Another Coffee 'developer' recipe.

[johnastovall]

This showed up on LUF.

"Brew A Pot Of Developer
Caffeine is one of the best, and it’s simple to use. Coffee or tea can be the source, but coffee may be preferable because of its higher caffeine content. So if you want to try your own skill at kitchen chemistry processing, here’s a plan: First get a jar of instant coffee crystals at your local supermarket. Next head to the laundry detergent aisle and pick up a box of washing soda. That’s the stuff that will activate the developing agent, the caffeine in the instant coffee. With the wide variety of laundry materials available today, washing soda isn’t the big seller that it once was, but the larger chains will carry it. (Baking soda just won’t do.)

That’s all you need. And here’s a recipe for making a half pint of developer, enough to process a roll of 35mm film in a typical developing tank.

8 oz of water
4 teaspoons of instant coffee crystals
2 teaspoons of washing soda

Stir the ingredients until uniform, then develop film for 25 minutes, agitating every 30 seconds.

This simple formula will develop any silver-halide emulsion, but for best results you’ll need to experiment to determine the optimum composition and development time for the particular film and exposure level you use. I used only Kodak T-Max 400, exposed at ISO 100."

 

[Lars]

My friend Per always says "develop in Coke, fix in Sprite".

 

[Stuart Richardson]

Do you know what works even better? Rodinal.

Seriously though, using coffee is interesting, but barring being stuck in the Colombian rainforest, is there a good reason for doing it?

 

[johnastovall]

Because you can and it produces a different look from Rodinal.

The best reason for doing it is you can do it and art grows by experimentation.

 

[Oxide Blu]

The best reason for doing it is you can do it and art grows by experimentation.

"Art" is not what is growing on the culinary experiments in my refrigerator.

 

[Stuart Richardson]

John you are right of course. I guess I was just thinking of people as using it as a viable alternative to a regular developer, not as an artistic choice. That said, what kind of changes would it make in the negative? It seems to me like the "art" part of the photographic process is probably better carried out in the capture and the printing stages than in the negative stage. But obviously, art is art! She cannot be explained...

 

[johnastovall]

Anyoner used hot developer and a cold water wash during development to reticulate the emulsion? Used to be done in wet darkroom days. I confess I have.

 

[Wes Medlin]

Yes, I have, but not on purpose. Though it was close to 30 years ago. Live and learn.