Sixth Attempt

This attempt was a success. I switched back to Fomapan 200 and removed the Potassium Bromide from the recipe. For this attempt I went back to recipe 4, doubled the number of clove supplements, using 2 tablets rather than 1, and mixed the clove juice fresh, and used immediately.

The Recipe

  • 2 clove tablets dissolved in 200ml water @ 40°C
  • In 300ml water @ room temperature:
  • 27g Sodium Carbonate
  • 10g Vitamin C

Method

  • Make up the mixture as per previous attempts
  • Develop @ 20.4°C
  • Agitation 30s to start and 10s every minute
  • Develop for 12 minutes
  • Wash in water @ room temp for 1 minute
  • Fix in Ilford rapid fixer for 3 minutes

Results

Good results, more contrast than attempt 4 with similar grain. Blacks a little blocky but acceptable. Very happy with this. The negatives were under fixed but I’ve been using the same fixer mix for all attempts so far so it’s probably a little tired. Time to mix some fresh.

11 comments

  1. Hi I’m planning on moving Asia in a few years and am contemplating growing a clove tree in order to use the dried cloves as a developer in my darkroom. I’ll also use cloves in the kitchen. Have you experimented with using cloves in a developer recipe? I was also wondering about using it as a paper developer, do you think this is possible ?
    Thanks for sharing your experience with us.

    Kindest Regards
    Adrian

    Like

    Reply

    1. Hi Adrian. I can’t help with that I’m afraid. Once i have negatives I digitise and print using inkjet, I don’t have a darkroom for developing prints, and don’t know the chemistry involved at all. Good luck with your move, sounds wonderful!

      Like

      Reply

  2. Hi Adrian. I have been experimenting with a developer recipe that uses dried cloves and have had great results with paper.

    To make 1L
    Add ~1.2g dried cloves into water (500ml or so) and steep in low heat for 10-15 minutes. Filter out the clovers and pour into a container.
    Add 70g washing soda and 25g vitamin C, mix and then add water to make 1 liter.

    Like

    Reply

      1. I’ve been developing at room temperature or slightly warmer, but haven’t paid much attention to that. Does not seem to be too sensitive to temperature.

        Like

    1. I haven’t tried it on negatives yet, but i would assume it would work just as well as fresh caffenol. The development time for paper is about 1 minute or a bit longer, though a minute is usually enough at least on a fresh batch.

      Like

      Reply

    1. Hi Adrian, actually I have put them in the water whole, and have not felt the need to crush them. Hypothetically that would increase the surface area and perhaps boost the infusion so you would probably need to use a bit less cloves, but again, just assuming. Keeping the cloves whole at least helps getting them out of the liquid as cleanly as possible.

      Like

      Reply

  5. Hi Arttu
    Thanks for your patience in answering my questions. I’ve ordered the vitamin c & soda, so just need to get an accurate scales & some cloves & im good to go.

    Adrian

    Like

    Reply

Leave a comment

Design a site like this with WordPress.com
Get started