How To Make your own Light Sensitive Silver Photo Emulsion
How to Make your own Photo Emulsion
For Less than $ 15 USD Per Half of Pint ( 250 ml)
To make 250 ml ( half of pint )
of your own silver photo emulsion
in Less than 45 minutes; all you need is
Lucenta Rapid Gelatine: 24 grams
and silver nitrate: 6 grams
For step by step instructions
on how to make your own alternative
photography photo emulsion for negative and positive work Go to this page:
Photo Emulsion How to Make it yourself.
Sweep any bubbles formed to the edge of the plate. Leave the coated plates D, on the leveled table until emulsion sets into a stiff immobile solid. This make take 1 to 20 minutes at 18-25c / 64-77 f (depending on room temperature) During this time, block safe light from hitting the coated plates directly or just turn it off.
If room temperature is at 18c / 64f or below, the plates may have to be previously heated to body temperature just before coating to prevent emulsion from setting into a solid prematurely. On the contrary If room temperature is too hot 26c/79f or above; It may take a long time for emulsion to set, In such case wait until night time when temperature drops.
Make a simple test., drop a small pool (about 1ml) of liquid emulsion on the leveled glass, (put away emulsion jar safely inside its light proof container)
Turn normal room lights on and observe taking the time how long it takes the pool of emulsion to solidify at such room temperature. Setting times of 1 to 60 minutes are practical in which no further precautionary measures need to be taken. Lucenta gelatine is a very hard (240 bloom) with an extraordinary rapid setting time.(which is noticeable delayed by the alcohol)
SUPPRESSING BUBBLES Photo emulsion made as instructed here: photo emulsion make it yourself should be dosed with 10% ethyl alcohol and filtered, after which emulsion should not be shaken or stirred violently. Melt chilled emulsion portions gently. Follow this directions and bubbles are completely suppressed.
Cut thinnest window glass in sizes of 35 x 50mm.
In the darkroom coat with 0.75 ml of silver photo emulsion. Dry and expose plates in a 35mm reflex camera.
Speed: a little more rapid than wet collodion plates which dominated portrait photography for 30 years.
Exposure: Front Lit Subject under Bright Sunlight ; 1/2 of second at F 4.0 ( About ISO O.5 )
COST: coats 333 plates per half of pint (250 ml) = About 5 cents USD Per Plate Minus The Glass
Coat it on 35mm Glass Plates to Make your own Negative Film
2.Prepare Coating Table
For coating glass plates with photo emulsion; prepare a leveled glass table as shown in figure where on two wood strips AA, a window glass plate, B is leveled with the aid of a spirit leveler C
Insert pieces of carton D under wood trips to raise or lower glass B until it is perfectly leveled.
The liquid coated emulsion, due to the leveled plane will set with a layer of uniform thickness. The glass B can be a size of 8x10 inches (20x25cm) for holding 8 to 10 - 35 x 50mm negative glass plates.
4. Coat with Emulsion
In darkroom position red or orange safelight in a manner that you can see the coating table.
Place a few uncoated subbed glass plates on the leveled glass shown as A in figure with the subbed side facing up.
with photo emulsion liquefied at 30-35c / 86-95f; with a 1 ml dropper shown as B draw 0.75 ml of liquid emulsion and gently discharge it on center of glass plate as shown in C and spread it with dropper or fingers so it covers all its surface.
Expose your hand made negative film coated on 35mm glass plates in camera
See Below
3. liquefy
Emulsion
To keep liquefied emulsion at 35c for coating. Sit a larger dish inside water bath at 50c (122f) shown as A in figure. And on top of it, place the liquefied emulsion jar.
In this way emulsion will keep fluid for coating at around 30-35c (86-95 f) without ripening too much.
This will keep Lucenta rapid silver chloride emulsion which you have made yourself , from developing fog. Photo emulsion will be clean, as long as the same portion of emulsion is not heated more than 4 hours at this temperature.(35 c / 95 f )
To insure this, melt just enough emulsion for the job and coat it before 4 hours in this way also, thermostat settings of 50c, will not be disturbed to continue rapidly making more fresh and rapid batches of 250 ml (half pint) emulsions. Coating in next next step must be done in darkroom by red or orange light.
5. Dry the Plates
After your coated home made photo emulsion has set into a firm solid on the glass plate;
have a razor blade nearby to lift it off the coating table in case it has stuck to the leveled glass due to some emulsion spilling on the back of the coated plate.
