Processing with Coffenol/ DIY developers

Ingredient –

•        40g instant coffee
•     54g washing soda crystals
•     6g pure vitamin C powder

Creating the developer –

Put 800ml into a bucket, then put 40g coffee in a container and add 200ml of boiling water, add this mixture to the water. Then add 54g of washing soda crystals, stir until it has dissolved. And finally add the vitamin C powder.

Developing process –

This homemade developer should be at 27 degrees (this is only when you pour the developer into the tank it will cool down). Develop the film for 22 minutes and agitate every ten seconds.

Once the 22 minutes is over pour the coffee out of the tank, rinse well and fix, we fixed our film for 5 minutes continually agitating for the whole time. After this rinse again and then dry.

This type of film processing is very useful to me and I have taken away an important new skill that I had not even considered of doing and will use in the future.

When doing this process we had a difficulty getting the exact measurements and took longer than it probably should have however that was down to the scales we used, when doing this again I would use reliable scales.

Super 8 film in a day

I found this project a very interesting and fun way to use film. Using the super 8 meant that the whole group had to think differently to when filming digitally as it had to be shot in chronological order, and made sure everything was perfect when actually shot as we wouldn’t be able to edit the footage.

Originally, I was put into a different group to the group I ended up in so I wasn’t a part of the original thought process, but I had a part in the story board making, working out the times, filming and developing the film.

We decided to make a horror film, where a girl went into the woods with a Ouija board and awakened a spirit.  This spirt has a presence throughout the film even before the girl appears in the film.

Equipment for shoot:

·      Super8 camera

·      16mm film

·      Nikon D90 (DSLR camera for back up)

·      Ouija board

·      Spirt costume

·       makeup/face paint (for the spirt)

the day of the filming started out really well we made a decision of which woods we should film in, walked there and started talking about the compositions and where we would all stand and start. When the camera needed to be filming and when it would cut out, put the costumes together and did a run through with the D90 to prefect what we were doing and each person knowing where they needed to be we did this about three times.

Sadly, when it came to filming with the super 8 we were a little rushed as there was a local primary school teacher told us she was going to be teaching where we were, luckily we had enough time to film and apart from the fact it was rushed it went smoothly.

Another thing that didn’t turn out the way we wanted was when we were developing the film wasn’t rolled out completely and we lost some of the film as was stuck together and didn’t develop. With this the bits we did have looked good.

our final outcome has footage from both the super 8 camera and DSLR camera.

Cyanotypes

Process to creating a cyanotype –

The cyanotype is made up of mixing the two chemicals Potassium ferricyanide and Ferric ammonium citrate (green)  and are mixed with water separately. The two solutions are then mixed together equally.

For the canvas, you can use many types of materials, (such as paper, card fabric) as long as it can absorb the solution that will be coated onto the canvas, then it has to dry in the dark ( I suggest doing the twice).

To make a print an object or negatives is placed on top of the canvas and exposed to UV light (this could be sunlight, a light box or a UV lamp)

To process the cyanotype it should be placed into water and rinsed by continually dragging the canvas through the water gently (the water should be changed when it starts to become yellow) when doing this a white image should appear on a blue background. Once the image is clear all that needs to be done is let the print dry.

Equipment needed –

• 25 grams of Ferric ammonium citrate (green)
• 10 grams of Potassium ferricyanide
• Water
• Scale or measuring spoons
• Measuring jug
• 3 glass containers for mixing ingredients
• Plastic spoons
• Face mask
• Goggles
• Rubber gloves
• Apron or old shirt
• Newspaper to cover work surface
• Cleaning cloth
• Brushes
• Clothes pegs
• Washing line or rope
• Art paper or fabric for coating
• Glass or a contact print frame
• Sunshine or a UV light source

My first print originally came out really well before and after I rinsed the print but as it was drying it started to fade, I realised this was because I only painted one layer of the solution onto the fabric, I then realised for future prints I would have to paint two layers instead onto the canvas.  

This is my second attempt at doing a cyanotype, for this I used to layers of the solution as well as a photo with a High Dynamic Range, as it looks really good with this technique. I used the same material as my first attempt (fabric).

 For my third attempt I decided to map paper as my canvas, I think it came out really well and I would defiantly think about using it again if it was related to the subject.

Over all I would defiantly use this technique again as it is an interesting and different way to show images and is easy to transfer both object and photos (either from a digital shoot or film shoot). Creating a cyanotype is also a very hands on process which is a really nice thing to do when I tent to be working through a screen for a lot of my work.