| Photography Forum: Darkroom Techniques Forum: |
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Q. Pre- 'processing my first roll' question.......
Asked by Julia G
(K=222) on 8/23/2002
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Hi All,
I'm about to try processing my own film - hopefully to eventually be able to print my own stuff as well.
First things first though, I have all my stuff and chemicals in place but whats bothering me is that we have just moved into a house that has a septic system. Is this an issue for pouring chems down the sink? Also, How do you know if you can pour it back into the bottle?
Sorry, these are such basic questions, but I'm just nervous (and excited).
Your help would definitely be appreciated since I would love to process a couple of rolls ASAP : )
take care,
Julia
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Joey
(K=30) - Comment Date 8/23/2002
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Hey Julia,
The only thing you have to worry about is used fixer. It's poisonous, and can kill the bacteria in your septic tank (I've seen this happen before).
There should be some info with your chemicals that tells you how long they last.
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David N. VanMeter
(K=552) - Comment Date 8/26/2002
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Photo Techniques carried a very good article on this very question a year or so ago. What it boiled down to was that the concentration of chemicals in the overall septic system was so small that no harm would come.
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john bell
(K=75) - Comment Date 8/30/2002
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Hi julia, will try and help, not an expert but develop my own films and only use Ilford. My first film came out blank because I poured the fixer instead of the developer in first, they are the same colour.
Your darkroom must be really dark. close everything and wait for a couple of mins so your eyes get used to the dark then they will pick up the light. make sure your developer is 20 degrees centegrade or 68 fahr. make sure you agitate the tank and time it for the right length of time.
There is a lot more to developing a film, I will gladly help you but above all it takes patience and trial and error, dont be put off by your first attempt. Also there are some really good places to find out how, just look on your comp
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Andy Ly
(K=716) - Comment Date 9/3/2002
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I know a few people who have set up a huge dumping tank in their backyard. They simply pour the used fixer into the bucket and a few weeks later, the chemicals are evaporated and the silver deposits remain in the tank. If you have a large enough tank, you can deal with the disposal to evaporation ratio. It will take you more than 100 years before you will need to finally turn in the silver for recycling.
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