steelneck
Member
- Joined
- Nov 16, 2009
- Messages
- 173
- Shooter
- 35mm
I like the idea to develop photos in easy to get household chemicals. A kind of getting back to the roots of photography, a done-it-my-self satisfaction, a kind of independence, also a bit of keeping an old handicraft alive theese digital days. I even think it is important in a way.
Bicarbonate, caustic soda, ascorbic and citric acid is not hard to find, but there are a couple of problematic ingredients i want to discuss and maybe find replacements to.
The developing agents like phenidone or metol and also the sodium thiosulfate for the fix. I could not find phenidone in Sweden, well i could find a couple of big firms, but they do not sell chemicals to private persons. A member here on APUG from Finland then offered to sell me, i ordered and sent him money a week ago, i am still waiting.. This is what i really hate, having to wait and plan things, it kills my inspiration and make me feel dependent in a way i cannot control.
I know about instant coffee, and i am going to try that some day, but i suspect that there could be other and better alternatives. Any chemist here with any ideas?
Then about the thiosulfate, that is not much easier to get hold of where i live, i still have to order it and it looks like i have to order 6kg(!) of it from a pool manufacturer, thats about 60 eur! I have not found it in smaller quantities. Having learned that thiosulfate is the only thing necessary for fix beside water, and the fact that ordinary photo retailers selling photo chemicals do not sell it, also says something about the manufacturers selling fix that will go bad on the shelf.. I have always had throw away more than half of the fix i have bought. I suspect that a good fix can be made out of other ingredients.
It is quite sad viewed historically. Once up on a time in the childhood of photography, photographers did it all by them self, they had all the control. But then as photography spread and became easier for the common man, all knowledge was locked in and kept away from the public in company trade secrets. Now photography has become digital and the old BW photography is going back to its roots. Without the internet and its capability to spread knowledge that would not have been possible. Quite a paradox in a way.
I am also into free software and i see the same kind of possibilities in development of photo chemicals. Recipes could be developed publicly in the same way on a CVS system like free software on sourceforge.net or the likes. When a chemist once earned some reputation among photographers he have something like a 1000 interested beta-testers around the world able to try it out in very varying conditions, giving feedback collectively. I guess that is quite a lot more resourceful than what commercial firms ever had. The basaar model of development could benefit photographers just as good as it has worked in software, a formula or recipe is a kind of software in its written form, the same kind of collaborative benefits between chemists and photographers as between programmers and computer users as Eric S. Raymond wrote about in his almost "cyber-classical" book The Cathedral and The Basaar:
http://www.catb.org/~esr/writings/cathedral-bazaar/cathedral-bazaar/
(edit: updated the link)
So what can be used as a developing agent together with ascorbic and what can be used instead of thiosulfate?
Bicarbonate, caustic soda, ascorbic and citric acid is not hard to find, but there are a couple of problematic ingredients i want to discuss and maybe find replacements to.
The developing agents like phenidone or metol and also the sodium thiosulfate for the fix. I could not find phenidone in Sweden, well i could find a couple of big firms, but they do not sell chemicals to private persons. A member here on APUG from Finland then offered to sell me, i ordered and sent him money a week ago, i am still waiting.. This is what i really hate, having to wait and plan things, it kills my inspiration and make me feel dependent in a way i cannot control.
I know about instant coffee, and i am going to try that some day, but i suspect that there could be other and better alternatives. Any chemist here with any ideas?
Then about the thiosulfate, that is not much easier to get hold of where i live, i still have to order it and it looks like i have to order 6kg(!) of it from a pool manufacturer, thats about 60 eur! I have not found it in smaller quantities. Having learned that thiosulfate is the only thing necessary for fix beside water, and the fact that ordinary photo retailers selling photo chemicals do not sell it, also says something about the manufacturers selling fix that will go bad on the shelf.. I have always had throw away more than half of the fix i have bought. I suspect that a good fix can be made out of other ingredients.
It is quite sad viewed historically. Once up on a time in the childhood of photography, photographers did it all by them self, they had all the control. But then as photography spread and became easier for the common man, all knowledge was locked in and kept away from the public in company trade secrets. Now photography has become digital and the old BW photography is going back to its roots. Without the internet and its capability to spread knowledge that would not have been possible. Quite a paradox in a way.
I am also into free software and i see the same kind of possibilities in development of photo chemicals. Recipes could be developed publicly in the same way on a CVS system like free software on sourceforge.net or the likes. When a chemist once earned some reputation among photographers he have something like a 1000 interested beta-testers around the world able to try it out in very varying conditions, giving feedback collectively. I guess that is quite a lot more resourceful than what commercial firms ever had. The basaar model of development could benefit photographers just as good as it has worked in software, a formula or recipe is a kind of software in its written form, the same kind of collaborative benefits between chemists and photographers as between programmers and computer users as Eric S. Raymond wrote about in his almost "cyber-classical" book The Cathedral and The Basaar:
http://www.catb.org/~esr/writings/cathedral-bazaar/cathedral-bazaar/
(edit: updated the link)
So what can be used as a developing agent together with ascorbic and what can be used instead of thiosulfate?
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