Making Silver Gelatin Emulsions

Courtesy of Robert Schaller/Handmade Film Institute

Basic Recipe: Unwashed Emulsion
This is an extremely simple but highly effective recipe. It produces a very slow emulsion (ASA 1) that is suitable for contact printing. It DOES NOT produce a fast enough emulsion for any imaginable camera.
For everything that follows, use distilled water, and rinse all implements with distilled water before use. Cleanliness is essential!
Mix separately (in normal room light):

Solution A

Gelatin (Knox brand or equivalent) plain, unflavored food gelatin – 10g
Potassium Bromide – 8g
Distilled Water – 62.5ml
Add the gelatin to the water and allow it to swell. Put the container (preferably stainless steel, like a 2-reel still film developing tank) into a water bath and raise the temperature to 50°C. Add the potassium bromide and stir or swirl continuously until both ingredients are dissolved.

Solution B

Silver Nitrate – 10g
Distilled Water – 62.5ml
Dissolve the silver nitrate in the water by stirring or swirling, again, in a stainless steel container, and raise it's temperature to 40°C in a water bath.

The next steps must be conducted under a red or amber safelight!
Stirring continuously, add solution B to solution A in small, regular quantities, so that the addition takes 10 minutes to complete – about 5ml every 30 seconds. Finally, filter the finished mixture through cotton or glass wool or a loosely woven cloth, such as cheesecloth. Be sure to thoroughly rinse the filter material with distilled water first!

The emulsion is now finished and ready to use! Store it in a light-tight container—a daylight spool box works well. Label it to prevent yourself from accidentally opening it in white light! To use, heat so that the gelatin melts. 35°C might be a good starting point, but the consistency will depend on the temperature, so this will be a matter of personal preference. Refrigerate it in the meantime.
When coating, the emulsion sticks well to cleared acetate film that retains its commercial gelatin coating, as well as to uncoated acetate (clear leader can be purchase in bulk). This will require some experimentation on your part. Coat on manageable strips that are 4 feet in length. Dry in total darkness, and remember that it is light-sensitive film!

Expose generously to light. A flashlight seems to work well. Figuring out the correct exposure will require some testing, but this will be the only variable if you keep the development time constant.
I like to use a very soft brush that picks up a lot of emulsion, and re-dip it frequently to make multiple coats. This helps build up enough thickness so that the maximum density of the final image is extremely high. Beware that too much thickness can make the film impossible to fix completely. Bear in mind that this is art, not science! If you want consistent results, use commercial film and send it to a lab. But don't send hand-coated film to a lab!

Develop in a standard developer and fixer. Use cold water for rinses, and make sure no solutions are over 20°C, otherwise the emulsion might come off. The wet emulsion is very fragile and scratches easily. It is susceptible to veiling, running, and reticulation – all of which make working with hand-made emulsion exciting. You should use a hypo-clearing agent at the end, as it is a silver image and will degrade if left contaminated with fixer, but the longer it's in any solution, the greater the risk of falling off, so use your own judgment. If you're just using it as an image source (ie, like a negative) from which to print back onto regular film, this isn't an issue.

One developing method might be:
Developer D-19 – 20°C, 3 minutes
Rinse – 20°C, 15 seconds
Any standard acid hardening or non-hardening fixer – 20°C, 2 minutes?
Soak until all milky areas are gone (or as much as possible).
Rinse – 20°C, 1 minute
Any Hypo-clearing agent – 20°C, 2 minutes, if you dare!
Final rinse – 20°C, 5 minutes, or for as long as you're willing to risk it.
Hang to dry
Happy emulsifying!

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Color, texture and other physical manipulation techniques for 35mm, 16mm, Regular 8mm, & Super 8mm Film

by Maïa Cybelle Carpenter

Please note: I have used most of the materials and techniques below, but this is just a primer. You must experiment and try these out yourself. Different environments may lead to different results. Always test before using these methods on precious footage. Remember, you may lose your image completely! READ PACKAGE INSTRUCTIONS CAREFULLY AND NOTE WHEN VENTILATION IS NEEDED.

