The Darkroom Cookbook Forum

Given the nature of this forum I am assuming that there are a number of cooks well experienced in putting some recipes together. What shopping advise would you give to a complete beguinner keen on using raw chemicals 're an essential shopping list? I'm only using Ifold film (FP4 and HP5+), MGIV RC paper and chems currently. Thank you in advance Chefs.

Greetings, Luis. Welcome to our world. Mixing chemistry for b/w processing is not rocket science and once you get the hang of it you'll be a chef, too. Almost all of what you need to know will be found in The Darkroom Cookbook, the 4th edition is about to be released by Focal Press, http://amzn.to/1nPDWZr. I highly suggest you pick up a copy and select from the many formulas those that seem promising to you and purchase the appropriate chemicals. Otherwise you will end up with a shelf of powders you never use.



That said, there are only a few you need to have regularly available. They are all organic and as non-toxic as chemicals can be, some of them are even used as preservatives in food and in soap. The following is a short list to get you started with developers. Let's see what some of the other users of this forum come up with. All of the chemicals are available from the Photographers' Formulary, photoformulary.com



Sodium sulfite

Sodium Carbonate or Borax (this is where it would be good to refer to the DCB)

Metol

Hydroquinone

Potassium Bromide



Once you get into this there are more you can add, but I wouldn't suggest doing that until your copy of the DCB has developer stains all over it.

Thank you. Indeed, I have of reading some of book, which I found extremely informative, but for a beginner like me, a little over my head, so will follow your advice to choose a starter set. My birthday is in June and I think I know what book I'm getting for myself. . I'm UK based but Silverprint or similar should have these. Thank you for your list.

Silverprint or FotoImpex in Germany

Hi Luis and welcome to group therapy. I will be the first to admit that I am no chemist and I hate to test. . . that is beyond what is required to achieve the results I want. My wife and I are both LF and ULF photographers and we mix most all darkroom chemicals ourselves. On reason is 100% control of the process. . . and. . . if something goes wrong, you know who to blame!



I highly recommend Steve's "Darkroom Cookbook" as a handy reference as well as being full of just plain good information. He has put many hours into compiling a single source for most anything you could imagine in the way of darkroom concoctions. I have a well worn copy with many markers sticking out everywhere.



As I said, I am not much to do a lot of testing or experimenting, but it is necessary at times if you want to expand your craft. Just in case you are interested in what over 25 years of fine tuning of process has done our way, here are the mixtures we currently use. . .



http://jbhphoto.com/blog/formulas-updated-07142015/

If you want to spread your wings a tiny bit add Phenidone A and Ascorbic Acid to the list. (And don't buy much Phenidone I bought 100 times as much as I needed then discovered that a tiny bit goes a long, long way!)