Herb developer

Ślepy Fotografer · Jan 5, 2022

Hi,
I did come across information develop from herbs. I decided to check it out in practice. I made a few tries. I used fomapan 100. It still requires a lot of testing, but it works. there are a few samples in this movie, if anyone is interested, feel free to talk.

Donald Qualls · Jan 5, 2022

I saw the title, and thought someone had found a way to develop film with marijuana...

My Polish is non-existent, but I presume you're actually using rosemary, mint, or thyme.

Ślepy Fotografer · Jan 5, 2022

only thyme, you can change the language in the video settings

faberryman · Jan 5, 2022

I am not sure what the skeleton head at the start of the video is suppose to signify in this context. Usually the skull signifies mortality and death. You know, poor Yorick and all that. It would make sense if you were developing with hemlock, but thyme?

Andrew O'Neill · Jan 5, 2022

Ślepy Fotografer said:
only thyme, you can change the language in the video settings

It's either Polish subtitles or nothing...

AgX · Jan 5, 2022

At Youtube you can get an automated translation in a great variety of languages of any existent transcription, be that automated or as in this case handmade.

Don_ih · Jan 5, 2022

The subtitles can be auto-translated - it's in the settings there somewhere.

As a proof of concept, it's interesting. It would have been better to get a look at the final negatives, to see how thin they are. Almost every image looks underexposed - even the ones at the lowest iso. So, I'm left wondering how underdeveloped the film is at the end. If the developer can't bring the film to anything close to full speed with regard to shadow detail, it's not very valuable. Still a fun experiment.

Ślepy Fotografer · Jan 5, 2022

The skull and thyme are just the gadgets in the picture

Ślepy Fotografer · Jan 5, 2022

[QUOTE = "Don Heisz, post: 2502827, member: 94530"] Subtitles can be translated automatically - it's somewhere in the settings.

As proof of concept, it is interesting. It would be better to look at the final negatives, see how thin they are. Almost every photo appears underexposed - even those with the lowest ISO. So I wonder how underdeveloped the movie at the end is. If the developer can't get the movie anywhere near full speed when it comes to shadow detail, it's not very valuable. Still a fun experiment. [/ QUOTE]
Yes the experiment is interesting and still needs fine tuning, I only did 3 trials and I think development time should be shortened.

Don_ih · Jan 5, 2022

Ślepy Fotografer said:
Yes the experiment is interesting and still needs fine tuning, I only did 3 trials and I think development time should be shortened.

Can you type out here your formula? For 300ml of developer, you used _ grams of thyme, _ grams sodium carbonate, etc.?

If development time should be shortened, then the negatives were overdeveloped?

Ślepy Fotografer · Jan 5, 2022

Basic develop recipe that I use for 300 ml is
4.5 g of thyme
15g of soda ash and
2.5 g of vitamin C

NedL · Jan 5, 2022

Here you go, this is one of the most fun threads ever on photrio:

https://www.photrio.com/forum/threads/edible-film-developers.33501/

Sirius Glass · Jan 5, 2022

If I can smoke it or eat it and get high, I am all in.

Raghu Kuvempunagar · Jan 6, 2022

Don Heisz said:
As a proof of concept, it's interesting. It would have been better to get a look at the final negatives, to see how thin they are. Almost every image looks underexposed - even the ones at the lowest iso. So, I'm left wondering how underdeveloped the film is at the end. If the developer can't bring the film to anything close to full speed with regard to shadow detail, it's not very valuable. Still a fun experiment.

Fun no doubt, but these experiments don't say much unless there is a negative developed without the herb in the mix. Without a comparison with such a negative, any conclusions about Thyme's role in the developer is suspect. I would encourage @Ślepy Fotografer to try his recipe without Thyme and include the result in the video. Make sure that the temperature of the developer is the same as your Thyme developer.

