Coffee processing

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rcoder

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Sorry if this has been covered here before, but I just thought I'd chime in for anyone who hasn't already heard about it: you really can develop B/W film in coffee!

The film I used was probably almost half as old as I am -- it was bulk-loaded by a friend in his last photography class almost 10 years ago, and god only knows how long it had sat on a shelf before that. We also used the 'Caffenol C' variant of the developer mix, which adds a pinch of Vitamin C to the usual coffee and washing soda recipe as an accelerator.

Regardless, I'm pretty happy with the results, considering we had almost no real control of dilution rates or temperature, (it was all done in my kitchen, using guesstimated measurements and timing) and given that our fixer was a 1:4 dilution of no-name aquarium de-chlorinator which we guess (it would appear correctly) was mostly sodium thiosulfate, a.k.a. "hypo".

Anyway, it was cheap, fun, and about as non-toxic as I think film developing can get. I think I'm going to see how well cheapo store-brand C41 holds up to similar treatment next -- B/W film is just getting too hard to track down.

(see the rest on flickr)
 

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I've heard of people using coffee for prints, but it does leave a pretty noticeable stain, which may or may not be your thing. I'd love to see results, but I think I'm going to be sticking to daylight developing + scanning the negs for most of my film handing for the forseeable future.

An additional caution about said staining: it will also affect plastic developing reels, tanks, seals, etc., so if you worry about such things, you might want to either use stainless, or just use an older crappier set of tanks and reels than you do for your "nice" developing.
 
for cruz (even though all of this is in the desc. for the flickr set):

The recipe was adapted from the digitaltruth Caffenol-C recipe. I actually used fresh coffee (Stumptown Hairbender Blend, roasted less than a mile from my house) brewed at normal strength through a regular cone filter, then re-filtered and diluted from 8oz. to 10 oz. with cold tap water. The Vitamin C and washing soda were added in the same amounts as the above recipe, and processing was done at an initial temp of 85 deg. F.

Developing time was 12 minutes with near-constant agitation, followed by a basic cold water stop rinse. I used no-name aquarium de-chlorinator as a fixer, guessing it would probably be mostly sodium thiosulfate (a.k.a. "hypo") -- which appears to have been the right guess.

The shots in this set were all from the second roll run through the same batch of developer -- the first roll was developed for more like 14 minutes (also prior to adding the tap-water to the developer), and came out a bit too fogged and stained to be really appealing. It appears the first roll may have soaked up a fair bit of the dyes in the coffee, as well, since these came out only very lightly stained.

Washing and drying were done in my bathroom, and scans were provided by the local department store photo-processing lab at the bargain price of $2 (for 6MP scans, no less!). All of the shots have had a slight de-speckling filter applied, since the old film and slight "push" of the Caffenol-C recipe conspired to create enough grain to produce a lot of nasty JPEG artifacts in the compressed scans.
 
I have made prints using coffee. I have also developed prints using chicory and cocoa (as far as I know I'm the only one who did that...). Chicory works fine, cocoa is a mess.

Here is a print:

253415858_e8aef395a9.jpg


Just took 300mL of strong coffee and added 2 teaspoons of washing soda. Processed for 30 minutes.

Haven't tried film.

Oh and here is a print from a color slide with coffee, inverted after scanning:

253415856_c823c8171c.jpg
 
IMHO coffee can develop anything given ahough carbonate. Caffeic acid is very similar to catechol.

I'm one of the original Caffenol C makers a few years back (together with Donald Qualls) based on a paper from MIT (late 80s) and a Shutterbug article, and Patrick Gainer ascorbic articles on PT magazine.

Adding ascorbate was a good method to make the stain less strong and boost shadow detail.
4 g/l of final solution is more than plenty, I don't know what digital truth has published but it shoul dbe fine.

Some points to rememebr:
- Instnat coffee is cheaper and can be made very concentrate
- Dissolve the carbonate first, then the ascorbate (if needed) and when all the grit is gone add the coffee
- Development time is not critical and tends to be in the 35-50 min range
- Stain is very strong if you dont use ascorbate and is good to mask grain and lower contrast in traditional processes, however it can cause problems with scanners.

That said, have fun and enjoy

rcoder said:
for cruz (even though all of this is in the desc. for the flickr set):

The recipe was adapted from the digitaltruth Caffenol-C recipe. I actually used fresh coffee (Stumptown Hairbender Blend, roasted less than a mile from my house) brewed at normal strength through a regular cone filter, then re-filtered and diluted from 8oz. to 10 oz. with cold tap water. The Vitamin C and washing soda were added in the same amounts as the above recipe, and processing was done at an initial temp of 85 deg. F.

