A damn fine cup of coffee
I feel the need to make a blog post for posterity as I’m absolutely buzzing that I managed to develop a film at home today using coffee.
A couple of weeks ago I’d picked up a second hand copy of ‘Experimental Photography - A Handbook of Techniques’ (https://thamesandhudson.com/experimental-photography-9780500544372) and have been feeling inspired to try and give some of the easier processes a shot.
Today’s experiment was creating my own caffenol to develop my negatives in my kitchen. As a coffee addict I was excited at the prospect of having yet another excuse to have more kicking about.
I’d read that cheap instant coffee is best, and I tried to find one that was 100% robusta beans as apparently they are more acidic so work better for this process.
I got some 100% ascorbic acid (Vitamin C) powder online and picked up soda crystals at the local corner shop for £2. The recipe I was following mentioned using potassium bromide or alternatively iodized table salt, but as it was apparently optional I left that out.
I developed for 15 mins with agitation for ten seconds every minute.
For the stop I washed with fresh water for a minute, then fixed for 5 minutes using ilford rapid fixer (1+4) then another wash, and a random dip in some water with a drop of washing up liquid.
By this point I was ridiculously amazed that there was anything on the negatives - I don’t think I’ll ever not be excited by seeing images on the film when I open the developing tank.
Of course the images in question are cat related. Bit of a residue there despite being washed thoroughly too…lol.
Being impatient and not having access to a neg scanner at home I used an app on my phone to do some low res images just to get a better idea of what was on the roll.
Glad we have a photo of my nephews giant straw as the last shot of the roll - haha!
The nice thing is there are a few of my nieces christening that turned out better than I expected. There wasn’t a lot of light in the church and I was positive they were going to be underexposed based on the in camera meter - but the 15 minute development time has maybe actually helped to push the film a bit.
Hopefully will get into the darkroom soon so I can make some prints as a memory of the day.
