The ritual of mixing developers from powder feels like a lost art form now.

I used to follow my dad's handwritten notes, each step a precise ceremony. Today, with pre-mixed solutions everywhere, I miss the alchemy of creating something from scratch.

3 comments

3 Comments

patricia10011h ago

Start by sourcing fresh potassium carbonate and metol separately, it forces you to understand the chemistry. I still mix my own D-76 because the shelf life of powder is longer than liquid concentrate. Weigh everything on a gram scale and use distilled water to avoid contaminants. That handwritten note feeling comes back when you screw up a batch and have to troubleshoot.

oscarcooper10h ago

Patricia's right about the troubleshooting lessons! I once confused metric and imperial measurements and ended up with a developer stronger than my coffee. Let's just say my negatives were... interesting!

kellyw448h ago

Tbh Patricia's got it, trust the notes. Honestly that "handwritten note feeling" you mentioned is the whole point, it's why I still mix PQ Universal from scratch every few months. I messed up a batch last year by using tap water with high mineral content, got these weird crystallization patterns on my Plus-X negs. Now everything gets bottled in amber glass with the date in sharpie, same as my dad's old darkroom shelves. That ritual of weighing chems while the kettle boils is meditation, not inconvenience.