Hold coated plate firmly (slippery) when you do this. Handle coated plates wet or dry only by the edges.
Wipe off any spilling on the back of the coated plate using a moist sponge.
To dry them, stand them on the wood plate holder as shown in figure and position the plate holder in front of a current of cold air coming from a fan.
All small plates size 35 x 50mm should be dry to the touch in 1.5 to 3 hours.
Instructions on How to coat glass plates to make your own photographic negative film given below apply also on coating glass with liquid light sensitive emulsion for positive work
with due regards for varying of glass size.
1. sub glass plates
LUCENTA CHROME ALUM SUB FOR GLASS AND GLAZED CERAMICS
Chrome alum is a gelatine hardener that makes emulsion stick to glass, preventing damage during processing. the LUCENTA formula below which I worked out back in 1980; is unrivalled for the purpose and keeps a lifetime. Chrome alum is not at this time listed as particularly toxic, but handle with discretion. FORMULA:
Distilled water 60 ml
ethyl alcohol 40 ml
glacial acetic acid 0.25 ml
flavorless food gelatine 0.5 grams
5 % chrome alum sol 2 ml
If in leaf form, cut gelatine in small pieces. Place with rest of mixture inside a glass jar with lid. Leave soaking for 30min, melt in a water bath at 50c, for 15-30 min. Stir occasionally until completely dissolved. Filter through paper,
Use top part of solution if solids sediment over the years. For larger quantities keep same proportions of ingredients.
To make a 5% chrome alum sol, dissolve 5 grams of it in 100 ml of water. (it keeps a lifetime)
Cut or have cut pieces of the thinnest window glass (about 2mm thick) into an exact size of 35 x 50 mm plates shown as B in figure.
This size will fit inside all SLR 35mm cameras. File the edges with a stone (protect your eyes) and wash them with detergent before applying the chrome alum sub already given
Next, by normal room lights, to sub them with chrome alum substrate solution they do not have to be dried, enough to stand them to drain after washing.
Handle plate by the edges and cover them with the LUCENTA chrome alum substrate solution using a 1 ml dropper as shown, drain excess (it can be used again) and stand the coated plate in the plate holder shown as A in figure which is made with wood strips.
Insert ordinary staples at the foot shown as C so the plates will no slip off the wood rack during transportation and use. Let the sub on plates dry naturally or air dry it (Now to recognize it -mark with an x the side of glass not subbed )
The plates are now ready to be made light sensitive with the LUCENTA Rapid silver chloride emulsion that you have made.
7. Expose Plates
Expose your hand made photographic plates in a 35mm single lens reflex (SLR) camera by mounting ( in the darkroom) on the focal plane of the camera, the light sensitive 35mm glass plate with the emulsion side toward the lens, shown as A in figure.
The pressure plate shown as B can be dismounted on all SLR cameras, in cases where the door of the camera refuses to
close easily due to thickness of glass plate. This is usually not necessary, but if a great number of home made photo plates are going to be exposed regularly it is recommended to dismount it. The pressure plate can later be remounted on its original position easily. Close camera and take out of darkroom to make the exposure.
6.Pack Plates
Following cold air drying, if coated emulsion feels a little sticky to the touch, It is due to emulsion attracting humidity from air.
Before packing, apply warm air to emulsion on the plate with blow gun as shown as A in fig above, (care with light flash on igniting gun) until coat no longer feels sticky
and while the plate is still warm; pack each plate or object immediately inside plastic bag shown as B (or wrap in cellophane ) so it will not absorb more humidity from air.
If packed without heating, plate will stick to plastic packing material)
Pack each coated object or plate individually as in C so they will not damage each other or stick together.
Store packed plates in total darkness. Under refrigeration at 5c / 41f or under, they will keep for months without change of speed or fog.
8.To make the exposure
Compose the picture using view finder and focus on the subject in the normal manner. Use built in or hand held light meter to measure light falling and convert the exposure given.
For example with setting for a film speed of ISO 25, convert exposure values given by meter to the values of a ISO speed of O.5 (by opening lens 6 stops or increasing shutter speeds accordingly) ) O.5 ISO is about the speed of the light sensitive emulsion you have made when ripened for 20 minutes at 50c/122f as instructed for making of the emulsion. (which see here:
Photo Emulsion how to make it yourself
TO MAKE TIME EXPOSURES Sit camera on a firm object or use a tripod, set the exposure speed to "bulb" press shutter and keep it press for all of the time of the exposure, then release it to close lens and to end exposure time
Approximate
Camera Exposures with out a Light Meter
with negative plates made with Lucenta Chloride Gelatine Photo Emulsion Ripened for 20 minutes at 50c/122f
With Lens Aperture set at F4
Take camera inside darkroom to develop and process the negative or to reload camera with another photo negative plate.
