Adjusting Developer Temperature for Developing Film

Video Transcript

"So I'm taking the temperature of my developer, and I am seeing that it's at 70 degrees, which is an acceptable temperature to develop film at. Some people actually prefer 70, some people prefer 68. There's a little bit of debate about it, but that's really pretty technical for what I'm going to talk about today. If your developer was too hot, though, one way you can get it to cool down is in a little tray, like an 8 x 10 tray like this, packed with some ice. And you put it in, and your developer can eventually cool down. This is really one of the most important parts of developing your film, is making sure that all the chemicals you use, including your water bath, stay at the same time. So let's say I decide to do this at 70 degrees. I want to make sure that my stop bath, my fix, and my final wash are all at 70 degrees. Consistency is extremely important when you're doing this black and white film developing. You never want an error, a couple of degrees here or there, probably nobody's going to make a difference, nobody's going to know. But 5 to 10 degrees, you might actually ruin everything you worked so hard to get."