*Please wear a gas mask, gloves, goggles, rubber/pvc gloves and protective clothing
Painting on clear or developed film stock

1. Dr. PH Martins Film color comes in a variety of different colors although I usually buy the basics and mix up concoctions. Mixing does not always yield the desired results, but then again, who needs precision? These are water-based paints and they come in little dropper bottles. The paint does not really chip off unless you’ve applied 20 layers. I usually use the clear colors, but sometimes have used the opaque colors.

2. India Ink also works on film, although I find that it does not always adhere to the stock. Mixing India Ink with a little household bleach will produces a thicker substance. Use a q-tip to apply to processed film. It will quickly bleach away your image. Dab it right away with a paper towel. What you’ll have left is a degraded emulsion with color seeping through.

3. Food coloring also works well and can be mixed with a variety of substances- acts like a dye. Or try adding it to Crystal Craze. (if you can still find it at hardware stores/paint supply stores).

4. Permanent markers.

5. Rubber stamps used with permanent ink.

6. Marshall Transparent Oil Paints

7. Powdered pigments used to dye homemade egg tempera paint (made with egg yolk).

8. Pebeo Gel Crystal or Vitrail Gel (For painting on glass & metal. Comes in transparent, opalescent and translucent).

9. White-out.

10. Some brands of acrylic paints.

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No Milk or Sugar
Using Coffee as Developer

by Tony McLean

The workshop darkroom is an evil smelling place; its malodorous confines being reminiscent of school changing rooms and hospital corridors. Stop bath and fix seem to linger in the air long after I had put away the trays and retired to the bar. No matter, I had become resistant and long since associated this odour with the excitement of a challenging printing session. A slight exaggeration perhaps, but I would like to tell you how I made the atmosphere of this darkroom the envy of my friends.
Fresh brewed coffee. Lots of it. Dark continental roasted beans, lovingly brewed to viscous, rich brown liquor that had an aroma that was mouth-watering and a taste that made your tongue curl. Peels of mocking laughter from the office next door stirred me from my prevarications. I had let it be known that I was going to develop a roll of FP4 plus in this heady brew and my reputation was now on the line. In theory it should work, or so my researches from the previous article had led me to believe. Armed with this knowledge and a pinch of sodium carbonate I set to work. The soda was necessary, or so I convinced myself, as an accelerator. Otherwise, I would have to drink the remaining coffee to stay awake during the interminable developing time. I added nothing else…no milk or sugar.
Forty minutes later, I held my breath and removed the film. To my utter astonishment and relief the film was perfectly developed. Well, perhaps not immaculate but I had seen a lot worse. The crowds had long since dissipated so my moment of triumph had to be postponed. On close inspection, the base plus fog levels were a little high but a Grade 4 filter should be about right.... Or why not try a lith print? This could certainly prove to be a useful “extreme compensating" developer or possibly just an interesting demonstration for a school or camera club.

For those who wish to try it for themselves here is a basic guide. Try not to cheat. Yes, I am aware of certain improvements that could be made with the addition of preservatives etc., but that would be contrary to the ethical simplicity of the exercise.

1. Expose a film on a bright sunny day at plus two or three stops overexposure. I have tried both FP4+ and T. Max 400. (24 exposure)

2. Add 100 ml of ground coffee (Sainsbury’s dark continental roast) to a measuring cylinder and top up to 400 ml with boiling water. Let it brew for ten minutes and filter.

3. With the film loaded in the tank, add 1 gram of sodium carbonate to the coffee, mix well and pour into the tank.

4. Develop for about 30 minutes at 25 C, agitating every 30 seconds. Stop fix and dry as normal.

Go on! Give it a try. You too could impress your friends and momentarily enrich the atmosphere of your darkroom. Warning: Do not drink the coffee after the addition of the carbonate. In fact, now that you are aware of the developing potential of its ingredients, you may not wish to drink coffee ever again! This idea for this article came to me after some extensive research into the dangers of pyrogallol. I read that several foodstuffs including coffee actually contained minute traces of hydroquinones and pyrogallol. I thought my discovery was unique until I was later informed of some previous research on the very same subject by students at M.I.T. Never mind, it was an interesting experiment and has not dissuaded me from my caffeine addiction.
http://homepage.ntlworld.com/tony.mclean/Articles/no_milk.html

