Q&A for How to Develop Film in a Darkroom

It's not an instant process. In fact, the most common mistake that people make when they're developing film in a darkroom is that they don't leave it in the stop bath long enough. If you rush the process, the film isn't going to develop properly.

Negative films are okay when exposed to light, so you can scan and print your films in the light.

When you take a picture with traditional film, the image is captured on delicate film paper. In order to develop the image on the film into a full photo, you have to carefully load the film onto a film reel in a dark room because light can easily damage and ruin the image on the sensitive film paper. Then, you'll need to add a mixture of chemicals designed to develop the film for a specific period of time, agitating the film periodically to help spread the developer around. Eventually, you'll need to remove the developer and wash off the film reel. From there, you can remove the reel and hang it up to dry. Once it's dry you can cut the film into strips and store it for whenever you want to use it to make prints!

Generally speaking, yes, you need to have a darkroom. Classic films like 35mm or 120mm film almost always require a darkened room to properly develop without damage from exposure to light. There are specialized devices and pieces of equipment that allow you to develop film in a self-contained unit so you don't need to have a full dark room. But even then, the concept is still the same: the film must be protected from exposure to light that can damage it. If it does get exposed, you could lose shadow detail and be left with a lower contrast and grainier image. If it's exposed to light for too long, the image could be totally ruined.

With today's fancy digital photography equipment, dark rooms aren't as popular or as pervasive as they once were. However, that doesn't mean they aren't still used. Plenty of photographers still use dark rooms in professional photo studios. They're also used in many traditional photography schools or photography courses. A well-trained photographer may choose to use the old-school dark room method because it allows them to have more control over how a print develops. Because of that, dark rooms will likely never go away completely, no matter how digitized our world becomes.