It all started when my darkroom began to fill up with canisters of spent chemicals. I don't live near large urban centers or development labs, and it is apparently not easy to safely dispose of exhausted liquids from our development and printing sessions. I needed a solution. After browsing through scientific articles and chemical compound hazard sheets, I was persistent in looking for an alternative besides the already known caffenol. Mind you, I do very well with caffenol, and in fact it forms the basis of what we will see in a moment, but I wanted something that would require even less material (coffee) and above all have a lighter color through which to admire the development under red light (paper negatives and printing). So I came across this discussione, which led me to this page. A world opened up for me.
Follow me in the meadows
Herbs and spices develop. Of course, I said to myself after reading it, how could I not have thought of it before? Knowing the chemistry of development it should have popped into my mind long ago! Said in a nutshell, you need molecules that donate electrons so as to reduce the silver oxidized by photons, and is exactly what polyphenols do. Exactly the principle by which coffee works in caffenol. I've always loved meadows, I grew up in the countryside and in the mountains, and from an early age I collected and dried flowers, admired and studied trees, until they became part of my photographic subjects. And now of my photographs, in a material sense. I could not have been happier.
Prompted by the article at this page, I retrieved the scientific research referred to and studied the table containing the polyphenol concentration of a wide variety of herbs, spices, foods and beverages. Missing were a few of great interest to me, however (because of their easy availability in the garden and meadows): chamomile and lemon balm. That said, after a survey on scientific search engines I found two articles that determined their polyphenol content and converted the measurements to the same units as the table in the reference article, i.e., mg/100 g of dry product, and reported everything in percentages for my convenience.
The recipies
Important note: The entire process was tested on paper negatives (Ilford MGIV).
At this point I could have proceeded by trial and error, but why? I used the caffenol formula, with which I do so well for developing 35 mm rolls, and substituted the various herbs for the coffee in proportion to their polyphenol content -compared to coffee-. The other ingredients of caffenol C-M (sodium carbonate and ascorbic acid) were retained, with the addition of potassium bromide to prevent the formation of a hazy patina on the negative, but the latter could be incidental. Below are the formulas I used. All weights of plant parts are given in dry weight (not green, but dried plant).
|
Cloves |
Chamomile |
Lemon balm |
|||
|
Cloves |
0.28 g |
Chamomile |
1.08 g |
Lemon balm |
0.40 g |
|
Vitamin C |
8.00 g |
Vitamin C |
8.00 g |
Vitamin C |
8.00 g |
|
Sodium Carbonate |
27.33 g |
Sodium Carbonate |
27.33 g |
Sodium Carbonate |
27.33 g |
|
Potassium Bromide |
0.20 g |
Potassium Bromide |
0.20 g |
Potassium Bromide |
0.20 g |
|
Water |
500 ml |
Water |
500 ml |
Water |
500 ml |
As you can see, the proportions of the other compounds (with the exception of potassium bromide) remain the same, while the plants vary in their polyphenol content compared to soluble coffee.Clove, chamomile, and lemon balm contain approximately 71, 19, and 55 times the polyphenol content, respectively, compared to soluble coffee.
However, not all that glitters is gold: soluble coffee, compared to other plant parts, follows a controlled industrial process, and so I assume you can be relatively sure that its chemical properties remain stable between batches. The same cannot be said of herbs harvested in a field (or bought at the herbal shop?). The polyphenol content may change depending on the season. Moreover, and I have no proof of this, I imagine that the way they are dried/stored may also affect it. Hence, my initial attempts and suggestion to use them with photographic paper (or orthochromatic film that is not sensitive to red light) so you can keep your eyes on the negative and possibly take action when you find yourself using a new batch of plants of which you are unsure of the exact variety or notions of the polyphenol content based on the harvest period/manner of storage.
