly pouring them out of the developing tank and storing each liquid while the next one is poured in. It gets loaded onto a spiral and into a light tight tank (done in a changing bag or dark room in total darkness), and then the chemicals get warmed up and poured into and out of the developing tank as per the instruction sheet that comes with your kit. So with that said, what is the process of C-41 developing? Well, you prepare the film exactly as you would for black and white. It works well, but is it calibrated? Even if it’s one degree “out” its going to be better than a needle on a dial where I cannot be sure if its 98 or 102 degrees. It cost me under $20 from an eBay vendor. When it comes to a thermometer I use one of the infrared “gun” like devices that fire a red dot at a subject and reads the temperature at that spot on the subject, which is then displayed on an LED at the back of the handle. Will it help if you have an expensive machine with calibrated heaters to do this? Sure it will, but it’s nowhere near essential unless you are processing a dozen films at a time, more than once a week, in which case, you might like to think about automation, if only to speed things up. Make sure the film, already loaded into the developing tank of course and the chemicals (inside containers) come up to the temp you need (you could always microwave them but be careful over time or they’ll get over hot) and then simply use them. ![]() A water bath (think small plastic tub) with 4” of water at 120 degrees F or about 48 degrees C is perfect for the job. To be specific about this, the liquids needs to be kept to within one or maybe two degrees of the actual temperature that the kit of chemicals you use requires for about 6 minutes in total. The big problem for most people is the relatively high temperature of about 100 degrees Fahrenheit (about 38 degrees Celsius), for the developer and bleach/fix solutions. In some respects it’s easier to do than good old fashioned black and white. ![]() Actually nothing could be further from the truth. I am surprised at how many people continue to keep saying that developing color negatives at home is impossible or so hard to do that it scares them away from the prospect of doing it themselves.
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