That's exactly what it means. Development by inspection is something that a few darkroom wizards did back in the day, but the technique is not widely used anymore.Originally Posted by John Power
Normally, film is developed in total darkness, but it is possible to examine the film briefly during the development process to determine its progress. Obviously, this is a tricky technique - you must allow the film to develop in darkness for a while (as I recall, normally for about half of the nominal development time), and then you examine the film using a special dark green safelight for a brief period of time. Because the film is still in development and hasn't been fixed (there is still unexposed and undeveloped emulsion), you can't see through the negative, but you can discern the beginnings of the image as variations in tone on the emulsion side of the film.
I've tried it a few times, and found that the technique wasn't especially helpful. Instead, I got better results with a fixed development time based on Zone System testing. I did see George Krause demonstrate the process, and apparently it worked for him.
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