Coffee please . . . add a dash of Soda, some Vitamin C . . . and maybe some salt! . . . . .
Oh wait! we’re talking Caffenol . . . I had fun yesterday in the kitchen and souping a few rolls of 120 film I had laying around. One roll of TX400 (that’s Tri-X) and a roll of TMX100 I found in a packing box the other day. I chose two Caffenol recipes to try out, each one was tailored to the specific type film . . . I decided on Caffenol C-H(rs) for the TX400 and Caffenol C-M (+i) for the 100TMX. Here are the results of a few negatives. I didn’t scan these. I just layed them out on my light-box with a makeshift mask of card stock and photographed them with a macro lens and my digital camera, the down and dirty method for quickly digitizing a negative. I then loaded those files and inverted and then applied greyscale to remove any color. So you do not see the coffee tint / stain on the negatives. I did post editing in Corel PSP Pro X7 . . . anyway here’s the results.
100TMX, Caffenol C-M(+i)
post processed in PSP X7 Pro
Doors, Caffenol C-H(rs), 400 TX
100% crop to show reduced grain
100TMX with a soft focus lens
400TX . . old typewriter, post processed PSP-X7 Pro
The apples and the shot of Half Dome in Yosemite where made using my old RB67, the typewriter and door where made using a roll-film back and my Gowland 4×5 with an old non coated Kodak lens . . .
Here are the two Caffenol recipes used . .
Caffenol-C-M (+i) film developer
| Water |
500ml |
| Washing Soda |
27g |
| Ascorbic Acid |
8g |
| Coffee Crystals |
20g |
| Iodine Salt |
5g |
Caffenol C-H(RS)
In a 1 liter solution, each:
Sodium Carbonate, anhydrous 54g – 40g
Ascorbic acid 16g – 16g
Instant coffee 40g – 40g
Potassium Bromide (KBr) . Between 0.6 and 1.5g/l
If you cannot find Potassium Bromide (KBr) you can substitute Sodium Bromide (NaBr) multiply the amount of (KBr) needed by .86 to get the correct amount of (NaBr) to use. example if you need 1 g/l of (KBr) you would need .86 g/l (NaBr) instead. Or if you cannot get either you can use common table salt just multiply the amount of (KBr) x 10 to get the amount needed. Why salt? well it acts as a buffer to keep development even so your negatives do not get blotchy from uneven development . . . . and it also reduces grain somewhat . . . There are so many recipes on the Web . . . each with their own amounts . . . my suggestion is stick with one recipe and film that you find easy to use and is available to you and be consistent. processing film at home is fun and easy, it is a skill that you will develop over time and prefect.
Other fave formulas are the
Delta-STD and for stand development there is
Caffenol C -L/S . . . it’s all fun, and … YOU can do it at home.
here is a source for Sodium Bromide (a Pool / spa chemical) this ones at Walmart for 2 bucks a bag.
Sodium Bromide Found a source in the pool department
if you liked this please share it with your friends . . do leave comments, and by no means is this to be taken as the defacto, absolute this is what or how to do it, this is just me playing and letting things happen . . . the “happy accidents” . . . are fun artifacts or if you want grab a scale and thermometer and go get the Caffenol Cookbook , smock, beakers, flasks . . temp control baths etc . . . etc . . . or play with spoons and guess your measurements and let those happy accidents happen . . .
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