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How to Develop B&W Negative Film in Coffee
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PostPosted: Sun Oct 04, 2009 9:13 pm    Post subject: How to Develop B&W Negative Film in Coffee Reply with quote
Here’s the down and dirty way to do coffee developing.

There are a lot of details I’m leaving out here but they are all common sense like, use double filtering in the coffee etc.etc.

You will need coffee, real, cheap coffee. Washing soda (Not Baking soda, it won’t work). Washing soda very common as a washing powder. It’s very cheap also, a few USD for a few pounds. Chemically it’s Sodium carbonate. In the US you can get it in most large grocery stores made by Arm and Hammer in the clothes washing section.

You will need to make two parts, an A and B. The coffee/washing soda ratio is 5 parts coffee to 3 parts washing soda.

It’s also a two day process, the first day brewing the coffee and washing soda seperately, then the next day processing.

My small Paterson tank recommends 750 ml for two rolls of 35mm or 500 ml for one roll of 120. 750 ml works out to three cups of mixed liquid so the proper portions would be roughly 450 ml coffee and 300 ml washing soda, or

2 cups of coffee =2 tablespoons of coffee (solution A)

1 cup of washing soda/water = 1 large tablespoon of washing soda (solution B)

Brew the coffee (in distilled water if you can get it), decant the coffee to a separate bottle that you can close,then let it sit for 8-24 hrs for settling.

Boil one cup of water (distilled water if you can get it), mix one heaping teaspoon of washing soda slowly and thoroughly. It will look grainy and muddy when complete. Close the bottle and in a couple of hours it will look almost crystal clear. Let sit for 8-24 hrs.

I recommend FP4 or FP4+ for these times and agitation. The temp should be around 70F or 20-21c. After the settling period of time, load the film in the tank and wash the film until the color goes away from the waste water(Two or three tanks of water). Mix solution A with solution B, or pour them into the tank. Agitate (Inversion preferred) for 30 seconds.

Develop for 30 minutes agitating for 30 seconds every minute.. Use a water wash or a weak acid solution for a stop if desired.

Fix for 15 minutes or so agitating for 15 seconds every 4 minutes. Wash for about 10 minutes.

If you wish to, use a wetting agent OR when you make solution (B), make 4 cups instead of 1, put aside and use the leftover 3 cups for a wetting agent in the final wash. Washing Soda is an excellent wetting agent.
Dry, scan or print.

One note, the washing soda has a chemical reaction with the coffee and it does not smell nice at all Crying or Very sad . Like very stale coffee.

Cheers

Jules

Note: When you first hang the negs to dry the negs will look thin. As they dry they get darker.

Note 2: This is very much like developing in PYRO except longer and less toxic.


PostPosted: Mon Oct 05, 2009 7:13 am    Post subject: Reply with quote
Very interesting, Jules. I just saved your recipe in my folders. One question, why so long fixing time? I usually give it 5' with Agefix or a coupla mins. more for T-Max with regular developers.
Thanks for sharing it.
Cheers, Marty.


PostPosted: Mon Oct 05, 2009 8:45 am    Post subject: Reply with quote
Could you speed up the process using a double expresso?
.
.
.
Just kiddin - I heard about that years ago but never saw someone using it. Could you show some results pls?


PostPosted: Mon Oct 05, 2009 9:16 am    Post subject: Reply with quote
kds315* wrote:
Could you speed up the process using a double expresso?

Laughing Laughing Laughing Laughing


PostPosted: Mon Oct 05, 2009 10:28 am    Post subject: Reply with quote
kds315* wrote:
Could you show some results pls?
That would be great indeed.


PostPosted: Mon Oct 05, 2009 10:40 am    Post subject: Reply with quote
piticu wrote:
kds315* wrote:

Could you show some results pls?

That would be great indeed.

Definitely.
Cheers, Marty


PostPosted: Mon Oct 05, 2009 12:07 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
Thank you Jules !!


PostPosted: Mon Oct 05, 2009 3:26 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
marty wrote:
Very interesting, Jules. I just saved your recipe in my folders. One question, why so long fixing time? I usually give it 5' with Agefix or a coupla mins. more for T-Max with regular developers.
Thanks for sharing it.
Cheers, Marty.


Thanks much,

Remember it's a staining developer and it takes a while for the coffee to do it's work although try different times with cheap film, it may work! Wink

Jules


PostPosted: Mon Oct 05, 2009 3:31 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
kds315* wrote:
Could you speed up the process using a double expresso?
.
.
.
Just kiddin - I heard about that years ago but never saw someone using it. Could you show some results pls?


