Look mum no computer sent me here and I just watched all your videos. Very interesting stuff. Always wanted a film camera. Now I want one even more. Keep up the good work I really like your voice and the composition of the videos.
Seriously, also came from lmnc but even as a total photography noob this channel is truly interesting, inspiring, and incredible unique. Never even knew you could do things like this, amazing work!
Good job on this sis, I like how you narrowed it down and found the correct time. I've been doing some hardcore experiments lately as well. I have an idea that could help you, if you shoot just five frames and put the camera in your dark bag and cut off those five frames, you'll be able to get more experiments in on the same roll. Now that you mention it I'm curious if the development will be any different if you had used fresh mint leaves but I'm sure the chemical is the same
@@MelanieKing yes I learned the hard way for example when my color chemical expired I ruined a roll of film before I realized it was dead. so now if I'm not sure about the color chemicals I always take three shots and develop that strip. I'm experimenting now with using photographic paper in camera and it's very interesting it's rated at approximately six ISO and it's not sensitive to red , I'm shooting it in a rollei so I have to cut out the squares and put them in the camera one at a time, it develops much faster than film though and it's cool to be able to see the image developed under the red Safelite. in a few months I hope to put together a video review on my channel of my experience
Very cool! It's nice to see some of the work that goes into learning new things. More people need to highlight the fact that failure is part of the process. It's only the end of the journey if you perceive it to be and give up. Cheers!
Hi Melanie, this is amazing! Mint tea, who knew? Chamomile next? So I live in a van and don't have running water, I just do three rinses, one for two minutes, constant agitation, one for four minutes, and a final for four minutes with rinse aid. Get a film done with between four and five litres of H2O, and never had any problems.
You re-invented the wheel. In the sixties of last century the canals in Amsterdam were really, really filthy. A guy used it as B&W developer outright. It worked. Long development time, but it worked.
I really like these videos and you have a very nice voice that makes the video follow well, LMNC sent me here too and now I am hooked . What camera do you use . ?
hey melanie, have you ever developed fp4+ with plants - even pushed to 400 iso? before i experiment i've been looking for some guidance! thankyou for these videos, they're so informative!
Hello. I haven't developed FP4, but an easy way to test would be to do a small strip at a time to work out the best exposure. I did do a workshop on seaweed developer where someone used FP4, and it came out slightly overdeveloped using the same recipe for HP5. Maybe you could try the same recipe on here, and develop for a shorter amount of time?
@@MelanieKing Я регулярно пользуюсь просроченной на 30 лет пленкой. Проявляю в проявителях классической рецептуры. Например D-76. Но приготрвляю их сам. Не выкидывать же целую кучу химикатов, раз достались почти задаром.
I suppose you meant why doesn't she pull the reel apart to remove the film? One answer might be that Paterson reels are so poorly made anyway that constantly pulling one apart and snapping it back together will damage the alignment of the two halves, making it useless that much sooner.
wait, so I actually can use the fizzy tablets for the developer instead the Vit-C powder? How does this affect the results, because I've been struggling with this a LOT. This is a great recipe btw sooo cool!!!
I use the fizzy tablets all the time. I'm not expert (I've probably used caffenol a little less than ten times) but so far I haven't seen a problem from using them. Do you have issues with fizzy tablets or have just never tried them? I'm curious as I'm very learning about the process myself :)
@@allysseriordan1073 Oh that´s cool then! The thing is I have never develop before so I'm making a research to be totally confident about all the process. So, all I got to say is thanks because all this information is super usefull!
@@kikeascencion4555 have fun with it ☺️ It's so rewarding to get that first roll out of the developing tank. To be honest, I still have a victory mental high five every time images come out. I find film to be quite forgiving overall. So even if your first go doesn't work out, there's usually still something (in my experience anyway).
So, you think she made this developer out of mint tea? The developer agent is in the sodium ascorbate (Vitamin C) and the accelerator is in the caustic soda. She could as easily left out the tea, or she could have peed in the beaker, and gotten about the same result. Her initial failures probably relate to using about 200 times as much vitamin C as is normally used in a serious developer and that the vitamin C is not normally used by itself.. A couple of rolls of HP-5+ and seven minutes of my time were killed in the making of this video.
