Eco-Friendly Tips for Developing Your Own Film by Taylor Blanchard

Written by Taylor Blanchard

When I develop negatives or print in the darkroom, the process always feels like magic. Behind that sense of awe is of course a long history of well-tested chemical processes that bring a latent image recorded in silver into view, while also fixing the image so you can view it in daylight.

Hobbyists and scientists spent years, even decades, in the 1800’s figuring out the right combination of chemical compounds to fully realize the potential of photography.

Those chemicals, though. While we no longer use mercury, as Daguerre did to create the Daguerreotype (one of the earliest successful photographic processes), we have to ask: what exactly are these chemicals, and are they safe for us and the environment?

Eco-friendly can be a nebulous term that can be over-used or derided. No matter your definition, I think we can all agree that we want our film photography practice to be sustainable so that we can continue to practice it in the future.

As film photographers, we have many considerations for how to approach our practice in a greener manner. Today, we’re going to focus on developing film negatives, disposing of chemistry, and water usage.

Black and White Developer Alternatives

There are a dizzying number of negative developers on the market, all with different characteristics for grain, shadow detail, and more. A film developer, in the broadest sense, includes a phenol compound that activates the silver halide crystals, something to make it a higher PH, an acidic compound, and a stabilizer.

Generally, phenols found in commercially made negative developers are petroleum-derived and are often quite toxic to humans and the planet.

Caffenol

If you’re looking for an eco-friendly negative developer, look no further than caffenol, which requires instant coffee, vitamin c, and washing soda (sodium carbonate) – household products that are readily available and generally safe.

Caffenol has been put through its paces and you can find details for developing many film stocks with it on MassiveDev and other sources. You can find a step-by-step walkthrough of the caffenol process here.

Caffenol has an interesting smell when you mix; it’s a bit earthy with a pungent and astringent quality, but it mellows fairly quickly into a lingering coffee aroma.

I followed a standard agitation cycle for 12:30, rinsed, and then fixed as normal. My negatives look more sepia, yet they scan and develop as normal. I was able to pull a wide tonal range with this development process

You can also find recipes to develop negatives with beer, wine, and herbs and spices – basically anything with naturally occurring polyphenols.

For developing with herbs such as rosemary or spices such as cloves, you’ll need to make a tea with these compounds, and use the vitamin c and washing soda. It will certainly smell a bit nicer than caffenol.

Whether you try caffenol or another approach, you may want to test with smaller clippings of negatives to ensure you dial in the right time and ratio of ingredients that works for you.

My other tip is to pay attention to the volume because most recipes are for 35mm; if you’re developing 120, just increase the volume of each ingredient at the same ratio.

Ascorbic Acid Developer

Another eco-friendly option is any ascorbic acid developer – one of the best known is Kodak X-Tol, which is a classic developer that produces fantastic results. I recently started using Eco-Pro LegacyPro (which has been around for a long time and recently added the “eco-pro” branding.)

Many of these ascorbic acid developers come in powder form so they are very shelf stable before you mix. The powder versions come in two-parts, so you dissolve the A packet before adding the B packet – a very important step!

One drawback of this approach is the packets make five liters of mixed developer, and once mixed, you should use it within a few months because it’s not as shelf stable as other developers.

You can also check out Flic Film’s Black, White & Green, which is a liquid ascorbic acid developer, but has a much longer shelf life. My results with ascorbic acid developers produce minimal grain, excellent contrast, and a wide tonal range.

Rodinal

Yet another option is any developer with a very long shelf life, such as Rodinal. You need less chemistry for each developing session, and once open, the chemistry keeps for a very long time.

You don’t need to worry about the chemistry going bad and then having to dispose of opened bottles of chemistry.

You can read more about Rodinal and the stand development process here.

Re-Use One Shot Developers

My final recommendation is a controversial one: re-use one shot developers. I have re-used mixed Ilford DD-X at least five times within a two-month period with no diminishment in quality.

Check online for forums where others have shared their results before you try this.

A Note About Color C-41 Chemistry

We’re lucky to have home C-41 development which makes processing color film more economical and accessible; however, we don’t have eco-friendly replacements.

While you can find instructions for making your own C-41 chemistry, note that this is not a more earth-friendly option. Several of the ingredients are very dangerous and toxic, and in many countries, you can’t buy the necessary chemical ingredients.

Stop Bath Alternatives

Stop bath halts the action of the developer and prevents cross-contamination with fixer.

A few years ago, I was developing negatives in my community darkroom, and someone told me that I didn’t need to use stop bath. I probably gave them a polite nod and continued to use stop bath – until I started to research.

Many people claim that using stop bath will extend the life of your fixer, and stop bath might be important if your fixer is alkaline.

Opinions vary a bit, yet you may be able to skip the stop bath when processing black and white negatives and use water instead: after pouring out the developer, fill your tank with water, agitate, and then empty. I’ve swapped stop bath for water with no issues.