Actually I think so,

There's a site which lists liquids with high caffine content and there are many, many more that have a much higher content that I am going to try.

I have a few more shots but my facorite one is in the "Agitation" thread in this topic. I will post more as they develop (pun intended)

Jules


PostPosted: Mon Oct 05, 2009 3:32 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
Orio wrote:
Thank you Jules !!


My pleasure Orio and thanks for your local contrast actions. They work very well.

Jules


PostPosted: Mon Oct 05, 2009 4:35 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
Very interesting read thanx. To be tried with a crap film and not important pictures for the beginning.


PostPosted: Mon Oct 05, 2009 4:39 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
hexi wrote:
Very interesting read thanx. To be tried with a crap film and not important pictures for the beginning.


Agreed, use a low ASA film if possible. These seem to work better. I tried two rolls of Ilford 3200 and it didn't do well.


PostPosted: Mon Oct 05, 2009 5:15 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
Hi, Jules.
lulalake wrote:
Thanks much

You're welcome.Smile
lulalake wrote:
Remember it's a staining developer and it takes a while for the coffee to do it's work although try different times with cheap film, it may work!
Perhaps I expressed bad but I was talking about the fixing time or is there something I'm missing about staining developers?

Marty.


PostPosted: Mon Oct 05, 2009 6:04 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
marty wrote:
Hi, Jules.
lulalake wrote:
Thanks much

You're welcome.Smile
lulalake wrote:
Remember it's a staining developer and it takes a while for the coffee to do it's work although try different times with cheap film, it may work!
Perhaps I expressed bad but I was talking about the fixing time or is there something I'm missing about staining developers?

Marty.


Ahh, I see.

I can find no data on how long to fix coffee developed film so I use a 1/2 time rule of thumb for fixing.

Here's a thought. Seawater is used for fixing also at apparently 2/3 time of normal fixing so that would be roughly 10 min fixing. Sea water is about 250 ml salt to a gallon of water so you might consider that. I intend to do so on my next batch. (Use sea salt as it doesn't have added iodine and other stuff)

Jules


PostPosted: Mon Oct 05, 2009 10:11 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
Thank you Jules! I've saved it too and I'll get down to it after the weekend. Will instant coffee granules work OK do you think? (Obviously not de-caffeinated! Very Happy) I can't see why not - I guess you'll say I need to experiment with cheap film, but all I've got is 50ASA PanF+.


PostPosted: Mon Oct 05, 2009 10:53 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
peterqd wrote:
Thank you Jules! I've saved it too and I'll get down to it after the weekend. Will instant coffee granules work OK do you think? (Obviously not de-caffeinated! Very Happy) I can't see why not - I guess you'll say I need to experiment with cheap film, but all I've got is 50ASA PanF+.


I've never used instant for developing negs so I have no opinion there.


PostPosted: Tue Oct 06, 2009 12:12 am    Post subject: Reply with quote
lulalake wrote:
peterqd wrote:
Thank you Jules! I've saved it too and I'll get down to it after the weekend. Will instant coffee granules work OK do you think? (Obviously not de-caffeinated! Very Happy) I can't see why not - I guess you'll say I need to experiment with cheap film, but all I've got is 50ASA PanF+.


I've never used instant for developing negs so I have no opinion there.

I used instant coffee granules - really cheap stuff - here http://forum.mflenses.com/voigtlander-bessa-1935-caffenol-c-t18885.html


PostPosted: Tue Oct 06, 2009 1:15 am    Post subject: Reply with quote
Farside wrote:
lulalake wrote:
peterqd wrote:
Thank you Jules! I've saved it too and I'll get down to it after the weekend. Will instant coffee granules work OK do you think? (Obviously not de-caffeinated! Very Happy) I can't see why not - I guess you'll say I need to experiment with cheap film, but all I've got is 50ASA PanF+.


I've never used instant for developing negs so I have no opinion there.

I used instant coffee granules - really cheap stuff - here http://forum.mflenses.com/voigtlander-bessa-1935-caffenol-c-t18885.html


Dave,
This won’t be a fair comparison as I don’t know what kind of film you used, what your development times were etc, however , this shot is off the same roll of film from which I posted the first shot . Its 120, FP4+, Mamiya 45mm lens, and done exactly as I posted here.
This is straight out of the camera, resized (no sharpening), not spotted, no shadow recovery, no adjustments of any kind. (you can even see the slight light leak I have in my Mamiya’s film back)





Here is a 100% blow up with nothing done at all except blowup and cropping. You can just start to see the grain.



