Mar 30 2013 ∞

FilmDev now has an API

A while back the creator of Develop! (a film development timer app for the iPhone) got in touch to tell me that one of his users had requested FilmDev integration into his app.

After some back and forth I’m happy to announce that you can now import FilmDev recipes directly into Develop!

This also means that FilmDev now has a (very simple) API - you can read more about that here.

 This (hopefully) opens the door for more and more people to use FilmDev in cool and interesting ways.

Mar 11 2013 ∞

FilmDev is now 5 years old!

FilmDev is now 5 years old. I launched it on 9th March 2008 and added my first recipe immediately after.

It took a while to get going but the site is now thriving with over 1,200 people sharing over 3,000 recipes.

Also, there are nearly 20,000 photos on Flickr with FilmDev recipe tags, and thanks to the lovely folks at Flickr all of those photos now include a link back to their individual FilmDev recipe also.

None of this of course would be possible without the contributions of everyone who has used the site so I’m eternally grateful to everyone who has taken the time to add their recipes and photos.

 

Here’s looking forward to the next five years! :-)

Jan 29 2013 ∞
A while back Sergey Morozov of Flickr reached out to me asking if I was interested in getting a “Developed with FilmDev” link added to any suitably tagged photo on Flickr. Naturally I said yes! It’s now been added to Flickr - so any photos with a ‘filmdev:recipe=’ tag will automatically have a link to FilmDev appear next to the photo. This is of course totally awesome and I’m very grateful to Sergey and the rest of the Flickr team for getting in touch with me and then making it happen. You can see an example on my photo above.

A while back Sergey Morozov of Flickr reached out to me asking if I was interested in getting a “Developed with FilmDev” link added to any suitably tagged photo on Flickr.

Naturally I said yes!

It’s now been added to Flickr - so any photos with a ‘filmdev:recipe=’ tag will automatically have a link to FilmDev appear next to the photo.

This is of course totally awesome and I’m very grateful to Sergey and the rest of the Flickr team for getting in touch with me and then making it happen.

You can see an example on my photo above.

Nov 14 2012 ∞
“ Why so many kinds of developers? Much like film of varying speed and grain characteristics, developers are no different. They vary primarily by the developing agent or type and how it operates on the silver crystals of your film. Some are of a solvent type, which tend to reduce grain by eating away at or rounding the corners of the grain. The downside is that some sharpness is lost. Other developers are of a non-solvent type which holds sharpness, but as a result tend to be grainier.
—

Choosing a B&W Film Developer | La Vida Leica!

A good exploration of the different properties of developers and why you might choose one.

Jul 13 2012 ∞
“ Lets look at why this makes stand development so great.
Well the main advantage, which the process was developed for, is pretty obvious; one of the big problems people run into is overdeveloped highlights that give you blown out white areas in your prints, and underdeveloped shadows resulting in black areas with no detail. You can either develop to control blown highlights and lose shadow detail, or develop for the shadows and get blown highlights.
Stand development controls blown highlights because the developer around those areas of the film exhausts and prevents over development. It also lets the shadows fully develop, squeezing every last bit of texture out of them.
This makes it amazing for pushing film way past its rated ISO.
—

Workflow Tutorial #2: Stand Development with Rodinal | J B Hildebrand Photography

Excellent article on stand developing.

Now my only excuse for not doing it is the lack of an eyedropper for measuring such tiny quantities of developer.

Stand developed recipes on FilmDev.

Apr 11 2012 ∞
“

R09 is a new name for the famous Agfa Rodinal, now discontinued.

This liquid has very interesting proprieties which depend on its diluition in water.
So, if you use this delevopment liquid in a 1-25 solution you obtain sharp and pretty grain with high contrast (good effect with slow speed films as Ilford PanF or FP4 ), while a 1-50 solution is more compensating (good for example when you use an Ilford FP4 film in a bright day, to avoid excess of contrast).
—

Black and White Stand Development and Skating Away on Thin Ice! - Lomography

FilmDev made the Lomography magazine inspiring an article on stand developing!

May 17 2011 ∞
“ Using such a low quantity of dilution means that the developer needs a lot longer to act. I’ll address actual timing in a minute, but with the increase in time comes a compensation effect. Basically what happens is that the highlights develop first and then the shadows slowly develop detail over the remainder of the time the film stays in the solution. This means that in high contrast scenes this form of development is useful for capturing detail that might otherwise be lost using conventional development methods. Additionally, the grain tends to be lower since there is less agitation.
—

Rodinal: The Magic Elixir

Great post on stand developing with Rodinal from Feeling Negative.
Some good stuff in the comments too (including a plug for FilmDev from long-time user and Rodinal fan skink74).
I’m gonna have to try stand developing some Rodinal real soon now.

Rodinal recipes on FilmDev.

Mar 16 2011 ∞
“ Extremely smooth fine grain, totally flexible mystery soup. Shadow detail that dumbfounded folks, and which made those great long scale shots in smoky jazz clubs possible, without ever burning out a highlight.
—

777 Fine Grain Developer

Every now and again a FilmDev user will add a new recipe with a film or developer that’s not in the FilmDev database.

At this point I usually log in and add the information - a simple process; Lomography have a new film out or I didn’t realise Tri-X came in 320 speed (oops!).

Sometimes though I need to use a little detective work to track down the information I need (the manufacturer and available speeds etc).

Such was the case with Defender 777.  Turns out it’s not been sold in years* quite hard to track down yet somehow someone has got hold of some, developed some film with it and now added the details to FilmDev.

I get a warm happy feeling whenever anyone adds a recipe to FilmDev but I get an especially warm one when something like this happens.

Defender 777 recipes on FilmDev.

* Thanks to Hattipop for pointing out that 777 is still for sale.

Aug 18 2010 ∞
900 recipes! I was going to wait until we hit 1000 recipes before posting but I was quite taken with the symmetry of 900 recipes and 450 users so am posting anyway. FilmDev

900 recipes!

I was going to wait until we hit 1000 recipes before posting but I was quite taken with the symmetry of 900 recipes and 450 users so am posting anyway.

FilmDev

Apr 21 2010 ∞

Filmus Monochromus - Blogus: Diafine - Two Bath Developer

Diafine is usable over a wide temperature range with one developing time for all films. Fast, medium and slow films can be developed simultaneously without adjustment in developing time.

I wasn’t aware Diafine had these properties.

I often wait until I have two films to develop as I own two tanks so can “batch them up” so to speak.

But as I often shoot different films at different speeds I can’t put two rolls in one tank as the developer times differ.

Not so with Diafine it seems.

Diafine recipes on FilmDev.

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