Caffenol on caffenol.org

LeiCaffenol – Caffenol Workshop in the Leica Gallery Salzburg

Fri, 28 Jun 2013 00:00:00 +0000

Mark your calendars! I will teach a 2 days caffenol workshop from 31.08-01.09.2013 together with Marco Spalluto at the Leica Gallery Salzburg.

This 2 days workshop is suited for absolute beginners in film developing as well as for experienced users that already develop their films at home. No experience in film developing is needed for this workshop.

The only equipment needed is an analog 35mm camera and film. We have a small amount of loan cameras available.

Fighting Dust

Thu, 06 Dec 2012 00:00:00 +0000

Today I am declaring war. I can see, that I got your attention! What am I declaring war on? DUST!

I know that there are plenty of ways to remove dust from negatives in post, but the best way of course is to properly dry your negatives in a (nearly) dust-free room.

Top Tip here: hang your washed film in the bathroom and before you hang the film, turn on the shower with hot water for 1-2 minutes till you have a foggy bathroom, hang your film, and close the door. If you washed your film good enough, your negatives should come out pretty dust-free. And for all the remaining dust spots, or if you have scratched your film, lean back and watch my brandnew video on how to remove dust from a scanned negative, using Adobe Photoshop Elements 11.

Fomapan 400 in Caffenol-STD – Experiments and Results. And Large Format

Sun, 11 Mar 2012 00:00:00 +0000

This is an article of fine art figure photographer Scott Nichol from Allentown, PA, USA. You can visit his blog at http://www.silverystars.com/somanystars/. The Original article can be found here.

I wanted to experiment with the recipe for a coffee-based film developer commonly called Caffenol. Dirk Essl at caffenol.org does an excellent job of keeping track of development times for lots of different films that can be developed with Caffenol. However, most of the films that have been developed using this unique developer were films like Ilford HP5+ and Delta 400, neither of which I had any 4×5 stock at the moment. I did, however, have a good supply of Fomapan 400 and seeing as how development times for Fomapan and the Ilford films were similar, I decided to have a go at it. Initially, I decided just to follow the recommendation for Ilford Delta 400 of 9 minutes at 68°F.

Merry Christmas!

Sat, 24 Dec 2011 00:00:00 +0000

I would like to wish everyone of you a Merry, Merry Christmas. Thanks for all the comments, lovely pictures and ideas that you sent me in the last year. I hope I will have some more time next year to fill this blog with new recipes and experiments around caffenol.

See you next year,
Dirk

Kodak Portra 100T

Tue, 21 Jun 2011 00:00:00 +0000

While sorting out my Camera Cabinet I found a Roll of exposed Kodak Portra 100T (Tungsten). This film is not available new anymore, used prices of expired film go from 6 to 20 EUROs.

I had no clue when, what and with which camera I shot it. That’s one of the things I like with analog film: You never really know what you get until you develop the roll. I developed it in Delta-STD for 14 minutes and it came out quite nicely, but most of the pictures where badly composed, under or overexposed, so I can only show 3 examples. From seeing the pictures I could identify the camera: My lovely Russian Rangefinder Zorki 4. I had no Lightmeter at the time, so exposure was off on most shots. Auto Levels in Photoshop gives a nice brownish toning, but that doesn’t work on all pictures, so I converted one of them to ‘real’ B&W.

Pictures from the sea (literally, as far as fixer concerns)

Wed, 06 Apr 2011 00:00:00 +0000

Today I will post some pictures, that show how much fun experimenting with Caffenol can be.

Igor says:

“These pictures were taken about 3 years ago and were developed without any professional equipment in a pan. we were sitting in a dark bathroom stiring the film in caffenol with a spoon:) that is why those pictures are not so technically perfect. But it was all about fun. Also I should add that sea water was used as a fixer here.”

Rollei Retro 100 Tonal

Mon, 21 Mar 2011 00:00:00 +0000

Recently I wrote an article about an extremely cheap film, the wonderful Lucky SHD 100. Today I will post some images from a film that is on the more expensive side: Rollei Retro 100 Tonal. With EURO 5.36 It’s still cheaper then Ilford HP5, but more expensive then Ilford Delta 100 which is EURO 4.99 and shares the same boxspeed.

Lucky SHD 100 – film can not be cheaper

Thu, 17 Feb 2011 00:00:00 +0000

I got a testbatch from MACO of Lucky SHD 100, a very popular Film used by Photography students in the UK. No wonder, this film is almost cheaper then bread. If it could be eaten, I would. If you buy a set of 10 Films, you pay about EURO 1,62 per film.

“Lucky New SHD 100, with high clarity, wide exposure latitude, and good physical characteristics, can meet various requirements such as high-temperature and high-humidity. It features processed functions of resisting adhesion and scratch, and widely used in portrait, adv, landscape, journey and art photography etc.”

