Holga, Brownies, Pinhole and any other kind of Lo-Fi

limr · Oct 31, 2015

timor said:
BTW, how do you mix your cafenol ? Maybe I should try it with the borax first. What are your times for ISO 100 and 400 ?

I use Caffenol C-H or C-M (RS) recipe: Caffenol: Caffenol C-M and C-H (RS/RSA)
RS is for reduced sodium. The regular C-M recipe (for slower films) calls for 54g of washing soda, 40g of instant coffee and 16g of Vitamin C for 1 liter of water.

The C-H recipe (for faster films) is exactly the same with the addition of 1g of potassium bromide (6g of table salt can substitute.) The RS versions lower the washing soda to 40g for both recipes and keeps everything else the same. That's worked really well for me.

Development times are usually 14:30 for ISO 400 in the C-H (RS) and 12:30 for ISO 50 or 100 in the C-M (RS). Both are at 20C and using standard agitation.

If I'm pushing film or if I'm shooting Fomapan (which I don't do too often but sometimes am tempted by how cheap Arista is!), I tend to prefer stand developing. There's a Caffenol C-L for stand developing. Suggested developing time is 70 minutes, but I'll usually do 60, or sometimes a 40 to 45-minute semi-stand with agitation at minutes 2, 4, 8, 16, and 32.

timor · Oct 31, 2015

How do you measure 16 grams of vitamins C ?

limr · Oct 31, 2015

timor said:
How do you measure 16 grams of vitamins C ?

I get it in powdered form from Amazon: http://smile.amazon.com/Thompson-Vi...d=1446347797&sr=1-5&keywords=Vitamin+C+powder

And I have a digital kitchen scale to measure the powders. I have a 1-liter container and fill it about 1/3 with cold water. I usually add the soda first because it takes the longest to dissolve and can sometimes clump, so I give that a good stir/shake. Then I add the rest. When the vitamin C hits, the chemical reaction heats up the water about 4-5 degrees, which is why I only fill the container up 1/3 at first. That leaves me 2/3 of a liter to fill with cold water to get the temperature back down to 20C (68F).

timor · Nov 1, 2015

Thanks.
Read this:
VitC

vintagesnaps · Nov 1, 2015

I wonder with home made concoctions if they've been around long enough to know how archival they are or will be. Or, if any testing has been done. In my experience not photography related, tea seems to stain quite well, as do some berries etc. but coffee not so much.

Of course the other ingredients are what make it work but I wonder if it's more - organic? I guess? if it would deteriorate over time or not. I wonder because B&W film images and negs and film seem to be able to last indefinitely so I wonder how something like caffenol would compare.

Since I got into doing lumen prints and some cyanotypes I got a paperback about Anthotypes, which is interesting but I haven't tried much yet. Most of them can't be preserved anyway, which I suppose got me wondering about using various materials.

timor · Nov 1, 2015

Hm. Silver unfortunately doesn't last to long, if one wants the images to last more than two centuries than they have to be stabilized with selenium or gold. Organic stainers like tee are just for now, but they could be made more permanent by enclosing the print in modern resins. Developing in coffee has no any danger, as everything should be removed in final wash accept for silver. Other stuff I don't know, at the end everything deteriorates with the time...

timor · Nov 7, 2015

Same tree three days later. Leaves are falling...

Everything same, camera, film and paper. I really like this paper, Bergger VCM (RC), still have nice cache of it. Nice, warm tones, very controllable by not only type of developer, but exposure and development time. Bellow same picture, different print, different look:

Half the exposure time, twice as long in developer. Top image 4 min, lower image 7 min.

jcdeboever · Jan 14, 2016

Finally got around to developing some of the Holga pics from summer. Shot with a Holga 120TLR using Ilford HP5 Plus 400 ISO. Love using it and the strange things it produces for no rhyme or reason.

#1 Back of my home as seen from the golf course which I tore up that day.... NOT!

#2 Grandbaby sweety pie.

#3 My kitty with a forced double exposure.

#4 Nieces at picnic.

#5 Forced triple exposure, same chair, waited patiently.

#6 My boy Webster

limr · Jan 14, 2016

I LOVE these!!

jcdeboever · Jan 14, 2016

Thanks.

I fixed my Airesflex and ran a roll through it and was shocked how good those came out, better than when it was broken. I did not expect it to even work. I may post a few from that roll later. It took me 3 months to fix. Had to take it back apart twice because I had parts left over...haha

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