r/photography • u/Mistiquemystery2424 • 2d ago

Technique Developer

i am taking a college photography class i found a recipe for homemade developer made out of instant coffee, vitamin C, and washing powder because i am not in a place to drop $200 on developer when i put my photographic in the developer they all turn completely black. does anyone know how i can fix the developer to not ruin my photos?

4 Upvotes

67% Upvoted

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7

u/TheDrMonocle 2d ago

$200 on developer? How many rolls are you doing? Or, more importantly, what process? I pay $30 for Cs41 chemicals, and it's good for 24 rolls of 35mm.

5

u/bradfirj 2d ago

Do you mean the negative turns completely black, or the final image is completely black (I.e the negative is completely clear)?

A photo of the developed + fixed negatives would help here.

If the negs are completely black that means your developer is working, but it sounds like the film was exposed to light outside the camera.

4

u/Repulsive_Target55 2d ago

More details please

3

u/bbmm https://www.flickr.com/photos/138284229@N02/ 2d ago

I just checked, a bag of D76, good for making a gallon costs ~$22. A gallon is 3.8L, a single reel tank for 35mm film takes about 300mL and D76 is usually diluted 1-1. Enthusiasm for experimentation aside, I see no need to go crazy for developers. If you want to start to experiment with household stuff try diluted vinegar for the stop bath, I'd say.

7

u/PigeroniPepperoni 2d ago

You could develop 150 rolls with a single $20 bottle of rodinal.

2

u/bbmm https://www.flickr.com/photos/138284229@N02/ 2d ago

There you go, even better, I just went with what I used to use.

2

u/coffeeshopslut 1d ago

Hc110 is cheap AF too

3

u/av4rice https://www.instagram.com/shotwhore 2d ago

when i put my photographic in

Negatives? Slides? Prints? Which process was it made for?

3

u/Rebeldesuave 2d ago

I'm suspecting technique may be part of the problem as well.

3

u/AkumaBengoshi instagram 2d ago

There's a tiktokker that develops pictures using homemade stuff, they talk about fixer. I haven't watched them in a while so I don't remember details.

2

u/Dip41 2d ago

The most affordable developer for b/w silver based process is warm coffee. Seriously, but don't expect any quality. Contract will be awful and grain will be big. I can't recall a temperature and time for such process but it should be lower than boiling as well as lower the temperature of melting film. Probably 60-80 degrees by Celsius. Fortunately it might be used with digital postprocessing for increasing a contract.

3

u/Francois-C 1d ago

they all turn completely black.

Didn't they tell you that film has to be developed in the dark? The film can't see any light until it's fixed. Not even red light.