Stinky old-fashioned chemical photography in my kitchen. Has anyone done this?

[hunter]

So far I've got a photo of my niece and a few things in my garden. It's not great, and I don't post personal stuff, but it works.

I take pictures with a hundred year old Brownie 2 box camera.

120 film developed in caffenol. This is a horrible mix that reminds you of the coffee you drank in a failed attempt to remain standing before you puked and fell down at your first Microsoft Christmas party. This developer is made of cheap instant coffee, washing soda, and vitamin C. Fixing the film with ordinary film fixer does not improve the smell.

I then make a cyanotype contact print. If I'm lazy I use ready-made sunprint paper (or the less expensive knock-offs) exposed 20 or 30 seconds in full sun.

Our tap water here is aggressively alkaline and won't properly "develop" cyanotypes so I use a two bath system. The first bath is our tapwater with a generous slug of vinegar added, the second bath is our tapwater and a good slug of drugstore hydrogen peroxide. Folks with better water can follow the directions on the sunprint package and use only water.

That gets me a nice bright blue cyanotype which I let dry.

To tone the cyanotype I put it in our nasty tapwater along with a slug of ammonia cleaner (more smell!) until it turns blue-black and is starting to fade.

I then put the print in room temperature green tea (Target "Market Pantry" brand) and let it soak until it has a nice no-longer-blue but sepia-black tone.

Once upon a time I had a darkroom. Maybe I was missing that. Uploading my digital images to CostCo for printing didn't satisfy that itch.

[WannaJumpMyScooter]

1. that is hard core

just using regular stinky photo chemicals is retro and old-fashioned enough for me... just glad I dont have to make prints now... with a scanner all I do is develop negs

[alfredo]

2. I just cleaned my Nikor developing tank. Many rolls of TriX

and Panatomic-X ISO 32 passed through it. Extachrome also found its way in that tank.

[NV Whino]

3. I just gave away all my developing stuff about a month ago

I think I still have an enlarger in the attic somewhere. Thank the gods for digital—no more brown fingernails!

[alfredo]

4. Can you repurpose the lens from the enlarger?

[NV Whino]

5. Hadn't thought about it.

But I will check it out.

[alfredo]

6. I think they are used for macro.