jnanian

as a response to keith's question about coffee and how i use it ...
originally i wrote this as part of my previous blog entry, but i figure it might be worthy of a post of its own ...

first i have to do the whole disclaimer thing ...
i have realized over the years when people ask me how i do something, or how i get a certain effect ( of affect )
good or bad, something they want to try themselves .. they do, and they come up empty, or dissatisfied with their results.
nothing worked as they imagined and it seems to have been a big waste of time ... film ruined, or paper wasted ...
the way i do things is kind of like my eyes closed feeling around in the dark. even though i have a science -interest
( i was going to become a microbiologist or a geneticist or something similar before my interests changed in college )
an i know how important observation, and measuring and repeatable results are ... i take a different approach.
i allow whatever is gong to happen to happen ... sometimes it is good, sometimes it leaves me wondering what i was thinking
and eventually i go back to the film and figure out a way to use it, and then i do it again, and again and again ... sometimes things repeat
sometimes they don't .. i just make the best of things ...
all this to say is that my methods aren't written down, i just doing something kind of familiar ... and when you try it
maybe it will work? maybe my water is different, maybe my coffee is different, maybe my developer is 7 weeks old?

i am not the most exact recorder, precise measurer, pay good attentioner kind of person out there ...
i notice things ... but i don't really use a scale and take notes ...
it is funny because there are people here on apug and elsewhere on the interweb who
are real scientists and measure exact amounts of coffee, and sodium carbonate, and water, and vit c ...
they are very on top of things when it comes to using coffee as a developer. they have names like
caffenol llc, and caffenol ch and all that stuff ... they really into the science of how and why ..
and getting perfect repeatable results ... they are the KINGS of caffenol !
i am not that kind of person. i am the opposite ... i don't measure much, my coffee, while it isn't the local super market generic brand
any more ... while i have a jar "just in case" i don't use it. i roast my coffe instead.
my beans are brewed like regular coffee .. nothing fancy ...
the ground coffee i brew and the water i brew it in ( in a perkolator ) are the only things i measure.
usually it is 11 scoops of coffee and 10 "cups" of water in the perk. sometimes i am a little off, i use less water,
or more coffee ... i don't worry about it ...

so it is brewed. sometimes i brew it a few times .. sometimes just once ...
in any case, when the coffee is cold, i bring it downstairs into the darkroom, and put it into a large plastic tupperware type bucket.
i pour in a large scoop of sodium carbonate. it is arm and hammer, in a cardboard box that is open. so it is probably getting closer to baking soda ( more water than washing soda ).
i use a 4oz baby food container ( plastic rectangle ) to do the scooping ...
i stir it a little bit with a big wooden spoon i mix my developers with ... and then i add in powdered vit c
i have used pharmacy grade before ( it is all i could find in france, like the sodium carbonate i once used .. expensive .. YES, necessary, NO ). i have used whole foods / health food store grade as well .. less expensive than pharmacy,
but not nedessary ... i now use trader joe's generic brand and it works fine ...
i use around the same amount of vit c as the washing soda, maybe a little less ...
it starts to foam like mad ... i just stir ..

i brew another 10cups of coffee and add it in ...
i usually add about 10-15cc of ansco 130 print developer after it is all mixed up.
while i have used coffee developer without the 130 with good success i like to add in the 130
because it tends to add a little contrast and stain when i process film ... it takes the edge off and smooths everything out too
but a lot of people don't bother adding any print developer in when they make their caffenol, and it works great.
people actually say that it is the ansco 130 that is processing my film ( and prints ) but i have used just 130, the same dilution
with water ( not coffee ) and it didn't process my film the same way ... so who knows ? maybe it is, maybe it isn't?
maybe it is the vit c and the sodium carbonate boosting the 130? maybe it is all the stuff together?
i don't know, and to be honest, it really doesn't matter to me i like the results i get, so i keep doing what i am doing ...

when i develop film ..
i make sure there are no solids ( there are usually chunks of washing soda that didn't dissolve, i remove them ) ...
i do a pre-wet at around 70ºF ... and try to get my developer around that temp. ( ansco 130 likes it warm )
if it is cooler, i don't stress about it, it isn't that important ...

i usually don't agitate much ... maybe a few inversions and a knock on the counter to dislodge airbubbles ...
and i leave the room for about 25-30mins
sometimes i agitate for a few inversions at the end just because i am bored, most of the time i just pour out the developer ( i re-use it for a month or 2 without replensishment )
and i rinse with water ( fill + dump a few times ) and to the fix it goes.
that is all for roll film ...

for sheet film i stand develop in fr tanks the same way ...
i also agitate in trays sometimes .. for 15mins or so ..
but my sheet film sometimes comes out very dense, maybe because i over expose on a regular basis by a few stops
my shutters are usually between 1/15thS and 1/60tS ... again, i don't worry about it ...
i the roll film i enlarge sometimes, it scans well, same with the sheet film, i also contact print it with a flood light on rc or fb or azo paper. other times i hand coat paper and print on that ...

caffenol purists sometimes cringe when i tell them my routine ... but i kind of like it low key
and hands off ... i get ok results ... and really can't complain

as for the pros of using coffee developer

well, it is fun to use random ingredients, and getting good results.
i have grown fond of roasting coffee in the kitchen and filling the house up with smoke
i like the way the film looks with caffenol .. the grain has a nice feel, and the tonality of the negatives is something that prints pretty ez.
it took me a while to get used to the weird film though, it doesn't look "normal" like a d76/sprint &c negative, kind of foggy and thinish
but it prints really nice .. (electrifies well too ! ) with sheet film, it really allows me to exploit the look from film i like
kind of rough ... not smooth and digits ...

as for the cons ..

sometimes you use the wrong ingredients if you are a newcomer and it doesn't work
it smells bad
for prints it takes 2 mins or more for a image to - start - to appear instead of 1 min
it smells bad ...

can't really say much about it that is bad ...

hope i made sense