Actually Randall , not *entirely* true. While ascorbic & carbonate alone will get you an image, adding in a source of polyphenols (coffee, peppermint, cloves, curry, rosemary etc) brings more to the table. I tried a roll in just ascorbic & carbonate & the results were a bit thin and lacking in density/activity. I took a base caffinol formula of 15g carbonate, 2.5g ascorbic and in lieu of the 10g of coffee I substituted out 0.2g cloves, 5g rosemary, 10g curry etc and I had different outcomes/properties from the shots. Palo Verde seeds drove high contrast, Rosemary developed rapidly and was a good push developer, Menthol had low fog, Cloves had rich blacks and a gritty "street look". If these other substances didnt matter one would think that if I kept the carbonate at 15g and ascorbic at 2.5g all the roils would have the same characteristics.
I have been doing some group research on plant based developers as part of the London Alternative Photography Collective, with lots of different artists like General Treegan and Dagie Brunert. We have tried lots of things, and as I understand it, the vitamin-c and soda crystals alone would not be strong enough on it's own to develop a film. It needs some kind of phenol to accelerate the reaction. Have you actually tried this? If so, I'd love to see! Also, please refer directly to me instead of calling me "she". As my nan would say, "who is she? The cats mother?" XD
Exactly. If just ascorbic and carbonate did the trick then why does Xtol have Phenidone too? Or why does 510pyro contain ascorbic, pyrogallic acid and phenidone? I frankly don't know of any commercial mix or viable home brew that is *just* ascorbic and an alkalai.
Thank you so much Melanie for your excellent work!
You and Andrés inspired me to try making my own sustainable developers ♻️❤️
That is so great to hear! I look forward to seeing your results.
Look mum no computer sent me here and I just watched all your videos. Very interesting stuff. Always wanted a film camera. Now I want one even more. Keep up the good work I really like your voice and the composition of the videos.
Thank you Daniel. 😄
Seriously, also came from lmnc but even as a total photography noob this channel is truly interesting, inspiring, and incredible unique. Never even knew you could do things like this, amazing work!
Brilliant 😊
Good job on this sis, I like how you narrowed it down and found the correct time. I've been doing some hardcore experiments lately as well. I have an idea that could help you, if you shoot just five frames and put the camera in your dark bag and cut off those five frames, you'll be able to get more experiments in on the same roll. Now that you mention it I'm curious if the development will be any different if you had used fresh mint leaves but I'm sure the chemical is the same
You make a great point about the clip test, I definitely should have done that! Looking forward to hearing more about your experiments.
@@MelanieKing yes I learned the hard way for example when my color chemical expired I ruined a roll of film before I realized it was dead. so now if I'm not sure about the color chemicals I always take three shots and develop that strip. I'm experimenting now with using photographic paper in camera and it's very interesting it's rated at approximately six ISO and it's not sensitive to red , I'm shooting it in a rollei so I have to cut out the squares and put them in the camera one at a time, it develops much faster than film though and it's cool to be able to see the image developed under the red Safelite. in a few months I hope to put together a video review on my channel of my experience
Very cool! It's nice to see some of the work that goes into learning new things. More people need to highlight the fact that failure is part of the process. It's only the end of the journey if you perceive it to be and give up. Cheers!
Thank you, I thought it was important to show the failures. I have tried seaweed developer too, and that took a few attempts to get right.
Hi Melanie, this is amazing! Mint tea, who knew? Chamomile next? So I live in a van and don't have running water, I just do three rinses, one for two minutes, constant agitation, one for four minutes, and a final for four minutes with rinse aid. Get a film done with between four and five litres of H2O, and never had any problems.
Oh awesome, thanks for letting me know! I'm sure chamomile would work, it is worth a go :)
You re-invented the wheel.
In the sixties of last century the canals in Amsterdam were really, really filthy.
A guy used it as B&W developer outright. It worked. Long development time, but it worked.
I'm not trying to make something brand new. I'm trying to have fun with sustainable photographic processes. :)
Way to go! Try until it works!
Thanks!
Thank you so much for this! Your research is super interesting, please keep us up to date.
Thank you :)
Do you still stop bath as well or go straight to fixer
I used water instead of stop :)
keep your friends safe, thanks for sharing🐱💻🎁🌹🌹
Thanks!
This is fascinating! I am hoping to try as well :)
Awesome!
I really like these videos and you have a very nice voice that makes the video follow well, LMNC sent me here too and now I am hooked . What camera do you use . ?
Thank you! I used a Canon Rebel EOS film camera.
hey melanie, have you ever developed fp4+ with plants - even pushed to 400 iso? before i experiment i've been looking for some guidance! thankyou for these videos, they're so informative!
Hello. I haven't developed FP4, but an easy way to test would be to do a small strip at a time to work out the best exposure.
