Home Color Film Developing

Photography | March 2, 2025

I set out to do something I have always wanted to learn, but had never done before: developing my own color film. Through the help of the CineStill CS41 Color Film Processing Kit I was able to accomplish this goal! Through the initial stages, I gathered my kit together and below are a list of some of the items I found to be super helpful in my journey:

I found that I liked getting the liquid CineStill chemical kit as it was super easy to mix, and you don’t have to worry about making sure to dissolve any powders. I will also confess that I went into this thinking I could handle using the metal reels and tanks. I used them all throughout my time at Brooks Institute of Photography, so in my mind it would be no problem, but it was absolutely a problem. My film would get bunched up super easy on the reels and I just wasted a lot of time getting frustrated inside the dark bag or developing rolls where the film was laying against itself in the reel turning out ugly results like below.

My advice? Use the Paterson tanks and reels, it makes working in the dark bag so much easier.

Before this, I was a little overwhelmed at the thought of this development process but I would say the big thing to keep in mind is temperature control. When the process was complete and the stabilizer bath was done I also added a Photo-Flo step that I truly believe helped in the drying process. For scanning I use an Epson Perfection V600 with Photoshop.

I was even able to open up two disposable cameras and processed them as well. I was convinced I would need a special tool to open them, but no, it was so easy.

For anyone looking to embark on their own home color film processing journey, I would highly recommend keeping a chemical journal. In mine, for the first pages I have helpful charts and the process written out by hand. I keep this out like a recipe book while I am going through the actual steps.

I also use it to log each processing session, to ensure proper pushing times (it is recommended to add 2% more developing time per roll of film per batch of developer) I also keep notes on temperature, film types etc in case I need to reference it later.