Ślepy Fotografer said:
Basic develop recipe that I use for 300 ml is
4.5 g of thyme
15g of soda ash and
2.5 g of vitamin C

Murray Kelly · Jan 6, 2022

Some interesting plant alternatives
https://www.35mmc.com/18/08/2020/po...es-a-world-full-of-options-by-daniel-keating/

macfred · Jan 6, 2022

Murray Kelly said:
Some interesting plant alternatives
https://www.35mmc.com/18/08/2020/po...es-a-world-full-of-options-by-daniel-keating/

Thank you for sharing this !

Murray Kelly · Jan 6, 2022

macfred said:
Thank you for sharing this !

You're welcome.

Donald Qualls · Jan 6, 2022

Raghu Kuvempunagar said:
Without a comparison with such a negative, any conclusions about Thyme's role in the developer is suspect.

Thymol (found in thyme, rosemary, and mint) is a known developing agent.

Raghu Kuvempunagar · Jan 6, 2022

Donald Qualls said:
Thymol (found in thyme, rosemary, and mint) is a known developing agent.

No idea, I thought Thymol was used mostly as a disinfectant. Do you have any reference that you can share?

drmoss_ca · Jan 6, 2022

In Indian cooking carom (or ajwain) seeds (which I believe are lovage seeds to those of us in the west) are also referred to as thymol seeds. So maybe there are more options.

Raghu Kuvempunagar · Jan 6, 2022

drmoss_ca said:
In Indian cooking carom (or ajwain) seeds (which I believe are lovage seeds to those of us in the west) are also referred to as thymol seeds. So maybe there are more options.

I've tried some of these, but they don't work as claimed by their proponents. It's mostly Ascorbic Acid that's doing the development. But I am happy to be proven wrong by a study that does a fair comparison of these developers with and without herb. Hence the suggestion to OP to try his recipe without Thyme and see what he gets.

Donald Qualls · Jan 6, 2022

Raghu Kuvempunagar said:
No idea, I thought Thymol was used mostly as a disinfectant. Do you have any reference that you can share?

This Photrio thread talks about a mint-based developer. Here's an article about developing with only fresh mint leaves and sodium bicarbonate. It may be speculative that thymol is the developing agent here, but it would explain why disparate herbs like thyme, mint, and rosemary can be used to develop film.

It's tempting to suggest that most phytophenols can act as developing agents -- there's apparently something in barley (or something produced in brewing beer from it) that will develop exposed halides. Tea and coffee are better known as alternative developers.

Raghu Kuvempunagar · Jan 6, 2022

Donald Qualls said:
Here's an article about developing with only fresh mint leaves and sodium bicarbonate.

Thanks. But the article doesn't report anything on film development using mint leaves. It talks about developing a paper exposed under an enlarger. The author says this: " I did not do any in-depth experiments with it and can only find one photo that I did develop with Mint leaves." Who knows what paper was used and whether the paper had incorporated developer or not.

I checked Haist - he doesn't mention Thymol anywhere when discussing developing agents. Do you know of any scientific study that has shown that Thymol is indeed a developing agent for photographic film?

John Wiegerink · Jan 6, 2022

In Murray’s link cloves seem to be the most potent. I love the smell of cloves and that would be where I would start if I were to try this. The examples in the link look pretty good also. At least the clove style developer is pretty safe health wise. JohnW

Donald Qualls · Jan 6, 2022

Raghu Kuvempunagar said:
Do you know of any scientific study that has shown that Thymol is indeed a developing agent for photographic film?

I didn't see any when I was Googling it just a few minutes ago. Formulary used to sell thymol as a sensitizer for color bleaching processes and antifungal, and didn't mention developing action. It shouldn't be impossible to obtain a small quantity of pure thymol, mix it up with some sodium carbonate, and see (first) if it will blacken a piece of leader in the light.

Generally, I'd expect anything that develops a paper emulsion to work on film, but so many papers these days have small, undisclosed amounts of some developing agent or other incorporated into the emulsion, either as speed boosters or to allow shorter development, that it's hard to be sure about that.

Herb developer

Moderator

Privacy & Transparency

Privacy & Transparency