I did do a workshop on seaweed developer where someone used FP4, and it came out slightly overdeveloped using the same recipe for HP5. Maybe you could try the same recipe on here, and develop for a shorter amount of time?
@@MelanieKing thankyou! I'll give it a shot, its pretty exciting having to work things out rather than just working off a chart!!
Знакомая картина. Из-за густой вуали плёнка кажется чёрной. Но если присмотреться, кадры вполне отчётливые. Можно сканировать и даже печатать.
Спасибо, вы пробовали самодельные разработчики?
Переведено с помощью Google Translate
@@MelanieKing Я регулярно пользуюсь просроченной на 30 лет пленкой. Проявляю в проявителях классической рецептуры. Например D-76. Но приготрвляю их сам. Не выкидывать же целую кучу химикатов, раз достались почти задаром.
@@drHetzer большой!
Have you tried this as a paper developer? If it works I’d imagine it wouldn’t stain as much as caffenol does
Am I the only one getting hurt by seeing her not opening the cage to remove the film ? haha. But looks cool, need to try soon :)
I suppose you meant why doesn't she pull the reel apart to remove the film? One answer might be that Paterson reels are so poorly made anyway that constantly pulling one apart and snapping it back together will damage the alignment of the two halves, making it useless that much sooner.
@@randallstewart1224 ohhhh
My Dad gave me an astrolabe like that a very long time ago!
It's pretty useful!
Did you re-mix the dev solution or did you re-use it?
I reused on the second attempt, and remixed on the third. :)
wait, so I actually can use the fizzy tablets for the developer instead the Vit-C powder? How does this affect the results, because I've been struggling with this a LOT.
This is a great recipe btw sooo cool!!!
The fizzy tablets worked for me when I couldn't get hold of the powdered vitamin-c !
I use the fizzy tablets all the time. I'm not expert (I've probably used caffenol a little less than ten times) but so far I haven't seen a problem from using them. Do you have issues with fizzy tablets or have just never tried them? I'm curious as I'm very learning about the process myself :)
@@allysseriordan1073 Oh that´s cool then! The thing is I have never develop before so I'm making a research to be totally confident about all the process. So, all I got to say is thanks because all this information is super usefull!
@@kikeascencion4555 have fun with it ☺️ It's so rewarding to get that first roll out of the developing tank. To be honest, I still have a victory mental high five every time images come out.
I find film to be quite forgiving overall. So even if your first go doesn't work out, there's usually still something (in my experience anyway).
So, you think she made this developer out of mint tea? The developer agent is in the sodium ascorbate (Vitamin C) and the accelerator is in the caustic soda. She could as easily left out the tea, or she could have peed in the beaker, and gotten about the same result. Her initial failures probably relate to using about 200 times as much vitamin C as is normally used in a serious developer and that the vitamin C is not normally used by itself.. A couple of rolls of HP-5+ and seven minutes of my time were killed in the making of this video.
Actually Randall , not *entirely* true. While ascorbic & carbonate alone will get you an image, adding in a source of polyphenols (coffee, peppermint, cloves, curry, rosemary etc) brings more to the table. I tried a roll in just ascorbic & carbonate & the results were a bit thin and lacking in density/activity. I took a base caffinol formula of 15g carbonate, 2.5g ascorbic and in lieu of the 10g of coffee I substituted out 0.2g cloves, 5g rosemary, 10g curry etc and I had different outcomes/properties from the shots. Palo Verde seeds drove high contrast, Rosemary developed rapidly and was a good push developer, Menthol had low fog, Cloves had rich blacks and a gritty "street look". If these other substances didnt matter one would think that if I kept the carbonate at 15g and ascorbic at 2.5g all the roils would have the same characteristics.
I have been doing some group research on plant based developers as part of the London Alternative Photography Collective, with lots of different artists like General Treegan and Dagie Brunert. We have tried lots of things, and as I understand it, the vitamin-c and soda crystals alone would not be strong enough on it's own to develop a film. It needs some kind of phenol to accelerate the reaction. Have you actually tried this? If so, I'd love to see!
Also, please refer directly to me instead of calling me "she". As my nan would say, "who is she? The cats mother?" XD
Exactly. If just ascorbic and carbonate did the trick then why does Xtol have Phenidone too? Or why does 510pyro contain ascorbic, pyrogallic acid and phenidone? I frankly don't know of any commercial mix or viable home brew that is *just* ascorbic and an alkalai.
@@MelanieKing --on a side note I sent you a friend invite on FB
@@danielkeating2078 Fab!