 Film developing has largely become a thing of the past for many consumers. Still, film developing can be done at home, or through a professional lab. If you choose to develop your photos at home, you'll need to purchase chemicals and build a dark room. Film Developing Whether you want color or black & white film developing, you want photos that are clear and sharp as a result of the photographs that you take. In order to get clear, sharp photographs, you can build your own darkroom or you can send out your film to a professional for development. You can learn black & white photo developing fairly simply, so if you have the resources for building a dark room, you should get serious about doing so if you want to have complete control over the quality of your black & white photographs. You can determine the depth of blacks, grays and whites as well as the extent of contrast you add to each photo when you develop your own black & white film, so there is no question in your mind as to whether lab could have done a better job developing your photos. If you plan to make a living from selling your black & white photographs, investing in a dark room is a great idea. On the other hand, you must keep several types of expensive chemicals on hand at all times if you want to develop your own black & white film, so if you do not plan to develop several photos per week, you would probably be better off to have your black & white film developed by a photo lab. Color film developing is more complicated and expensive than black & white film developing, so you would probably only want to develop your own color film if you are a professional that develops film not only for yourself, but also if you develop color film for others as well. While it is more complicated, time consuming and expensive than black & white developing, it can be even more rewarding to develop your own color film than to develop your own black and white film. | |