For the past few months, I have been taking my rolls of film to the local photo lab for processing and scanning. It was convenient, and the advice I received from the staff there was always valuable, but it was starting to get expensive, and I wanted to connect more with the process to understand it on a practical level, knowing that I could introduce more creativity with my developing process.
So, I decided to set up my own lab at home and have since begun processing my own film. This experience is much more satisfying and makes film photography feel far more intimate—being part of the physical and chemical process from shooting to scanning. I no longer just feel like the photographer; I’m directly connected with the development of each photograph.
I have already started to experiment with different developers and with pushing and pulling. Now, I’m saving up for an enlarger so I can start printing and burning my own photographs. I want to experiment with exposure and contrast, play with tones, and delicately shape shadows until each image feels alive in its own way.
