A: Instant coffee and washing soda, that's what.
But its worth it!
I've been shooting digital almost exclusively for the better part of two years now, but I still enjoy the process of shooting and developing film. I think it's the smell. Well, it 'can' smell good. However, if you decide you want to make your own developer the smell goes from pleasant to "Chaz, what are you making... oh my god that reeks!"
The recipe I used is called Caffenol-C and it is a home made film developer. And it smells really, really bad! The large amounts of carbon in the washing soda must react, a la decaying animal, with the instant coffee. The vitamin C speeds up the reaction of the caffeine with the film, so its not an essential ingredient, it only affects the developing time.
I had a half finished roll of Kodak BW400CN that I wanted to develop, and I wanted to know how a 'color' black and white film would do in black and white chemistry. The results are really good. The tonal range and grain is very pleasing for a 400 speed film.
Here's the recipe for the developer:
4 500mg tablets of crushed vitamin C tablets*
1 tablespoon of washing soda (sodium carbonate, not baking soda- sodium bicarbonate)
4 tablespoons of instant coffee crystals
12 oz. of water at ~75 deg F.
* after pouring the developer into the tank, I noticed a white, solid precipitate at the bottom of the mixing glass and suspected it was the vitamin C fallen out of solution or just mutated.
I used a vinegar solution for the stop bath and a dish soap solution for the final wash. For the fixer, I had to purchase it from a local photography store as it can't be easily MacGyver'd.
The Vitamin C is supposed to accelerate the developing time, but I suspected that some of the vitamin C had fallen out of suspension. I used slightly warmer water to keep the developing time unchanged.
I scanned the film and the picture above is straight out of the scanner. As you can see the tones smooth, not bunched up and the grain pleasing, though that might not show at this size.
I'm still debating developing more film this way, or admitting olfactory defeat and going with commercial developer.
The '$' signs are from the scanning software I was testing/using, the free version watermarks images with dollar signs. I suspect that's to let viewers know the picture is worth lots of money. :+)