A few example photos
The first attempt was made with Clovesfrom the kitchen pantry. The negative was slightly underdeveloped because I developed by sight, not being sure of the timing. I could have relied on caffenol timings, but something inside me was voting for insecurity and I extracted it too soon. Nevertheless it turned out to be very rich in detail and very workable digitally, with a few adjustments made to contrast, clarity, highlights and shadows. Below is a "flat" version of the photo, as it came out of the scan, in which well shows the large amount of detail captured in the background. With a little processing we can safely bring out the details on the petals by isolating the flower from the background. This is a remarkable rendering for photographic paper, if you have ever worked with it and are familiar with its sometimes obvious and brutal narrow latitude of pose, especially visible when used as a negative.
After that I switched to chamomile, which is even easier to find than cloves especially if you live near rural or low mountain areas in my latitudes. The scene was very contrasty (a tree against the light), but I wanted to test how aggressive it was and how much contrast it would give back. The contrast is indeed definitely high, and there are whole areas of the photo in almost complete black, but then again, we are talking about a paper negative and its native rendering. The midtones and shadows on the trunk are well rendered, I would say exactly as I had measured them.
The results definitely improved the moment I switched to the grass that is easier for me to use and find (it grows plenty in the garden): the lemon balm. It has a very high polyphenol content (almost 15% on dry weight basis) and therefore very little is required. It has returned super sharp images, highly workable images, with detail in shadows and highlights that I find impressive for a paper negative--always take into account the low latitude of photographic paper laying. The first photo, in particular, gives evidence of this. The scene had titanic contrast, with a difference of more than 5 stops between the shadow areas and the lit tree at the top of the ravine (excluding the sky). Nevertheless, much of the scene was rich in detail and perfectly workable digitally (I have yet to try my hand at contact prints, keeping in mind that such a variety of light and shadow would make the dodge and burning challenging especially at the size of a 4×5). You will forgive the less than perfect focus, but there was very little light at the bottom of the gorge despite a Fresnell lens. The low light of the Schneider Kreuznach Super Angulon 90 mm. f8 did not help, nor did the aperture at f11 for logistical reasons of time (at f32 the shutter speed would have jumped to 64 minutes...). In the second photo developed with lemon balm the the contrast was without any doubt higher, but this is not surprising given the brown/reddish coloration of the rocks and creek bottom (photographic paper is extremely insensitive to red light). Nevertheless, the negative turned out to be properly developed, and did not require any digital post-production work except for the scan itself. What you see is the exact scan, without adjustment.
Finally, the last photo developed with lemon balm. I am particularly pleased with this shot because of the atmosphere I think I was able to impart. The point of view of someone coming out of a forest.
dark and overlooks a mysterious clearing occupied by a church. The development was cut by one stop (about -20% of the time) so as to preserve the lights on the white walls of the church, but at the same time let them shine through to highlight mosses and molds climbing toward the roof. As with the shot
above, the lens used was a Super Rapid Aplanat 200 mm f8probably from the early 1900s, capable of rendering a three-dimensional details fabulously.
Summing up
I'm extremely satisfied with the results. I did not notice huge differences between the herbs used, but this was also due to photographing different scenes. The purpose was primarily to have fun, and secondarily to discover new ways of doing photography. I've always loved plants and the glass jars on wooden shelves filled with leaves, fruits and dry flowers. And I have always loved photography. My normal development process with paper negatives involves Ilford PQ Universal diluted 1+19, which gives me lower contrast than standard dilution, slower and more manageable development, and negatives with higher tonal yield. I think I have found a very valid substitute, something that not only gives me greater satisfaction, but also absolutely comparable technical results, particularly in the large amount of tones I was able to achieve. Perhaps achievable with even lower dilutions of PQ? It is possible, but there is no dilution that gives me the magic of photographing plants and developing with plants, to gather herbs in the meadows, dry them and put them in glass jars awaiting, to smell a heady scent of herbal tea in the darkroom, to be able to spill everything down the sink without worry. The technical results after these first attempts are already excellent, but even if they were not it should be remembered that photography as an art form is first and foremost personal satisfaction and fulfillment. And that, for me, is it.
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