The first step is to prepare the chemicals. Follow the instructions that come with the chemicals. You will need developer, water for a stop bath, rapid fixer and hypo clearing agent. I would use whatever is most readily available to you, changing brand of chemicals very often may add a degree of variability to your processing. The most important thing in film developing is to be consistent. The last step in preparing chemicals is to bring them to their working temperature, there are several different ways of doing this step. Find what works for you and stick with it.

Next load the film on the reel. This has to be done in total darkness, I would practice with a "dummy" roll in room light until you can do it with your eyes closed. Place in front of you: film cassette, can opener, film reel and tank. Turn off the lights, open the film cassette using the can opener. Now the film must be loaded onto the reel, I prefer to tear off the leader that is used to load the camera. I start at this end and begin to feed the film into the reel, the emulsion side of the film should be toward the center of the reel. When you get to the end of the roll you will find that the film is taped to a spool, gently tear the spool from the tape and finish feeding the film onto the reel. The reel is placed on the center core of the film tank. Do your next roll if you are doing more than one roll at a time. When all rolls are loaded on their reels, place the reels in the film tank and carefully place the tanks lid to seal the tank. Now you are ready to turn on the lights. Again, I would practice this step with a "dummy" roll until you are very comfortable.

You are now ready to do the chemical process that will make the latent image on the film become a permanent image that you can use for printing. Lay out the chemicals that you prepared earlier: developer, water for stop bath, rapid fixer and hypo clearing agent. Before you start a decision must be made as to how long to develop your film, this is dependent on film type, exposure and developer. Once this decision is made and you check one last time that the chemicals are at their correct temperatures, its time to begin.

Quickly pour developer into the tank through its pour spout and start your timer. Place the lid on the pour spout and wrap the tank on a hard surface a couple of times to dislodge any air bubbles on the film, agitate the tank by turning it upside down and then right side up in a continuous motion. I also rotate the tank a little as I do this movement. This agitation is done for the first 30 seconds and I like to wrap the tank on a hard surface a couple of more times at the end of this initial 30 second agitation. Now set the tank down and leave undisturbed until the next agitation, usually agitate 5 seconds every 30 seconds or agitate 10 seconds every minute. Find what works for you and stick with it. BE CONSISTENT. Continue this agitation scheme until about 10 second before reaching the desired development time, remove the lid from the pour spout and pour the developer down the drain or back into a holding container if it is to be reused.

Now it is time to stop the development, the developer has been poured out but any developer that is contact with the film will continue to work. Pour water into the tank until it is full. Place the lid back on the pour spout and agitate for about 30 seconds. At this point timing is not as critical as when developing, so relax. At the end of this 30 second, pour the water out of the tank and down the drain. Add fixer to the tank, replace the lid on the pour spout and agitate for 30 seconds, use the same type of agitation scheme as with the developer until the fixer time is up. Usually it takes about 5 or 6 minutes in fixer. When you are done with the fixer, remove the lid on the pour spout and pour the fixer back into its container. Fixer is usually used over until a certain amount of film has been run through it and then it is disposed.

At this point your film has been developed and should have a permanent image on the film so it is alright to open the film tank. Your film should washed for a few minutes to remove most of the fixer. After a few minutes you can added the hypo clearing agent and agitate, leave the film in the hypo clear for about 3 minutes and the film is ready for its final wash. I use a Gravity Works film washer but there a many other film washers on the market. A film washer is not needed if you place the film under running water while still on the reel and in the tank. I wash for at least 20 minutes. Some people wash for as little as 5 minutes, find what works for you depending on your water source and washer.