The Delta Recipe Goes Standard.

Sun, 09 Jan 2011 00:00:00 +0000

We have received several comments, that teaspoon measuring is not the preferred way in mixing up your caffenol brew, as it is very inaccurate and ‘1 teaspoon’ can mean from 1 to 5 grams, depending how big your teaspoon is.

Reinhold from caffenol.blogspot.com has developed some very good base recipes, using only litres and grams, and especially his chart at http://caffenol.blogspot.com/2010/08/recipes.html can be extremely useful, I just find it irritating that coffee is not on top of the list of ingredients 🙂

Matchbox Pinhole & Caffenol

Fri, 07 Jan 2011 00:00:00 +0000

Caffenol Reader and Lomography member Hana (http://www.lomography.com/homes/hilarion) sent us her results of a matchbox pinhole camera. Instructions how to build one can be found at http://www.matchboxpinhole.com.

Hanas Matchboxpinhole camera

Hana is from Slovakia and uses vitamin c from DM drogeri, an unknown coffee brand and “kalcinovaná sóda na pranie”, a local soda product.

Below is a selection of her pinhole photos, all wonderful examples how beautiful pinhole photography can be:

Happy New Year!

Sat, 01 Jan 2011 00:00:00 +0000

It’s been a busy year for caffenol, and 2011 will not calm down, that’s for sure.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank all of you for your support, your comments and critics about this blog. I wish you and your families a very happy year 2011.

I didn’t take any fireworks pictures this year, but hope a fire engine is close enough 🙂 Film used here is Rollei RPX 400, developed for 11min. in Caffenol Delta-STD. What Delta-STD exactly is, will follow…

Caffenol as paper developer

Wed, 15 Dec 2010 00:00:00 +0000

Caffenol-C in all variants makes a wonderful developer for negative film and if used carefully, it can be used for nearly any film speed and a lot of different films. So far I have found one (1) film, that fails in Caffenol: Rollei Retro 400. But this might have been just my fault, so I have just bought a few rolls of this film to make further experiments.

There are not so many examples about using caffenol as a per developer, so I had to try it. Mainly because I had no print developer to hand when my darkroom was built. And as I had no film to develop and I was sorting my negatives, I thought I give it a try.

caffenomatography

Tue, 14 Dec 2010 00:00:00 +0000

If you are new to film developing, or just new to caffenol developing you can find plenty of ressources on the internet and read your way through. But sometimes it’s nice to lean back and watch something beautiful, and while watching it, learn from it. When I started with caffenol, I watched a whole lot of videos about developing, discovering different techniques. There are a lot of videos, this I can tell. And I can tell you, that this one is the most beautiful video about developing film in caffenol. Punkt.

Action!

Sun, 28 Nov 2010 00:00:00 +0000

I cleaned up my camera cabinet yesterday and stumbled upon my Action sampler camera where I remembered I shot some film with already. My Action sampler is a no name model, but is better than the one from Lomography in so many ways: It has a proper viewfinder, it is not as ugly and it was only 2 EUROS, new. Not in a nice box as from Lomography, but hey it’s not the boxing that takes pictures.

Scan VS print

Sun, 07 Nov 2010 00:00:00 +0000

Yes, the title of this post looks confusing, because of course scanning is an input process and printing is an output process. Ad it’s even more confusing, as the print needs to be scanned as well… But first things first.

My last development of ISO 3200 Film was quite successful and I was quite surprised by the results. The negatives didn’t look as good as HP5 or TMAX but I thought those could be actually ‘thick’ enough to be enlarged onto paper.

Density

Wed, 27 Oct 2010 00:00:00 +0000

If you read a bit about caffenol development or development in general, you will quickly learn phrases like “my negatives came out very dense” or “negatives where thin, but scanned fine”. So what does all that mean?

If you develop color films in caffenol, most likely you will get dense negatives (dense meaning you cannot see through the film in this case), positive films and High ISO films will be denser then low ISO films. These negatives are not very good to produce prints on paper, as contrast is quite low and they have an orange mask. High ISO B&W Films will most likely come out very thin and will look like underdeveloped negatives. Both types will scan fine and with a small amount of Post Processing (Level adjustments) they will look good on a screen.

Caffeafine (Using Caffenol-C as 2 step developer)

Tue, 19 Oct 2010 00:00:00 +0000

A friend of mine recently told me about Diafine, a quite famous dual solution developer that is said to push mid tones by 1 stop. Diafine is a compensating developer, meaning you put in Solution A, let the film rest for 4 minutes with maybe 1 slow agitation per minute, pour out Solution A (both solutions can be reused) and then put in Solution B and let it develop further 4 minutes with agitation that is specific to the used film.

Kodak T-MAX – from T-Grain to Coffee granules

Tue, 12 Oct 2010 00:00:00 +0000

Some may be surprised that it took me so long to try out Kodak TMAX 400 in caffenol, but that’s how I am, always wanting to try out something new, something different.

