Edible Film Developers

[DarkroomExperimente]

OK parsley developer didn't work

 

[Tom Hoskinson]

Suzuki uses salicylic acid as an ascorbate preservative.

I don't know about its function as a developing agent, but salicylic acid is used in some developers -- specifically, Ryuji Suzuki's Dead Link Removed film developers and his Dead Link Removed paper developers. I seem to recall from an earlier version of his Web site that they're intended to increase shelf life. I don't believe Suzuki has ever mentioned them functioning as developing agents in these formulas.

Concerning paRodinal and acetaminophen developers generally, they do work. My understanding is that the acetaminophen is converted by the hydroxide into p-aminophenol, and it's this which is the developing agent, not the acetaminophen per se. None of the pain relievers you mention, DarkroomExperimente, contains acetaminophen, AFAIK, and the reaction is specific to sodium hydroxide (sodium carbonate won't do the trick), so it's not a surprise that your pain reliever concoction didn't work. (OTOH, perhaps you could find some way to make it work by adding other things; I'm not a chemist and I know very little about these substances.)

Suzuki went into great detail about the the beneficial effects of salicylic acid for the preservation of the ascorbates in ascorbic acid developers.

AFAIK,salicylic acid is not useful as a developing reagent. If you want to try it, read the MSDS first and use good chemical safety practices.

 

[DarkroomExperimente]

thanks Tom...

Tri-x is about to go into the Rosemary potion in mere moments

 

[Photo Engineer]

Suzuki went into great detail about the the beneficial effects of salicylic acid for the preservation of the ascorbates in ascorbic acid developers.

AFAIK,salicylic acid is not useful as a developing reagent. If you want to try it, read the MSDS first and use good chemical safety practices.

Salicylic acid is found in willow bark and was used by the native Americans as a painkiller. Acetyl Salicylic acid is Asprin.

Salicylic acid is a mild chelating agent and has been touted as this and as an antioxidant for years. I doubt if it would be a good developer, but Tylenol can be a fair developing agent if you hydrolize it with base first. It is acetaminophen, which is a derivative of amino phenol.

As I've said before, we can have a lot of fun with photography, or we can do serious work, or we can combine both to get very artsy looking works.

PE

 

[DarkroomExperimente]

while my Rosemary is developing away, I can report that one of my most "artsy" images was made by tossing Tri-x into boiling water...

someone at the local darkroom had several rolls of film ( from her vacation ) ruined by accidental reticulation because someone had turned on a faucet thus screwing up the temperature of her rinse...

when I tried it, nothing really happened...but the teacher said "well some people boil their negatives"

so I tossed some boring negatives into boiling water and..WOW...a couple images were awesome..great reticulation & parts of the emulsion had come completely off the film creating a great effect

 

[DarkroomExperimente]

Yeeeeeee Haaaaaaaaaaaaaa

Rosemary developer worked just fine

 

[Photo Engineer]

while my Rosemary is developing away, I can report that one of my most "artsy" images was made by tossing Tri-x into boiling water...

someone at the local darkroom had several rolls of film ( from her vacation ) ruined by accidental reticulation because someone had turned on a faucet thus screwing up the temperature of her rinse...

when I tried it, nothing really happened...but the teacher said "well some people boil their negatives"

so I tossed some boring negatives into boiling water and..WOW...a couple images were awesome..great reticulation & parts of the emulsion had come completely off the film creating a great effect

And here we worked our asses off to get a new hardener that would prevent reticulation.

PE

 

[DarkroomExperimente]

and I had to work my ass off boiling the damn film because some party-poopers up in Rochester were trying to spoil my fun

once I used my propane torch to boil negatives in a coffee can...muwahahaha

 

[Photo Engineer]

The solution to your problem (pun unintended) is to heat the film to 100F and then put it in ice water. You don't need boiling water.

OTOH, you could use EFKE or some other 3rd tier product.

