Black & white film course takes you back to the basics

Test strips dry on the racks in the wet lab at the Owens Community College darkroom. (Photos by Amanda Aylwin)

   When you walk into the wet lab at Owens Community College the smell of developer fills your nose, there is a student bent over a light table to viewing their negatives while their classmate reaches into the ice cold water of the final rinse to pull out their print and another stands patiently waiting for their print to get through the dryer.

   The process of film is simple yet tedious, it all starts with shooting the film with the proper settings.
    After you shoot the entire roll you are ready you then will go into a pitch black room armed with a bottle opener, a reel,  a pair of scissors and a light safe container which are used to get your film off the roll, on to the reel and locked into the light safe container. Trust me it sounds a lot harder than it is, remember practice makes perfect.

When students are finished with this step they will then use a specific set of steps and chemistry to prepare their film to take out of the light safe container to create images. The steps are as followed:

• pre-wet 
• developer
• stop bath
• fix
• wash
• fix remover                                                                  
• final wash
• stabilizer 

   When student’s film is finished drying they will be able to take the negatives and use a loupe to decide which images to print. They can then go into the dark room where they will then repeat the process of chemistry only this time it will be in trays they place the paper in that contains the image projected there by the enlarger.After they put their image through the process of development they will put it through a machine that dries the image.

   The black and white film class is where students not only learn to appreciate the actual art of creating an image, but they get a better understanding of why it is important to be able to use a camera manually. The reason is because even as time goes on and cameras improve in the digital world a photographer will always have to know how to outsmart their camera. By learning how to manually use f/stops and shutter speeds will give you more control over the outcome of your image. While in this class you will learn the basics of your camera, the how to's of capturing the best image possible and then the process of how to develop your film to create the image you captured.

                         Greg Adams checks out his negatives on a light table.       

Caleb Lohman asks Dave Cantor for help on his picture. 

A loupe rests beside a set of negatives on the light table.

A contact sheet sits on the lab table, prints will soon follow.

A print comes out of the dryer.

The chemistry lines the wall for processing negatives.

A row of grain focusers line the shelf in the wet lab.

Light safe containers fill the shelves in all sizes waiting for the negatives.

The beakers fill the shelves waiting for the chemistry used for processing negatives.

A drawer is full of lenses of all shapes an sizes.

The frames and easels are lined up from a day of priniting.

Kelsey Mohrman reaches into the rinse for her final print.

A peak at the enlargers in the dark room, which is usually lights off for working.