You can also make your own stop bath with citric acid or vinegar – you would dilute to 1-2% acidity.

If you want to use a commercially available stop bath and already have it mixed, the good news is that it lasts for a very long time. You can use an indicator stop bath until it changes colors.

Fixer Alternatives

At the advent of photography, fixer proved the most difficult to formulate. Photographers could record an image on sensitized material and develop it, yet the image would fade. A salt solution would stabilize the image, but without much permanence.

Today, some photographers use a very concentrated salt solution to fix their negatives – usually over 24 hours. In full disclosure, I’ve not tried this approach and have heard the images may fade, or you may develop base fog.

Several companies including Legacy, Bergger, and Adox make neutral fixers (the PH is neutral), which clear quickly. They are considered more eco-friendly because they are free of compounds like acetic acid and hydroquinone.

No matter if you use a commercially available fixer, or try your own, disposing of correctly is of the utmost importance.

Disposing of Developing Chemistry

The general advice in the U.S. is that you can dispose your diluted black and white developer, stop bath, rinse aid, and wetting agent down the drain if you’re connected to a municipality’s sewer system.

This is a generally accepted process because you’re working with a small quantity of diluted chemistry that travels to a municipal sewer treatment center managing a vast amount of material. There, it’s further diluted and treated.

It’s always best to check with your local jurisdiction, as the rules may vary. Anyone outside of the U.S. should check their local regulations.

Mixing the developer and stop bath together should neutralize both, and then you can dispose of them together.

Some photographers claim that it’s safe to dispose of darkroom chemistry down the drain if you’re on a septic; however, the metals in the residual chemistry and the chemistry itself might throw off the balance of microbes in a septic system. Additionally, many septic systems have an invisible drainage field where chemistry could leech into the soil or groundwater.

Fixer, which removes unexposed silver salts from the film, needs special attention. Silver is a heavy metal and not considered safe for waterways, and it can be difficult to treat in a municipal wastewater system. It’s also best to manage spent color chemistry instead of pouring it down the drain.

A Better Option: Waste Treatment Center

What else can you do with photographic chemistry?

Save it, and take it to a waste treatment facility, which will dispose of the chemistry safely. (These are usually run by the local municipality, and accept paint, batteries, electronics, and other items it’s best to keep out of your trash bin. There are also services that you can pay to dispose of hazardous waste).

I save my chemistry in old bottles and clearly label it. Then, once I have a critical mass, I take it for disposal to the county-run facility.

I have read online recommendations to pour used chemistry into cat litter or diatomaceous earth, and then once dried, throw away the material. I amend that recommendation: take the dried material to a disposal center instead of throwing it in the trash.

For fixer, another idea people mention is putting steel wool into the spent chemistry. The silver will collect in the steel wool, so you can dispose of the liquid safely. Then, you will need to take the steel wool to a disposal center.

Conserving Water Usage

Water is a necessary part of developing negatives for diluting chemistry and rinsing negatives.

To use less water, you can modify the steps after fixer. Instead of running water continuously over the negatives for a set period of time, you add water to the tank, complete 10-20 inversions, and repeat three times.

If you prefer to use the faucet, turn it on to a very low flow, which will still exchange enough water to clear the negatives.

Using a hypo clearing wash (permawash) will also reduce the rinse time. There are many methods for when and how to use the permawash: you may rinse your film first and then use permawash, or you could alternate water and permawash.

For color film development, I save my water bath by placing a lid on the bath container so I don’t have to create a fresh water bath each time.

The best way to save water is to only use the water and chemistry that you need, and don’t waste chemistry.

Conclusion

All these options bring some level of trade-off. There is an environmental footprint to anything we do in photography, so we each must decide what’s important to us.

If you’re in a water-strapped area, then you may want to focus on your water usage. If you don’t want to ship chemistry or want to shop local, then maybe you buy what’s available at your nearby camera store. If you want to reduce waste, maybe you strategize about how much chemistry to mix and store – planning to use all of the chemistry instead of disposing chemistry that has gone bad.

We’ve barely scratched the surface here of how we can approach our photographic practices in an eco-friendlier manner. Stay tuned for additional follow-up articles, including recycling practices, human exposure and toxicity, and developing paper.

Have you tried any of the processes mentioned here? What tips or questions do you have?

Thank you so much, Taylor! Taylor is a regular contributor here at Shoot It With Film, and you can check out her other articles here, such as 7 Lesser-known Color Film Stocks Worth Trying and Set It & Forget It Film Developing: An Introduction to Stand Development.

You can also check out more of Taylor’s work on Instagram.

Leave your questions about these eco-friendly tips for developing your own film below in the comments!

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Taylor Blanchard

Taylor Blanchard is a landscape and travel film photographer and a regular contributor for Shoot It With Film. Find her other articles here, such as My Foray Into Large Format Photography and The World of Infrared and Red-Sensitive Black and White Film.

Image Credit: Ashley Thalman

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