A friend of mine gave me a roll of TMAX 400 because he said he really likes it. It’s a Tabular-grain-film like the Delta films from Ilford where the silver halide crystals are more flat and tabular.

Kodak says it is the sharpest, fined grained ISO 400 film and it pushes up to EI 1600. So why not taking it to the Construction of the Oktoberfest in Munich and shoot at dusk with a slow Lens, a Tamron 28-80 f3.5-5.6

The Espresso Camera

Mon, 16 Aug 2010 00:00:00 +0000

Small, black, fast. This is how you can describe the Revue 35CC. The camera was also sold as Chinon Bellami and has a very unique opening mechanism using the advance lever. Some people call it a ‘barn door’ camera, as the lever opens two doors and extends the Lens.

Features are minimalistic: 35mm f2.8 Lens, Program AE, Scale Focus.
A dedicated (automatic) Flash can be added to the camera, which makes the camera perfect as pocketable party cam.

Smena Symbol – The other LOMO

Mon, 26 Jul 2010 00:00:00 +0000

I just love going on a flea market and buying any camera that the owner is willing to give away for under 5 EURO. Just like this wonderful Smena Symbol. A plastic camera from Russia, made in the LOMO factory. It features a 40mm f4 lens and weather symbols as additional shutter speed scale. The lens has a stepless aperture, which doubles as ISO setting. You can read more about this camera on Camerapdia.

Harmony Recipe

Tue, 06 Jul 2010 00:00:00 +0000

Josh Harmon was kind enough to share his caffenol recipe and sent me two nice pictures, developed in caffenol. They show how flexible caffenol is, and that there is enough room for experiments.
The films he tried are Arista EDU 100 (fomapan 100) and an old TMAX 100:

Locked Gate, Arista EDU 100

Goodbye Leica

Tue, 29 Jun 2010 00:00:00 +0000

I had a Leica M6 for loan for quite some time, but gave it back recently. What can I say about this camera? It’s beautiful, gorgeous and so unobtrusive at the same time. Paired wit the 35mm f2 this is an ideal street shooter. Here are the last shots I took with the M6. All on Kodak Porta 160 NC, developed in Caffenol-C. This film looks stunning in Caffenol. If you are in the need for a low speed film with some very nice film grain, you really should consider this type, even if it is a color film.

Stars galore!

Sat, 12 Jun 2010 00:00:00 +0000

So we finally found a day, where there are clear skies and packed our car with some Equipment. As Wolfgang bought a new 200mm Newton Telescope, we didn’t take too much Photography Equipment as we would be really busy enjoying the view of Saturn through a 8mm Ocular. But I left the shutter open for 4 hours on my Zorki 4. I think I can be proud of a shot of startrails, that is not boring 🙂 Ilford HP5 Plus Developed in Caffenol-C+ (3x Vitamin-C to decrease grain).

Found film

Tue, 01 Jun 2010 00:00:00 +0000

On a recent flea-market I bought a Revue 35CC with some Film inside for very, very little money. The camera had a stuck shutter, so I took the half exposed film out and cleaned the camera. Fresh batteries and voila, the little Revue is alive again. I developed the film in caffenol (what else), a Kodak Gold 200. The last two frames where really interesting, as they show the inside of a camera shop, supposing the owner bought a new camera on this date. He forgot to take out the film, though. If you recognize the place or the little kid, please give me a shout 🙂

Neutral Color in B&W

Tue, 30 Mar 2010 00:00:00 +0000

I have a fair amount of Kodak Professional Portra 160 NC (Neutral Color) but never tried it out. Having still the Hartblei Tilt-Shift on my Canon 3000N, I thought I should give it go. And low ISO film always comes out great in Caffenol.

Here are the results:

Instant?

Fri, 12 Mar 2010 00:00:00 +0000

Here is the result of developing an instant film in Caffenol.
The Film is a Polaroid PolaPan 35mm:

Polaroid PolaPan 35mm

I first tried if the Filmleader would clear in fixer and threw it in Ilford Radpid Fixer 1:4.

The emulsion (which is quite thick) separates from the Film base, and that’s it.

Then I’ve mixed up developer and developed for 13 minutes at 20 degrees. Stop bath (water) and 5 minutes fix. I did not wash extensively, as I was afraid of washing off the emulsion which might show an image.

The Delta Recipe (Delta-STD)

Fri, 12 Mar 2010 00:00:00 +0000

My Favourite B&W Film is Ilford Professional Delta 400 for the moment. I really like the grain shape of this film: soft and round.

Whenever I plan to do Caffenol Development, I overexpose the Film by 1/2 or stop, but that’s just me. As usual on negative film: Expose for the shadows. I will not go too deep into Zone Metering, but maybe it is worth mentioning it from time to time.