PE

 

[DarkroomExperimente]

I tried freezing film too...but I never got the cool ice crystal patterns like in the nifty Kodak book of tricks

 

[Nadine Erdmann]

to revive this interesting discussion: has anyone ever tried soy sauce? it is supposedly full of antioxidants.
i am just about to try it. it smells as bad as caffenol, i'll see how it works.

 

[Nadine Erdmann]

alright. soy sauce doesn't work. (smell is no indicater! )

 

[CBG]

Given that may of the experiments in this thread have produced very faint images, I'd imagine that the next step would be to try these same developers with wildly overexposed film - testing a series maybe, 5 stops over, 10 stops over, 15 stops over. I'm not joking. Maybe at some extreme level of down-rating the speed, a full shadow to highlight range of representation might also generate a full density range. (Let's not worry for the moment about a wee bit o' halation.)

I'm talking speeds of 0.4 or slower. Exposures in the minutes to hours to days. Has anyone tried this?

 

[fschifano]

thanks!..I gotta try that

even better, I could grow some in the garden...I had been thinking of growing a garden of the flowers used in dyes....but a developer garden would be even more fun

Be careful growing it in the garden. I found it best to keep it contained, else it will take over everything. Like bamboo, it sends runners out and it spreads quickly. That is one indestructible plant. I planted some years ago and it's still there, popping up in the most unusual places.

 

[DarkroomExperimente]

I have returned from a long sailing voyage with a red-bearded greek guy...

next on the list:

Urine developer to be called Urinol ( because it sounds cool and urinal is already taken )

and Honey...apparently honey has a lot of glucose/dextrose which can be converted to glucic acid which someone somewhere on the internet said is a strong developer and people on the internet are always right so I'm gonna try it

I may try a few items from the health food store too...again

 

[removed account4]

DE
welcome back ... !

did you get any home brew fixer ideas

john

 

[DarkroomExperimente]

only idea I ever had for fixer was those drops you put in your aquarium to make the water safe for fish...I remember reading the label and seeing sodium thiosulfate was one of the main ingredients

 

[David Lyga]

After buying about $60 worth of VItamin C a few years ago (after being enthralled and drunk with the sexiness of Patrick Gainer's formula) I became disgusted with the lack of purity in the solution (ie, leaving coatings on every vessel I stored it in) I ended up using it as a supplement to the orange juice I regularly drink. I will say that the ascorbic acid powder (difficult to find, though) does not leave this coating, only the vitamin C tablets that I crushed for the developer.

I am, and will continue to be, a diehard supporter of metol and hydroquinone. - David Lyga

 

[removed account4]

DE

that fish stuff must be expensive compared to just buying thio ...
i was thinking you came up with something like
eel scales mixed with kelp or something like that ...
and it had enough selenium in it that it toned the prints too

john

 

[DarkroomExperimente]

that's why I never tried it....expensive...and since we know sodium thiosulfate works why bother?

now if Armenian Giraffe spleen extract worked, I'd try it

 

[removed account4]

that's why I never tried it....expensive...and since we know sodium thiosulfate works why bother?

now if Armenian Giraffe spleen extract worked, I'd try it

i have a feeling spleen extract will be as expensive as aquarium drops ...
unless you get the man made stuff, which i hear is a little cheaper and the quality just isn't as good
its like the chinese amidol, looks good, but turns your prints pink ...

 

[DarkroomExperimente]

got some honey to try the glucic acid developer...

I think the appropriate name should be something likes Hny-110 dilution Bee, HoneyBee 110...or similar

 

[DarkroomExperimente]

ok...just mixed up some Gluconal Dilution Bee

no clue if this will work the way I'm doing it since I can't find much information....but it's worth a try

 

[Athiril]

I discovered quercetin in onions makes an amazing developing agent to use. Shared it on photo.net some time back for others to put it through better testing than I have time for.

It also has interactions with vitamin C.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quercetin

 

[DarkroomExperimente]

hey this is great!

I have a show coming up...thinking of doing a series of photographs of the developing agent: an orange, cup of coffee, etc

and now I could add an onion