The silver halide emulsion that you have made, has a little more speed or light sensitivity of an average wet collodion plate ( ISO 0.25) which dominated portrait photography for about 30 years. The average exterior daylight exposure under bright sunlight for wet collodion plates (between 1855 to 1885) working at a lens aperture of f 8, was 5 seconds. In the shade or inside studio: about 10 to 20 seconds.
Portraits of people made with 5 seconds exposure are perfectly possible and very comfortably made. Today with the rapid lenses and your photo emulsion made with Lucenta Rapid Gelatine, Camera exposures can be made as short as 1/2 to 1/4 of a second at f 2.8
Exposure times without a light meter with lens aperture set at F4 see table below.
Mountains. Marine and beach scenes. Distant landscapes. Snow scenes without prominent dark objects in foreground.
Ordinary landscapes showing sky as main object in foreground
Nearby landscapes showing little or no sky nearby. Subjects in open fields. In parks or gardens. Portraits of persons
Shaded nearby scenes.
Persons or objects not under the direct illumination of the sunlight.
Full
Sunlight
Dark
Clouds
Sun
Under
Clouds
HAND HELD EXPOSURES
Any experienced photographer can get sharp negatives with hand held camera exposures of 1/4 of a second.
For sharp negatives with 1/2 to 1 second hand held camera exposures:
Rest the camera firmly against or upon an still object like a wall, poll, car, tree, etc.
Focus and press the shutter carefully without moving the camera. If unsure, use a tripod.
EXTRA EMULSION SPEED
Take out of the refrigerator the uncoated home made photo emulsion that you have made with Lucenta rapid Gelatine, and scoop out just a portion of it. Lucenta Home-made Photo Emulsion
( return the rest to the fridge) Leave this portion of emulsion at room temperature for 24 hours. During that time its light sensitivity will double. Coat on glass plates and dry. For negative work reduce exposures times given in exposure table above to about half.
It is possible under this condition, under bright sunlight to take portraits of people at about 1/8 of second at f 2.8, Exposure times can be reduced even more by simply using also electronic flash close to the subject.
Exposure times above are for a lens opening at f 4.0 If lens aperture is is closed to f 5.6, double exposure times given in photo exposure table above. If lens is opened to f 2.8, reduce the times to half. If your negatives are consistently too thin, double exposure times and/or develop for 60 seconds instead the recommended 30 seconds.(see below)
( those working with wet collodion plates can also use this table by just doubling exposure times given above)
Processing and Printing the exposed negative plates
Following exposure in the camera, the exposed plates can be stored for a few days before developing. But is recommended to develop your home made negative photo films on glass plates as soon as possible.
DEVELOP
For 30 seconds
at 20-23c / 68-73f with continuous agitation in a
paper developer like dektol diluted with 2 parts water.
STOP BATH
Transfer to a 5%
acetic acid stop bath for 30 seconds
FIX
for 10 minutes
In a hardening fixer
with frequent agitation.
Archival Permanency for negative or positive work:
first 5 minutes fixing bath can be used (but not overworked) but second 5 minutes bath must be fresh and unused.
WASH
15 - 30 minutes in gently running water.
DRY
cover negative plate with ethyl alcohol 1:1
for 2-3 minutes,
drain and stand upright to dry
naturally or under a current of cold air.
If tap water has too much calcium,
(white deposits which form on negative)
distilled or rain water may have to be
used for the last rinsing.
PRINTING THE NEGATIVE
Print your hand made negative photographic plate by projecting the negative image onto the light sensitive material.
This printing by enlarging is done in the normal photographic manner in an ordinary photo enlarger as shown in figure where the photo negative B under the lamp A is projected at any desired size by means of lens C onto the coated light sensitive material shown as D.
The light sensitive material may be made by coating any material or object with the same liquid photo emulsion you have made which works fine as a negative or positive emulsion. An invaluable tool in alternative photography work.
you can make pictures on plates, stones, eggs, wood, metal, plastics, cloth, canvas, sea shells, etc. The possibilities are endless. This alternative photographic work is impossible to create by any other media. Digital photography cannot even come close to this versatility or archival permanency.