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A Use for that Last Cup of Coffee: Film and Paper Development

By Dr. Scott Williams and the Technical Photographic Chemistry 1995 Class
Imaging and Photographic Technology Department
School of Photographic Arts and Sciences
Rochester Institute of Technology

Over the past several months, the price for a good cup of coffee continues to rise and the phrase "brother, could you spare a dime?" no longer holds meaning. Consequently, after brewing and drinking a few cups of coffee, does there exists a slight irritation with the sound of coffee draining into your sink as if your loose change was going down with every drop? Why not put that unused coffee to some beneficial use? Well, we did.

The Technical Photographic Chemistry Class at RIT was engaged in an exercise to identify non-traditional developers. They tried to acquire an understanding of the selective developer molecule, and various chemical solutions were investigated, such as ascorbic acid, hydrogen peroxide and soaps to name a few. These were not successful, but why not try drinks with caffeine like tea and coffee?
Tea and coffee are rich in phenolic acids (tannins) which have the potential for supporting development. Common to all three, however, was the presence of caffeine. After stopping and fixing, the result was clear. Or should we say fogged? Development, in all three solutions, was evident, particularly in the beaker containing coffee. The class project now shifted from identification to optimization of the development characteristics of coffee.

Coffee and Development
An organic developer is usually built around a ring of carbon atoms called benzene rings. There are usually one or two electron rich groups of atoms, attached to the ring, which provide the necessary electron to initiate development. One of the oldest of these is hydroquinone, as well as, p- phenylenediamine - a common color development agent. The pH of the solution controls the function of the developer in the process.

Coffee contains just about every type of molecule known to nature, including proteins, lipids and carbohydrates, but that "go-juice" that many of us cannot do without also contains a group of molecules known as phenols. One of these is called caffeic acid (Figure 1a). Compare it with the molecule of catechol, an effective photographic developer (Figure 1b). Coffee contains several other phenols which closely match not only catechol, but also several of the other hydroxy containing developer agents used in photography. Caffeine, a molecule which is larger than a benzene ring (Figure 1c), also has all of the constituents of an effective developer.
Nature would not completely hand us coffee as a developer without modification because, as our stomachs can often attest, coffee is acidic. An agent must be added to modify the pH of the solution; thereby, sufficiently swelling the gelatin and to promote active developer diffusion to the exposed silver halide grain. Buffers are often used to perform this task. A buffer is a combination of salts, generally, which maintains a selected, often alkaline, pH. Without the pH maintenance, photographic development would be difficult to control since both acid and/or base are being generated with every silver ion to silver atom conversion within the image. In keeping with the household requirements of non-traditional development, baking soda (sodium bicarbonate) and potassium hydroxide, an active ingredient used to unclog drains, were selected as the buffering component of our developing solution.
Experimental Conditions

Film Exposure
Kodak Tri-X Pan 35mm film, bulk loaded for 36 exposures, was selected for its high speed and contrast control under varying development procedures. Coffee, you may agree, would represent an unusual development procedure. This film was loaded into a Canon A2 SLR camera equipped with a 28-200mm zoom lens. Exposure values were recorded using a Minolta Autometer (WF CCD).
Exposures were taken under studio lighting conditions; in which, two 3200K spot lights illuminated a test target or subject at an angle of 45 degrees. The camera was placed normal to the test target. The test target consisted of one Kodak Ten Step Grey Scale and a Macbeth Color Checker. A group photograph was taken under similar conditions using the same film brand. Exposures were recorded assuming an ISO rating of 200 which represents a one stop over-exposure in comparison to measurements obtained with the meter set to 400 ISO. Three rolls were exposed for each scene. Optimum exposure settings were outside the scope of our investigation.

Coffee Formulation and Development Parameters
Within the time frame of our investigation, only a limited amount of conditions could be tested. The primary objective, however, was to keep a simple cup of coffee as simple as possible. Therefore, the formulation chosen was the amount of coffee used in a "typical serving". Instant coffee, a national brand most likely hand picked by Juan Valdez, was selected in order to maintain a consistent coffee concentration. A range of pH conditions, pH= 7 to 11, was tested, and a pH 9 was selected as the optimum condition. Coffee pH was adjusted using baking soda and titrated to the desired pH with potassium hydroxide at the selected solution temperature. A temperature of 85 F was found to be the optimum development temperature which is somewhat cooler than the normal cup of coffee; however, a perfect condition for the unused coffee that remains at the bottom of the pitcher.

