Blackberry Wine B&W Film Developer

[Kenny Harrelson]

This blackberry wine B&W film developing solution is one I created myself, so I thought I'd share it here on Photrio and see if anybody might want to try it. It started from the fact that I like to make homemade wine and so far, I bottle four different varieties - Dandelion, Blackberry, Grape and Strawberry. I like experimenting with film developers and I'm always searching for cheaper ways to develop my film. Here is the recipe:

Blackberry Wine B&W Film Developer

Ingredients:
450 ml. Blackberry Wine (my own homemade vintage)
45 g. Washing Soda
2 g. Vitamin C powder
1 g. Potassium Bromide
1/2 tsp. of salt

Mix all the ingredients well.

Developing chemicals at 68 degrees F
Presoak: room temperature water @ 5 minutes
Developer: Blackberry Wine developer, 60 mins. 5 sec. swirls every minute
Water Rinse: 1 minute
Ilford Ilfostop Stopbath: 1 minute, 30 seconds swirl, 30 seconds stand
Water Rinse: 1 minute
Kodak Kodafix Fixer: 9 minutes, 4 wine glass swirls every minute
Water Rinse: 1 minute

(I'm thinking I could probably lower the amount of 5 second swirls during the hour in the developer, and probably less than 9 minutes in the fixer. And of course, you could finish it all off with Kodak Photo Flo 200 if you're so inclined.)

I achieved good results the first time I used it - I was so pleased! Here is the first image I shot with it and the camera I used to take it with, my Hello Kitty camera. The picture shows my wine refrigerator out in the pantry (an appropriate subject, I thought.) As you might guess, I have a WHOLE lot of fun with my photography!

 

[Kenny Harrelson]

I forgot to add that the film I shot with was Fuji Film Neopan Acros 100.

 

[mshchem]

Crazy Man

 

[Alan Johnson]

I think for a definitive result you would have to show that Ascorbate + Carbonate alone are not doing most of the developing.
Here's an example at a lower pH, your mix would be over pH 11:

Quercetin Chalcone develops like Pyrogallol

These are related experiments but in the one paper the pH is 5.2, in another the composition of the extract and pH are not given and in another there is no mention of catechol. The right conditions for caffenol developer are much more closely defined.

www.photrio.com

 

[revdoc]

I agree with Alan. Ascorbate is much more active as a developer than people think, especially in the quantities you're using here.

Years ago I was using caffenol for developing ortho litho film, but eventually found that the ascorbate was all I needed. The coffee was only adding some limited activity; most of the work was done by the vitamin C.