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The Basics of Black & White Photography

Instructional Illuminations

Article by Jamie Scott Teacher: Henderson County High School

The key to a great black and white photograph is finding the perfect object and/or scene for taking the picture. Of course, a proper camera and film can help tremendously. For those who would like to begin a career in black and white photography or would like to teach this in his/her classroom, here are some basics to get you started. In this article, you will see parts of a camera, how to develop film, and how to enlarge a print from the negatives developed.

Parts of the Camera

There are four basic parts of any standard camera: lens, shutter, light tight box, and light sensitive material. The lens is how light hits the object to be taken, and reflects into the lens to be captured onto the film. The shutter allows a lot or a little light into the camera for proper exposure for the picture to show up correctly. The light tight box is basically the inside of the camera. The inside of the camera has to be completely dark (black) in order to keep the film from being exposed to light. Otherwise, the film will be damaged and wasted. The light sensitive material is the film. Light cannot hit the film or it will be overexposed and pictures will not show up on the film. The diagram below shows the camera and other physical parts.

How to Develop Film

After the pictures have been taken, the film must be wound and taken out of the camera. Next, the film has to be loaded into a developing tank to get ready for the developing process. These are the chemicals needed: developer, stop bath, fixer, water, and photo flow. Developer has to be poured into the tank for 5 ½ minutes while agitating it once every minute. Next, stop bath has to be poured into the tank for one minute while agitating it the entire time. Next, the fixer has to be poured into the tank for 7 – 10 minutes. This time depends on how many times all the chemicals had been used. Then, water must be poured into the tank for 20 minutes. The water must be agitated once every minute and changed every 5 minutes. Finally, the photo flow is placed into the tank for 30 seconds.

Each chemical has to be poured back into its container after its use. The chemicals do not stay in the tank with one another. If each chemical and water is used properly, and in order, then good negatives from the film will turn out. The film will need to be taken out and hung up to dry.

How to Develop Prints

Every negative needs to be made into a print. Actually, which ever negatives you choose will be made into a print. After the negatives are developed, they will need to be cut into sections and placed on the print enlarger in order to be made into a larger print. Light shine through the negative onto a platform and the negative shows up how ever small or large you want with proper positioning of the device. After the negative has been exposed onto the print paper, then the print must be developed in the proper chemicals: developer, stop bath, fixer, and water.

First, the print will be placed into the developer for 1 minute. The print must be agitated for the entire minute. Next, the print will be placed into the stop bath for 30 seconds, and agitated for the entire 30 seconds. Next, the print will be placed into the fixer for 2 minutes. There is no need for agitation in this chemical. Finally, the print is placed into the water bath for 20 minutes. After this time, the print will be hung up to dry. This will finish the development process.

As you can see, there are many different steps to handling proper procedures of black and white film photography. This is only one way, though. There are many resources out there to help you along the way as well. This is a very exciting hobby and/or career to get involved in. This is also a great project lead class that can be taught in any school setting.

Related Links

• Black and white photography: Taking great black and white photographs - Tips for taking great photos and information to consider when taking black and white photos.
• Black-and-white - All the photography information you need to know from Wikipedia.
• Digital black & white photography technique - How to use a digital camera for creativity and to increase you photography techniques.
• Dev it Yourself - About: Photography gives the ins and outs of taking black and white pictures and why to develop them yourself.
• You Oughta Be In Pictures! - This article by Microsoft challenges teachers to use the digital camera in the classroom. It gives good instructional ideas for camera use.

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