Plant-Based Film Development

raydm6

raydm6

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I saw a reference to plant-based developers and am intrigued by this approach. Several artists have on-line examples and offer seminars for those interested.

Seems like an optional alternative for those with chemical sensitivities or those wanting to try alternative process.

Intriguing!

Plant-based photographic film developers | Crystal Bennes

www.crystalbennes.com www.crystalbennes.com

www.landartagency.com

Plant Developers — Land Art Agency & Collective

www.landartagency.com www.landartagency.com

www.artsoftheworkingclass.org

Bringing the Garden into the Darkroom

www.artsoftheworkingclass.org www.artsoftheworkingclass.org

Herbal developers – AlternativePhotography.com

www.alternativephotography.com www.alternativephotography.com

Bladderwrack seaweed developer for black and white film – AlternativePhotography.com

www.alternativephotography.com www.alternativephotography.com

Love this one (Arnica Developer):
Arnica Developer
 
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I do see the appeal of this, but at the moment it’s more time than I have. Maybe one day.

This type of process seems to be as much about the experiment and unknown - serendipity? - and the opposite of the control sought in core photographic practice. I suspect there’s always been people working in this way, but perhaps the extreme control offered and promoted in the digital photo culture leads to more of us looking outside of that oeuvre.
 
I got excited seeing “plant-based” and thought it might be about gelatin-free film. I know that’s not gonna happen.

I’ve never done DIY chemistry but get the appeal, especially for those who like to tinker and experiment. For me the shelf-life and mix-on-demand property of HC-110 make it hard to resist.

For the herbal versions, I assume you’d have to make the tea/infusion fresh for each developing session, right?
 
JohnWolf said:
I got excited seeing “plant-based” and thought it might be about gelatin-free film. I know that’s not gonna happen.
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I started a small thread on gelatin. I still believe they haven’t found a substitute for it yet.

Gelatin - Photography’s Rodney Dangerfield

I know silver gets a lot of the attention and prestige, but I think we owe a tip of the hat to gelatin as well. https://gmap-gelatin.com/photographic-gelatin/ To date, no suitable substitute for gelatin has been found in the manufacture of photographic film or paper. Gelatin for photographic...
rangefinderforum.com rangefinderforum.com
 
raydm6 said:
I started a small thread on gelatin. I still believe they haven’t found a substitute for it yet.

Gelatin - Photography’s Rodney Dangerfield

I know silver gets a lot of the attention and prestige, but I think we owe a tip of the hat to gelatin as well. https://gmap-gelatin.com/photographic-gelatin/ To date, no suitable substitute for gelatin has been found in the manufacture of photographic film or paper. Gelatin for photographic...
rangefinderforum.com rangefinderforum.com
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The physico-chemical characteristics of gelatin are fairly unusual. And now that film is not a dominant medium a substitute will never be found - there is not enough reward in sales for the R&D effort to be justified. When Kodak tried to find a substitute in the heyday of film, they spent huge amounts and got essentially nowhere.

Marty
 
john_s said:
Pyrogallol used to be made from Oak galls, so could qualify as "plant based". But not particularly safe according to some reports, although it used to be used topically for a skin disorder.
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Indeed. But the toxicity of pyrogallol is overstated. It is likely no more toxic than hydroquinone. I wouldn’t soak in either of them:
 
One aspect of alternative developers that I have wondered about is the oft claimed eco positivity. Making up caffenol actually uses quite a lot of coffee, vit C and sodium carbonate. Phenidone/C developers use tiny amounts of the active ingredients, which will oxidise in any case, and much less alkali. 2 baths use small amounts and last for a long time.

I still take used fixer for the council to dispose of appropriately, but the small quantities of dev’s I use tend to go down the sink - noting that some chems are harmful to aquatic life, so I avoid them.

When I was 14 we didn’t really consider any of this🙁
 
Ororaro said:
Vegan and all that save the earth bs? 😂

I will always use hc/d76/ilfosol
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I mean, I know quite a few people who used coffee for developing film but as far as I know they switched back to popular developers. It sounded like a great idea to experiment with but in the long run they switched back to dedicated chemicals designed for the job.
 
p.giannakis said:
Have you tried it? I've read mixed things about it.

Anyway I am too much of a wimp to give up the tried and tested HC110.
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Caffenol works perfectly well - the first two in this post were developed in Caffenol. I just suspect PC-Tea or PC-glycol is lower total impact.

sojournerphoto said:
Been pretty tied up with work this last couple of weeks and not managed much creative activity. Always leads to a GAS risk… so tonight I printed some of the scans I’ve done this year - only small on 7x5 paper in the epson, but even simple pictures make lovely objects and inspire photography and not acquisition - apart from more paper.

These were from a couple of test rolls - the first two Kentmere 400 in caffenol with a 7artisans 35/1.4 Wen and the second pair HP5+ in excel/ordinal shot in an MDa with TTArtisan 28/5.6.

View attachment 4832248

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View attachment 4832251

Happy printing - however you do it😉

Mike
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JohnWolf said:
Treating Earth and its creatures well is hardly BS. That kind of indifference is what has us in the mess we're in today.
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What mess? The one they tell you about?
Believe me, all is perfectly well and always will be. The political aspect of it is the poison.

Think about it real good: a liter of water is never lost, never ever. Wether you drink it, wash your car or flush it. All water is millions years old, equally.
Unless you take that liter and ship it outside earth, it will always stay on earth.

Start with that.
 
sojournerphoto said:
Beat me to it. Climate denial follows…
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“Climate change ™️”

We cant even know if the earth is in the process of changing its own axis, which would have effects on “climate change ™️” but would be absolutely impossibly done by human intervention.

A comet deep in space could very well change earth’s “climate change ™️” within a 100 years progression, and yet the ”experts ™️” would be baffled, pointing fingers to co2, the food for trees, instead of understanding what’s happening in the cosmos.
Besides, understanding cosmos brings no cashola to the table, and does not offer solutions on how to keep a population in control.

Fear, howver, works wonderfully well. Take away people’s freedom, cars actually, works well.

Anyhow, this is not the place.
 
Not really worth getting into here, but I agree the politics is disastrous - both sides seem to have given up on reality and replaced it with their own fantasies. Unfortunately, the polarisation, tribalism if you will, is blinding us.
 
raydm6 said:
I saw a reference to plant-based developers and am intrigued by this approach. Several artists have on-line examples and offer seminars for those interested.

Seems like an optional alternative for those with chemical sensitivities or those wanting to try alternative process.

Intriguing!

Plant-based photographic film developers | Crystal Bennes

www.crystalbennes.com www.crystalbennes.com

www.landartagency.com

Plant Developers — Land Art Agency & Collective

www.landartagency.com www.landartagency.com

www.artsoftheworkingclass.org

Bringing the Garden into the Darkroom

www.artsoftheworkingclass.org www.artsoftheworkingclass.org

Herbal developers – AlternativePhotography.com

www.alternativephotography.com www.alternativephotography.com

Bladderwrack seaweed developer for black and white film – AlternativePhotography.com

www.alternativephotography.com www.alternativephotography.com

Love this one (Arnica Developer):
Arnica Developer
Click to expand...
More than 2 decades ago there was a lot of work made at RIT (Dr. Williams) about this
Mint, lavender, coffee and other plants were used successfully.
The main issue to me is the fixer
 
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