This silver based photographic paper differs from all others sold in the world market today in these important aspects:
1. it was engineered to be used without a darkroom 2. it is produced on the finest art paper available
3. it gives brilliant sepia tones with coffee
4. the image can be transferred
5. fixing can be effected without thiosulphate in plain water ( This for advanced workers only / see note)
BEGINNERS: lucenta ™ paper can be fixed for 5 minutes in Sodium thiosulphate: 10 grams dissolved in 100 ml of cold water. this solution is practically harmless, it will not attack skin or hurt environment. or use commercial photo fixer solutions. How to make the thiosulphate see below.
PHOTOGRAPHIC TRANSFER PAPER SPECIFICATIONS:
non toxic, insoluble light sensitive silver halide in gelatin coated in 100% cotton pure fiber artist watercolor paper. glossy finish / size of paper: 5x7 inches. 10s per package
shown below how to work this paper and what you need to develop pictures with coffee.
basically the lucenta™ silver based transfer paper paper is the only exclusive item you will need.
All other easy to get materials you can buy in your locality. the process is non toxic. requires no darkroom or machines.
how to make the ground coffee solution
do not use instant coffee, it may give poor contrast and for same reason do not add any alcohol to preserve it or use coffee that has sugar in it.
Dissolve 25 grams of roasted ground coffee in 250 ml of boiling water.( or 1 part coffee by volume with 3 volumes of water) Keep boiling for 30 seconds, take out of fire let sit and decant the liquid off the top for use or strain it to separate the coarse grounds( discard these) and then filter the liquid through cloth or filter paper.
STORAGE: will keep in good condition for use for 12 days. Final volume of the coffee, after separating the grounds, should be around 150 ml (concentration 14 -16% coffee)
stale coffee solutions will develop too slowly, require more light exposure and yield poor contrast, for this reason Keep the liquid coffee under refrigeration taking all the air out of the bottle.
Air will oxidize the developing agent present in coffee very quickly.
prepare the alkali: sodium carbonate
the acid in coffee requires to be neutralized in order to develop within a short time. of the many possible alkalis to activate the coffee solution, sodium carbonate is to be preferred because it is mild and it is available.
prepare a saturated solution ( about 9-12 grams in 100 ml of hot water) of anhydrous Sodium Carbonate (also known as soda ash) it keeps indefinitely.
How to make sodium carbonate at home
buy sodium bicarbonate (Baking soda) in any store or pharmacy. It is used as an anti acid for heart burns. Place about 50 grams ( or 1/2 cup) of it in a steel pan and heated it for 10-15 minutes strongly directly over a household burner set on "high". the bicarbonate rapidly decomposes into the "carbonate" at very low heat (200c) further heating will make it anhydrous.
do not worry about overheating your heating element will never reach the 1000c necessary to convert it into the oxide. after heating it should loose about 40% of its weight and its solubility increased from 5 to 20%
pack the dry carbonate and do not let it pick up moisture from the air. dissolve 20 grams of it in 100 ml of cold water to make about a saturated solution. keeps for ever.
sodium carbonate saturated solution...........100 ml
common kitchen (table) salt...................... 0.5 grams
too much salt will slow developing time.
prepare the fixer: sodium thiosulphate
dissolve 10 - 20 grams of the pentahydrate ( or any other form) in 100 ml of cold water. ready to use prepared fixer you may buy at photographic supply stores. follow instructions on package for fixing paper.
how to make sodium thiosulphate
at home. the photographic fixer
it is not dangerous but prepare this in the open air. but the odor is not pleasant and it will fog photographic material. avoid breathing the boiling water vapors. in a 4 liters stainless steel pot mix:
water................................................. 1 liter
yellow powdered ordinary sulphur .........25 grams
sodium sulphite ................................... 165 grams
heat at boiling point for 2 hours , with lid on pot so as not to loose too much original volume of water. violent boiling will not speed up dissolution of the sulphur. at the end of two hours evaporate solution to give final volume of 500 ml. cool and filter off any remaining un dissolved sulphur. the filtered odorless solution is about 30% strength in sodium thiosulphate.
it will fix any silver based film ( EVEN X RAY FILM) in about 1 minute. it will keep (with out acid indefinitely in a cool dark place)
CAPACITY:
diluted 1:1 water (15%) each 40 ml will fix an area equivalent to 5x7 inches of silver based photographic material in 5 minutes. diluted 1:2 with water (10% strength) 60 ml will fix it in 10 minutes. ( our lucenta paper requires only 5 min) for archival permanence of photographic material (100 years + with our LUCENTA Purest Fiber Paper)
as soon as those given areas have been fixed discard the fixing bath. it may be acidulated with about 1/5 its volume of white vinegar to avoid too much coffee stain. it is also known as sodium hyposulfite.
DISPOSAL:
can be safely flushed down the sink with plenty of water. a plain sodium thiosulphate solution has a extremely low toxicity (if any) but do not drink it. Protective gloves need not normally be worn to handle this compound or its solutions.
DO NOT CONTAMINATE THE COFFEE SOLUTION WITH THIOSULPHATE FIXING SOLUTION, any traces of if may render the coffee developer inactive or to act extremely slow. the working fixing solution may be used without adding any acid or, to prolong its life and keep coffee stain to a minimum, acidulated by mixing with equal parts of 5% boric acid solution, which is also non toxic.