CAFFENOL
CAFFENOL
PROCESSING FILM WITH
COFFEE + WASHING SODA + VITAMIN C
WHS
Always wear gloves when processing to protect your hands from chemistry.
Wear an apron to prevent spills onto your clothing.
Ilford also recommend wearing protective eyewear but we generally don’t do this as when we’re working we’re often looking at things quite closely (inspecting negatives etc) which would involve taking our protective eyewear on and off which poses more of a hazard to our eyes than not having protective eyewear at all.
Label your chemicals so it’s clear what is what, make sure you’re familiar with the MSDS and have a copy handy in your lab or darkroom.
Avoid breathing in the off-gas vapour when mixing your washing soda and ascorbic acid.
Have dedicated “Wet” and “Dry” areas to prevent chemicals contaminating other workspaces.
Ventilation is key. Make sure you have access to fresh air when working and avoid breathing in chemical vapours. Additionally, take a break and go into fresh air regularly when working.
caffenol
ingredients
Washing Soda is used for making the solution alkaline and for activating the other developing agents. Washing soda comes in many forms, the most commonly available and best working one for us in Australia is Lectric washing soda, it should be available from Woolies or Coles.
Vitamin C - ascorbic acid is a hyperadditive and is responsible for developing contrast. The Melrose brand is the most readily available.
Instant coffee - any brand is fine. We use nescafe but the cheapest option will work. Espresso can also be substituted but won’t be an intense so you’ll need to do a clip test to work out dev times.
Recipes
We have a live google sheet where we are refining and updating recipes Different ratios of your three elements changes your tonal range
Chemical Disposal
Never put fixer down the drain or in
the any waterway
Fixer can be reused. Reuse it until it is spent. This is usually at least 5+ times. You can do a fix test by putting a drop on an exposed piece of film leader, if it takes longer than 2 minutes to clear, mix up some fresh fix. You can also use a chemical hypocheck to check the freshness of your fixer
Dispose of spent fixer in line with local regulations. This means never put it down the drain but take it to a chemical collection place run by your local council or bring it to us and we will put it throgh a silver recovery unit to filter the heavy metals.
If you are using an alternate fix, like salt water or vinegar, never put this down the drain or in a waterway. Spent fixers are hazardous because of the concentrated levels of residual silver and this can be very damaging to local ecosystems.