In Summary:
Coffee Two (2) Rounded Teaspoons
Baking Soda Two (2) Rounded Teaspoons
Potassium Hydroxide Added to pH 9.0 (approximately One (1) Rounded Teaspoon)
Water 12 oz. or 352 milliliters
Temperature 85 F
Time 25 minutes

The 35 mm film was developed using steel reel tanks. Plastic tank use was discouraged in order to avoid permanent staining by tannin in the coffee. In order to investigate the various conditions which would affect optimum development, each roll was cut into several segments of less than ten exposures. Replenishment, during development, was not investigated in these experiments, but this condition may be the focus of future improvements. Several agitation methods were explored; and, inversion every 30 seconds was found to yield the optimum visual results.

Development Results
Tri-X Film Development
Figure 2a,b illustrates the point that coffee can indeed be used as a moderately selective film developer. In comparison to the control (Figure 2b), the coffee developed negative (Figure 2a) portrays sufficient density to render remarkable image detail. The negative contrast range of the coffee developed image, however, measures about 2.5times less than that found for a negative developed using D-76, see Figure 3. A maximum denisty loss and a lower gamma, when developed by the coffee method, can be explained by the apparent staining of the negative by coffee tannin. As the gelatin swells, in response to the rise in solution pH, access increases for both the phenolic developing agents and the staining polymers found in coffee. So for us coffee drinkers, the same molecules that are scrapped off our teeth during those fun- filled dental cleaning trips, are also depositing on our image. Close examination of the negative in Figure 2a reveals streaks and staining even in the film sprocket area. We speculated that the yellowish-brown cast placed on the negative may counter the contrast loss when printing.

Printing
Figure 4a,b are prints made using a research group composed negative developed in coffee and D-76. The printing was accomplished by exposing Kodak POLYMAX RC paper using an Omega Diffusion Enlarger system. The exposures required to produce sufficient image detail and contrast range were quite different for the two negatives. In comparison to the control print produced using a negative developed in D-76, Figure 4b, there was about a two stop difference in exposure required to obtain a reasonable print when using the coffee developed negative. Each exposure was made using +30M contrast filtration.

As shown in the two prints, the contrast range remains relatively flat for the print produced with the coffee negative (Figure 4a). Roughly a two-fold difference in contrast range is measured between the two prints illustrated in Figure 4. Aesthetically, one could argue that the print from the coffee negative provides a soft filtered appearance. In addition, a natural print tone, using the coffee negative, was achieved without introducing further post-development chemical step(s). If we could develop a printable negative in coffee, could be develop photographic paper using the same chemistry?

Coffee-based Print Development
An exceptional result, shown in Figure 5, was achieved when a negative developed in D-76 was used to expose the RC paper and developed in the same coffee formulation under identical conditions. With one development step, the print developed with sufficiently sharp image features and a favorable "brown" tonal quality! The brown toning represents staining much like that found in the negative. We observed a staining over the whole print, including the paper support, suggesting that the tannin penetration occurs by gelatin swelling. A development time of 20 minutes was used to produce the results shown.

Final Remarks
We tried many conditions in the short time that we spent investigating this novel development chemistry. However, much more work could be done to achieve desired results approaching commercial techniques. Unexplored parameters include replenishment development, coffee types or brands and using graded paper rather than polycontrast photographic paper. Notice we did not say refreshment development, because, we actually tried caffeine laden soft drinks but could not achieve sufficient development density. Other popular caffeinated over the counter products were also investigated without much success. The secret, therefore, may not be the caffeine but the other natural products found in coffee, that is, the phenolic family of compounds. A photographic chemical manufacturer may wish to explore natural products as a potential source of film and paper developers for environmental reasons.

Acknowledgements
The authors wish to thank Mr. Andrew Davidhazy and Mr. Ira Current for their invaluable contributions to this manuscript. Dr. Williams can now be reached at Foto Wear Corp., swilliams@fotowear.com.

