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Old 15th November 2015, 05:00 PM
alexmuir alexmuir is offline
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Default Caffenol and Ilford DPP

I made up some Caffenol developer today according to a recipe I saw elsewhere. It was to use with Ilford Direct Positive paper. The recipe used 20g instant coffee, 27g sodium carbonate and 8g vitamin C, dissolved in 500ml water. I managed to produce an image on each of two sheets, but they were quite weak. I developed in the same way as I would FB paper, but I did not achieve maximum density, even in the unexposed rebates which should have been black. Does anyone here have experience of this type of process? It occurred to me that I should perhaps have treated the paper more like film, with a much longer development time. Any advice welcome. Thanks,
Alex
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Old 15th November 2015, 06:43 PM
Eriktheviking Eriktheviking is offline
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Hi Alex I have used Caffenol with good success with the following recipe: coffee - 30g, Washing Soda - 15g & Vit C - 5g this is for 250ml so double for your 500ml.
Developing time seems to be anything between 3.5mins to 7mins although the longer you develop the heavier the stain.
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Old 15th November 2015, 07:48 PM
alexmuir alexmuir is offline
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Thanks, Erik. That is quite a bit more coffee than my formula. I will use your recipe for my next batch. 250ml is probably enough in a small tray doing one 4x5 sheet at a time. I would post the results from today, but the model (my wife) would not be too pleased. She hasn't quite mastered the art of sitting for a large format portrait yet. The expressions are priceless, especially the one where she's biting her lip!
Alex
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Old 15th November 2015, 07:52 PM
Eriktheviking Eriktheviking is offline
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Sounds like these are the images we need to see. I congratulate you on getting your wife to sit, mine needs to be make up and hair done before I can ask hence my preference for landscapes.
Eric
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Old 16th November 2015, 06:06 AM
cndnlfartist cndnlfartist is offline
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I think that you may want to try developing a sheet in the darkroom under a Red safelight, so you can visually see the image forming.
Apparently it has to be a true Red, Orange will not work properly.
Time it and it will give you a guideline for next time.

I found that this website appears quite useful.
I'm tempted to try it myself some time.

As for wives ( and girlfriends) my girlfriend is the least patient woman I've ever met.
Since 90% of my shooting is view cameras it's almost impossible for me to capture a good photo of her.
I average around 1 decent pic a year with smaller formats, but have pretty much given up trying.
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Old 17th November 2015, 01:41 PM
alexmuir alexmuir is offline
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I don't have a proper red safelight to hand, so developed in the dark. The developer itself is so dark that it would be difficult to see anything going on. I have a red cover for my Duka safelight which may be suitable. I have a feeling, however, that my brew wasn't strong enough, and will try Erik's recipe next. Thanks for the link which was interesting.
Alex.
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Old 23rd February 2016, 05:39 AM
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AlonewithmyBW AlonewithmyBW is offline
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Am really interested to try Caffenol, has anyone posted results?

As for girlfriends and pictures, I don't even ask!
__________________
Seeing the positive in the negative again, cheap and old and made with love!

Real name is James xx
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Old 23rd February 2016, 01:37 PM
alexmuir alexmuir is offline
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I found that the coffee gave the DPP a nice yellow/brown tone, but my results with that paper were poor, probably because I was using flash. I suspect it works better in daylight. As far as the caffenol is concerned, I didn't notice any difference between either of the recipes I used. It's easy to make, but you should shop around for the Vitamin C powder as prices vary considerably. I have seen the results of Ilford RC papers developed in Caffenol. There is no real stain to the base, unlike the fibre based DPP, but the image tone is altered to a warmer tone.
Alex
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