Up to this point, every image I had developed was processed by The Darkroom photo lab. They do fantastic work! I wanted to start processing my own film, though, and after a brief discussion with the folks at Bernie’s Photo Center in Pittsburgh, PA I learned that the color process had recently been simplified into a two-step process. Temperature control was still just as important as ever, but the timing was easier to handle. I figured, why not?
I quickly learned that just because you can still find Fujifilm 400 at your local WalMart or CVS doesn’t mean it’s worth buying. Chances are if you live in a small town like me, that film has been there for nearly a decade and is expired. That was certainly the case with my first few rolls, but I also cannot rule out the fact that there is a learning curve to developing film – especially in color – so the quality on these first images is sketchy. By the third or fourth roll, I feel like I was getting the hang of it, even if my color correction of the negatives still left a lot to be desired.
I also switched from scanning on a lithe table with a mid-range DLSR, to using a dedicated 35mm scanner, which helped to bolster my confidence in the process immensely.
