Film Processing & Darkroom

Sheet film is large format and medium format photographic film supplied on individual sheets of acetate or polyester film base rather than rolls. Sheet film was initially supplied as an alternative to glass plates. more...

Home
Bags, Cases & Straps
Binoculars & Telescopes
Camcorder Accessories
Camcorders
Digital Camera Accessories
Digital Cameras
Film
Film Camera Accessories
Film Cameras
Film Processing & Darkroom
Chemistry
Enlargement Equip. &...
Finishing Equipment
Hardware, Lighting & Setup
Loupes & Magnifiers
Other Darkroom Equipment
Photographic Paper
Processing Equipment
Flashes & Accessories
Lenses & Filters
Lighting & Studio Equipment
Manuals, Guides & Books
Photo Albums & Archive Items
Printers, Scanners &...
Professional Video Equipment
Projection Equipment
Stock Photography & Footage
Tripods, Monopods
Vintage
Wholesale Lots

The most popular size measures 4×5 inches; smaller and larger sizes including the gigantic 20×24 inches have been made and many are still available today.

Using sheet film

To use sheet film, the photographer places a sheet of film, emulsion side out, into a film holder in the dark, and closes the dark slide over the loaded film. Next, the holder is inserted into a large-format camera, and the dark slide is removed from the holder. The exposure is made, the dark slide is replaced, and the film holder is removed from the camera.

Notches

Sheet films have notches cut into one short side. This makes it simple to determine which side is the emulsion, when the film is hidden from sight (in the darkroom, or inside a changing bag). When holding the sheet in "portrait" orientation (short side up), with the notches in the upper right, the emulsion side is facing the photographer. The notch patterns vary in size and layout; each type of film has its own distinct pattern, commonly referred to as a notch code, to enable film type identification.

Developing Sheet Film

Many photographers who use large-format cameras and sheet film, do their own film processing. Some more professionally-oriented photographic labs will process color negative and positive sheet film, but the "corner drug store" photolab generally can not. There are multiple methods that can be used.

Tray Processing

The simplest method for processing sheet film is using trays. The equipment, one darkroom tray per processing solution, is easily available and inexpensive compared to most of the other methods. There is also a much lower volume of solution required when using trays - only what's needed to cover the films (though most film development chemicals have minimum solution-volume-per-film-area requirements, which may require use of more solution). The films are placed into the chemical-filled trays one every few seconds, and a stack of films is formed. Agitation is performed by "shuffling" the films; the sheet on the bottom of the stack is brought to the top and pushed down into the solution. The photographer shuffles through the stack at the same rate he/she introduced the films into the processing chemical. With careful counting and practiced hands, a photographer can process as many as 10 sheets of film at one time.

Some metal multi-sheet film frames are available for handling multiple sheets as one; they require larger trays than the stacking methods, and generally preclude any stacking for risk of film damage.

Read more at Wikipedia.org