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Contact Printing With A Gang Synchronizer

By Thad Povey

Alfonso Alvarez and I have been making contact prints by bi-packing a 16mm synchronizer in a darkroom, shining a tiny light through, then cranking away. Using single perf hi-con stock, we get really decent sound tracks and good looking black and white images. Which is to say, they're great for what we’re doing with our project The Overdub Club - mixing audio from 16mm projection into a live score that includes real musicians. The band sets up the main sound and I accent with sync material, so the harsh optical track isn't the only thing in the audience's ears.

Both the raw stock and the original material start on separate reels on the left rewind, then come together in one gang of the sync block, with the raw stock underneath the original and with it’s emulsion up. Then the raw stock feeds onto a take-up reel on the right and usually we just let the original film pile up on the floor. The prototype was a sync block with a mini-mag flashlight. That works fine, but now I've taken a decorative strip light that I found on the street and clipped it to the sync block, so the light stays right over the film. And I've put a tiny piece of diffusion on the light and masked it off, so that it doesn't spill all over and fog the film. This light gate is wide enough to allow light to hit the optical track area.

Actually the strip light has several small lights in it and, coincidentally each light lines up with one wheel on the sync block. So I've been looping the film and the raw stock into the back wheel, then back over and over until I go through all four gangs. That way, by offsetting the number of frames between the raw stock and the original material, I can make multiple exposures with one pull of the film. It's a way to make ghosty tracers. But the film is getting 4x the light, so I put some red gel on the lights and pull faster.

I've printed with a motorized take-up on the right side to keep the speed consistent, but I find that doing it by hand is easy enough. It's nice to adjust the speed as you go and, sometimes I'll have Alfonso crank the film while I take the mini-mag light and flash the film, like some kind of optical conductor.

Keeping tension on both rewinds is critical to keep the film and the stock tight together. It’s also interesting to load the original material as loops and enjoy the erratic way the images print over each other. Also, I can nearly run three pieces of film through (two originals and one raw stock), but it’s hard to pull it smoothly. And the top piece of film is not in tight contact, so there’s the soft focus to take into account.

I’ve used color print stock (purchased from a lab or Kodak) and made some prints from negative and or hand-painted footage. This adds the handmade soundtrack to the film. I made a really neat reversed polarity print of Rock Ross’s hand-scratched film Psycho Porpoise. He hand scratched the soundtrack and the inverse track sounded much hissier, but more alive in a way.

When we use black and white found footage, the images are often toned, so I consider that, if I want to use the sound, since it's toned as well. And since we hand-process, we get all that chaos on the soundtrack too. But if your original has a decent soundtrack, you contact print carefully (practicing to get the exposure right) and let a lab process it, you'll get decent sound on the film. Doesn't help you make multiple prints from a negative, but we'll all be making prints ourselves in a few years anyhow, so I'm practicing now.

The whole thing has got me involved with and enjoying 16mm optical sound, which is something that I've loathed for years. I'm learning to sit back and wallow in the background noise, knowing that I'll miss it when it's gone.

Recommended Reading for Personal Cinema

Making Light of It by James Broughton c.1992 City Lights Press

Devotional Cinema by Nathaniel Dorsky c. 2003 SPD Books

The Art of Cinema by Jean Cocteau c.2001 Marion Boyars Publishers Ltd.

Metaphors on Vision by Stan Brakhage c.1963 Film Culture

Telling Time, Essays of a Visionary Filmmaker by Stan Brakhage c. 2003 McPherson & Company

Sculpting in Time by Andrey Tarkovsky c. 1998 University of Texas Press

In the Blink of An Eye, A Perspective on Film Editing by Walter Murch c.1995
Silman-James Press

Notes on the Cinematographer by Robert Bresson c. 1986 Green Integer Books

Reflections From A Cinematic Cesspool by George Kuchar & Mike Kuchar c.1997 Zanja Press

Film At Wit’s End; 8 Avant-Garde Filmmakers by Stan Brakhage c.1989 McPherson & Co.

