How to Develop Film Using a Solution Made With Coffee

Science vlogger Brianna Dignard explained how to develop film using a Caffenol solution that includes water, washing soda, coffee, and ascorbic acid (vitamin C). Dignard split the film into two batches and developed one with the ascorbic acid, and one without to see if it made a difference in picture quality. While she didn’t notice too much a difference visually, she did notice that the ascorbic acid made the developer bubble quite a bit.

I actually cut a row of film into two and in this one we’re going to develop in the developer made only from the coffee and in this one we’re going to develop as a developer made with the coffee and the Vitamin C powder and we’re going to look at the difference between the two of them. ….the one with the coffee plus the Vitamin C powder, that one was a lot more bubbly and resulted in the lid being blown off of my developing tank twice making a tremendous mess and making our dark room smell like coffee for the next week.

Digard also shared the recipe for Caffenol.

Recipe I used:

• 1 L of distilled water
• 24 g washing soda
• 45 g instant coffee
• 20 g vitamin c powder