Hand Processing Defined

Stills and Clips

Materials List

Safety Precautions

Step by Step Instructions

Processing Kodachrome

Web Resources

All Pages

There are a number of ways to tweak the process to get different looks to your film, both during and after the hand processing.

Solarization is the effect that I've had the most fun with. When you solarize your black and white film, the image will flash to a negative at random parts. In the color process, you also get neat colors. See the Stills page for a hint at what this looks like.

To solarize your film: Two-thirds of the way through the first developer, open the lid of the tank in total darkness and then flash the film with a 100 watt bulb from about three feet away for a very brief time (less than a second). Put the lid back on and continue processing.

You can also experiment with different developing times. The kits include a push/pull table. You can experiment with the temperature of the chemicals, as well. Cooler temperatures produce "cooler" tones (more towards blues), and warmer temperatures produce "warmer" tones (more towards reds).

You can throw pennies, safety pins, or anything else you can think of into the tank and see what imprints they leave on the film.

You can also tint and tone your film after you process it, using special dyes, or whatever you come up with. Rephotograph your film, dual project it, optically print it, transfer it to video and digitize it to add digital effects. The possibilities are endless!