This hints that instant is not the way to do it if you want good shots.

I think that when done properly, coffee can compete with any other developer on the market! It’s just a small PITA to do as it takes a long time.

Jules


PostPosted: Tue Oct 06, 2009 1:42 am    Post subject: Reply with quote
Those are excellent results, I must say.


http://forum.mflenses.com/pulling-fuji-neopan-400-t18728.html#161954
Quick and dirty was what interested me - and a useful fallback if I run out of developer, so it was worth trying. If I give it another go I'll be sticking with instant as that's what I have handy.
As far as the fixer goes - I reluctantly gave up on finding an alternative in the time available, and as it turns out, seawater is a myth. The story with seawater seems to have arisen through erroneous word of mouth from someone seeing WW2 processing practices on board ship by war photographers. However, as I noted here http://forum.mflenses.com/voigtlander-bessa-1935-caffenol-c-t18885.html#162122 there is an alternative out there, just that nobody's rediscovered it.
You know, I wouldn't be at all surprised if it's piss. Smile PoWs, remember?


PostPosted: Tue Oct 06, 2009 3:03 am    Post subject: Reply with quote
Farside wrote:
Those are excellent results, I must say.


http://forum.mflenses.com/pulling-fuji-neopan-400-t18728.html#161954
Quick and dirty was what interested me - and a useful fallback if I run out of developer, so it was worth trying. If I give it another go I'll be sticking with instant as that's what I have handy.
As far as the fixer goes - I reluctantly gave up on finding an alternative in the time available, and as it turns out, seawater is a myth. The story with seawater seems to have arisen through erroneous word of mouth from someone seeing WW2 processing practices on board ship by war photographers. However, as I noted here http://forum.mflenses.com/voigtlander-bessa-1935-caffenol-c-t18885.html#162122 there is an alternative out there, just that nobody's rediscovered it.
You know, I wouldn't be at all surprised if it's piss. Smile PoWs, remember?


The salt fixer may come from salt printing. Man I wish I could find an alternative fixer.


PostPosted: Tue Oct 06, 2009 7:31 am    Post subject: Reply with quote
Excellent result, Jules. I had heard before about coffee as developer but having not seen anything processed that way I never thought seriously about it. It's indeed a recipe to keep handy.

Cheers, Marty.


PostPosted: Tue Oct 06, 2009 3:19 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
marty wrote:
Excellent result, Jules. I had heard before about coffee as developer but having not seen anything processed that way I never thought seriously about it. It's indeed a recipe to keep handy.

Cheers, Marty.


Thanks much,

Yes it's quite surprising. If one treats it with more respect than one thinks should be paid to it Laughing it can really do a surprisingly good job.

Jules


PostPosted: Tue Nov 30, 2010 11:50 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
I recently had a go with the Caffenol process, I used instant. The ratios were 10 teaspoons coffee, 6 teaspoons washing soda, 1/2 teaspoon vitamin C powder. I mixed them up in normal tapwater - it took constant stirring to dissolve the soda crystals especially - and I developed for 20 minutes.

I got the best strip of negatives I've made in years, seriously great tonal range!

I have a feeling that I'm going to use this process far more often now after reading this thread which suggests dissolving the components the day before...what a eureka moment that is Laughing


PostPosted: Wed Dec 01, 2010 12:21 am    Post subject: Reply with quote
peterqd wrote:
Thank you Jules! I've saved it too and I'll get down to it after the weekend. Will instant coffee granules work OK do you think? (Obviously not de-caffeinated! Very Happy) I can't see why not - I guess you'll say I need to experiment with cheap film, but all I've got is 50ASA PanF+.


Hi Peter,
Yes. It's my experience that crystals (instant coffee) works better than straight coffee, somewhat more contrast.
I suggest you use good film. It will work just fine.

Jules


PostPosted: Wed Dec 01, 2010 12:27 am    Post subject: Reply with quote
MikeGale64 wrote:
I recently had a go with the Caffenol process, I used instant. The ratios were 10 teaspoons coffee, 6 teaspoons washing soda, 1/2 teaspoon vitamin C powder. I mixed them up in normal tapwater - it took constant stirring to dissolve the soda crystals especially - and I developed for 20 minutes.

I got the best strip of negatives I've made in years, seriously great tonal range!

I have a feeling that I'm going to use this process far more often now after reading this thread which suggests dissolving the components the day before...what a eureka moment that is Laughing


Yep. It's pretty amazing. I find that the staining developers suit my style just about right.
Jules
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