Developing time was 12 minutes with near-constant agitation, followed by a basic cold water stop rinse. I used no-name aquarium de-chlorinator as a fixer, guessing it would probably be mostly sodium thiosulfate (a.k.a. "hypo") -- which appears to have been the right guess.

The shots in this set were all from the second roll run through the same batch of developer -- the first roll was developed for more like 14 minutes (also prior to adding the tap-water to the developer), and came out a bit too fogged and stained to be really appealing. It appears the first roll may have soaked up a fair bit of the dyes in the coffee, as well, since these came out only very lightly stained.

Washing and drying were done in my bathroom, and scans were provided by the local department store photo-processing lab at the bargain price of $2 (for 6MP scans, no less!). All of the shots have had a slight de-speckling filter applied, since the old film and slight "push" of the Caffenol-C recipe conspired to create enough grain to produce a lot of nasty JPEG artifacts in the compressed scans.
Click to expand...
 
titrisol, you said:
"- Stain is very strong if you dont use ascorbate and is good to mask grain and lower contrast in traditional processes, however it can cause problems with scanners."

What kind of problems with scanners are you referring to? I use a Nikon Coolscan film only scanner, will it be messed up inside if I scan coffee developed negatives?
 
In flickr terms, I'd say that this thread has become an instant fav ! C-41 and old slide film sounds wonderful to my ears also, since I've happened to accumulate a few of bulk-loaded both, lol.
 
RML said:
What is (the source of) Ascorbic Acid or Erythorbic Acid?
Click to expand...

To answer myself: ascorbic acid is vitamin C.

So, if I were to get some of these vitamin C pills and crush them, how much would I need? And would it work?

Anyone from Holland who tried this and can recommend some brands that are sold here?
 
I think someone mentioned Aquarium De chlorinator, diluted 1:4. I think salt water works too.. Although I haven't tried it..
 
Salt water does not work for fixing. Use regular fixer. It is still easy to find (atlleast for me it is), and it is cheap.

Please note that what I posted was not E-6 film processed in coffee. It was E-6 film processed by the regular E-6 process by a lab. Then I took the slide and made a negative print in the darkroom. I processed this print in coffee. I then scanned the print. I could also have contact printed the negative print.
 
RML: You could also check a health-food store -- many of them here (west coast USA) have Vitamin C in bulk, which is considerably more economical and time-effective than crushing up tablets. (It's also much easier to measure by volume instead of weight, since the mass/volume ratio is a known quantity.)

And yes, I mentioned using acquarium de-chlorinator as fixer, because I found a brand of said chems that turned out to be comprised almost entirely of sodium thiosulfate, a classic (and relatively non-toxic) fixer. As I understand it, most modern fixers are based on ammonium thiosulfate, which is faster-acting, but less commonly used in other industries.

My objective in using this process was to find everyday sources for photographic chemistry, not attain the highest quality possible. My actual goal is to be prepared to develop my own photographs while travelling in third-world countries, without carrying a large quantity of volatile darkroom chemicals with me. Hence the focus on readily-available ingredients, lax timing and temperature control, etc.
 
rcoder said:
RML: You could also check a health-food store -- many of them here (west coast USA) have Vitamin C in bulk, which is considerably more economical and time-effective than crushing up tablets. (It's also much easier to measure by volume instead of weight, since the mass/volume ratio is a known quantity.)
Click to expand...

Thanks. I'll see what they have in store here around.


And yes, I mentioned using acquarium de-chlorinator as fixer, because I found a brand of said chems that turned out to be comprised almost entirely of sodium thiosulfate, a classic (and relatively non-toxic) fixer. As I understand it, most modern fixers are based on ammonium thiosulfate, which is faster-acting, but less commonly used in other industries.
Click to expand...

Apart from ordinary fixer or the mentione de-chlorinator, is there anything else that could work and I'd find in my kitchen for instance? I like your objective, which is one that would suit me as well. Even though I shoot digital 98% of the time, I often end up in Mongolia and it'd be cool to let some of my cousins-in-law do some of this coffee-based developing.
 
RML: It's technically possible to use simpler componds such as saltwater or household ammonia as a photographic fixer, but neither is nearly as effective -- saltwater only dissolves a portion of the silver halides left in the emulsion, which will inevitably result in a fogged negative, and dilute ammonia just isn't reactive enough to do a thorough job.

I'm curious to see how well my ghetto fixer holds up, though; I'll be running another batch of rolls through the same process tonight, (including a roll of exposed Tri-X I found in a box that has to be at least five years old and some cheapo C41) and will be sure to post results here.
 
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