Film Biographies by Stan Brakhage c.1977 Turtle Island

Visionary Film, The American Avant-Garde; 1943-2000, 3rd Edition by P. Adams Sitney
c. 2002 University of Oxford Press

A Critical Cinema, Volumes 1, 2, 3, 4, 5; Interviews With Independent Filmmakers by Scott MacDonald c.1988, ‘92, ‘98, '05 University of California Press

Avant-Garde Film, Motion Studies by Scott MacDonald c.1977 Cambridge University Press

Big As Life; An American History of 8mm Films edited by Albert Kilchesty c.1998 San Francisco Cinematheque

The Last Machine; Early Cinema and the Modern World by Ian Christie c.1994
British Film Institute

Experimental Animation, Origins of a New Art by Robert Russett & Cecile Starr c.1976 Lilton Educational Publishing

Experimental Cinema; A 50-Year Evolution by David Curtis c.1971 Delta

The New American Cinema; A Critical Anthology edited by Gregory Battcok c.1967
E.P. Dalton & Co.

An Introduction to the American Underground Film by Sheldon Renan c.1967
E.P. Dalton & Co.

Critical

The Avant-Garde Finds Andy Hardy by Robert B. Ray c. 1995 Harvard University Press

Light Moving in Time; Studies in the Visual Aesthetics of Avant-Garde Film by William C. Wees c.1992 University of California Press

Maya Deren and the American Avant-Garde Edited by Bill Nichols c. 2001 University of California Press

Cinematograph, Volumes 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 Edited by San Francisco Cinematheque c. 1985, ’86, ’88, ’91, ’93 Foundation for Art in Cinema

Movie Journal; The Rise of the New American Cinema 1959-1971 by Jonas Mekas c.1972 First Collier Books (hardcover by MacMillan Co.)

A Moving Picture Giving Taking Book by Stan Brakhage c.1971 Frontier Press

Independent Filmmaking by Lenny Lipton c.1983 Simon & Schuster

The Super 8 Book by Lenny Lipton c.1975 Simon & Schuster

Super 8 In The Video Age, 3rd Edition by Brodsky & Treadway c.1988

Flicker, Your Guide to the World of Super 8 by Norwood Cheek c. 2000 Desert Moon Periodicals flicker@mekons.com

Girl Director, A How-To Guide For The First Time Flat-Broke Filmmaker (and Video Maker) by Andrea Richards c. 2001 Girl Press

Recipes for Disaster, A Handcrafted Film Cookbooklet edited by Helen Hill c. 2004 neworleanshelen@yahoo.com

The Animation Book (New Digital Edition) by Kit Laybourne c.1998 Three Rivers Press

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Links

http://www.handmadefilm.org – The Handmade Film Institute
Filmmaker/scientist/composer/backpacker Robert Schaller is a modern Renaissance man. His site is dedicated to extending, and supporting the use of motion picture film as an artistic medium. His week-long intensive workshops and wilderness filmmaking expeditions explore the nature and aesthetic possibilities of film as a physical, photographic medium, focusing on hands-on chemical processes and innovation in the service of art.

http://www.fredcamper.com/Film/AvantGardeDefinition.html – Naming, and Defining, Avant-Garde or Experimental Film
In this essay, writer Fred Camper clarifies the shared characteristics and qualities of avant-garde and experimental films. In addition, this piece links to his own literate and lively site, featuring dozens of his writings on art, favorite artists, films, travel experiences, and ‘current rants.’ One of my very favorite sites.

www.hi-beam.net/cgi-bin/flicker.pl – Flicker
Home page for the alternative cinematic experience; films and videos that transgress the boundaries of the traditional viewing experience, challenge notions of physical perception and provide cutting edge alternatives to the media information technocracy.

http://dmoz.org/Arts/Movies/Genres/Experimental_Film – Experimental film/media links
A directory of links to experimental film/media around the world.

www.cit-net.com/~fodder/ – Small Movies
A bottomless Super 8 resource with numerous related links.

http://lavender.fortunecity.com/lavender/569/ – 8mm/Small Format Film Metadirectory
An enormous site for 8mm and small format filmmakers that includes Internet and Newsgroup links, resource/service contacts, and archived posts from 8mm/small format film Usergroups.

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