I want to do some b&w film photography. Any tips?

I don't have a darkroom and I wouldn't know what to do in there if I did...can any veterans help me out?

Man, don't do it.

fhotoace refers to the "magic of the darkroom." The darkroom is a freaking time machine. You walk in there and time has no meaning. You think you'll "just see how one shot looks" and the next thing you know, the sun is coming up, you didn't get any sleep at all and you have to go to work.

But seriously, ignore me and do it.

"Obsessive-Emulsive Disorder" That's great! I find that I can wind up spending 3-4 hours working on just a couple of images on the computer, too. It's NEVER perfect. It's great that there are no chemicals to clean up! Report It

Don't use color film.

First take a class in photography.

In the first class you will learn how to compose, expose, develop and print your images. Once you have done that, you will have discovered the magic of the darkroom and you will be hooked.

I took 2 years of Photo in high school
Our dark room had amber lighting
There are easels and enlargers to make your photo the right size
And another part of the dark room for developing
With your paper still in a dark place (black bag/box anything were light wont get to it) pick the negative you want to use and put it in the enlarger, turn the light on the enlarger, the light should shine though the negative adjust the enlarger by moving it up or down to create the right size (to fit in the enlarger) then adjust focus, depending on if you plan on using filters and how light/dark you want you image I would turn the light right all the way dark and back one click (easier to explain using visuals) turn the light off. take a "test strip" out (test strips are smaller pieces of photo paper that are left behind when cutting the paper to the right size) you should also have a piece of cardboard, cover most of the test strip and shine the light down on it for 2-5 seconds and then move the cardboard and show a little more of the paper and shine the light again for 2-5 seconds, repeat until you dont have any more room on the test strip. develop (getting to that part later) you will notice one end will be really dark and another really light, the light end would have been the area where the light shown on it for 2-5 seconds and each little square after that would be 2-5 more seconds, this is the process you do to find out how much light you should shine on your picture, so say you decided to go with 7 seconds, take your paper out and put it shiny side up in the easel and turn the enlarger on for 7 seconds, after the enlarger shuts off take your paper (still should look white) and bring it to the chemicals to develop.
You should have 3 different bins or trays with chemicals in this order, 1st - developer, 2nd - fixer, 3 - just water. If I remember correctly, you leave the paper in the developer for 2 minutes then using tongs pick up the paper ( you should see your image now), place it in the fixer for 55 seconds, using the tongs pick up the paper and drop it int the water for about 3 minutes then you can take your picture out into the "white light" of any room without hurting it, hang it on a line to dry and you have your very own picture... =)

I hope that is what you were looking for! In high school we also developed our negatives, but I am not going to go into that part unless you really want to know. =)

Best of luck with your photography!!

Ilford XP2. Gorgeous tonality.

Processing available at any store or "big box" retailer.


Scans magnificently!!

You might consider a B&W that takes a c-41 process. You could develop it at any drug store and get a CD to play with it on computer. But then you might as well shoot color and change it to B&W. Half the fun of B&W is processing it yourself.

B&W will make you concentrate on the compositoin more, it's often too easy to be pleased with nice colors.

Take a class on b&w at a local college, learn how to properly use the darkroom then decide if you still like b&w enough to keep at it! It is very time consuming.