Process the exposed positive material in the same manner as given for processing the negative.
APROXIMATE EXPOSURE FOR POSITIVE WORK
using the same hand made photo emulsion you have made for negative work: with a 75 w ordinary household lamp, with enlarging lens at f4
and a 2x magnification: about 10 to 20 seconds is a good starting trial exposure.
Saul Bolanos
working at the LUCENTA™ CAFEGRAFIA® research laboratories in Costa Rica, invented a novel process to manufacture gelatine for photographic emulsion work.
This proprietary exclusive process allows silver chloride emulsions to attain a light sensitivity of 50 to 100 times larger than any silver chloride emulsion before this date.
All you need now to make a half of pint (250ml) of your own photo emulsion at home is silver nitrate 6 grams and Lucenta gelatine 24 grams.
This will coat about 333, 35mm negative plates. 20 photographic plates for less than $ 1 usd
BUY 250 GRAMS of LUCENTA GELATINE
FOR $ 50 USD
Plus shipping
contact us
Make your own photographic negative film on glass plates
With your photo emulsion a real alternative to mainstream photography, Make also positive pictures on anything !
copyright ©2007 by Saul Bolaños
All rights reserved
LUCENTA Secret
Emulsion Formulas
Disclosed in a Book
- 7 Emulsion Formulas
(with any Gelatine)
- Step by Step
- 120 Pages
- 200 Figures.
Includes Rapid Negative
Emulsion ASA 32
CHAPTER : 1
Emulsion Speed History
Wet Collodion 1855-1880
Gelatine Pioneers
Harrison 1868
Maddox 1871
King and Johnston 1873
Johnston, Burgess, Bolton
Bennet 1878 Introduces First Ripening.
Mansfield 1879 Improves Ripening
Commercial Silver Bromide Plates 1878
Sensitivity of Wet Collodion Plates
Eder Introduces Ammonia Emulsions
Rapid Ammonia Plates 1880 ASA 3
ASA 6 to ASA 20, 1890-1915
Dye Sensitization 1873
Orthochromatic Plates 1882
Erythrosine 1884
Panchromatic plates 1902
Super color sensitizing dyes 1926
Orthochrome, Pinacyanol, Pinaverdol
Sheppard Sulphur Sensitization
Cramer’s Precipitation Technique1927
Antifog agents ASA 125 by 1935
Kolowsky Gold Sensitization 1936
Techniques combined ASA 320 1945
Color reversal Film ASA 25 1945
1980 Ultra Speed Color and Monochrome
Highest color films speed ASA 160 1975
Exposure Table for ASA 0.25 to ASA 250
CHAPTER II
Gelatine
Photo Grade Gelatin
Sulphur
Oxidation
Liming bone gelatin
PH of gelatine and emulsions
Hard soft and medium hard gelatine
gelatine quantity in proportion to silver
- Hardener for gelatin, Chrome Alum,
Formol, Potassium Alum
-Gelatine Sensitizers:
Active / medium active / Inert gelatines
-Sulphur, Retarders and Antifogants
Inert Gelatines
To make gelatin inert / citric acid
Practical Sulphur Sensitization
How to Sulphur Sensitize and test
GELATINE TABLE / Gelatin Types
CHAPTER III
Elemental Emulsion Chemistry
Emulsion how it is formed
Excess of Soluble Halide
Potassium Bromide, Ammonium Bromide
Halogen equivalent Table
Chemical Hazards / Ammonia, Silver
Nitrate, Chrome Alum, Salicylic Acid
Tools & Chemical in Emulsion Making
Basic steps in Emulsion Manufacture
CHAPTER IV
Emulsion Washing
Why Emulsions are washed
-Soluble ingredients: Ammonia, Potassium
Nitrate, Ammonium or Potassium Bromide.
Insoluble Ingredients: Gelatine,
Silver Bromide or Silver Iodide
-Washing Emulsion Figure 1
-Washing in 7 basic illustrated steps
-Emulsion Washing table 1
for ammoniacal and neutral emulsions
CHAPTER V
Ammonia # 1 Emulsion
for Testing Gelatin
- Positive ammonia emulsion formula
-How to re-dissolve Silver Nitrate
with Ammonia.
- Precipitation under Red Light
-Graphic Step by Step Summary
-Emulsion Mixing, illustrated
-Preparing the salts solution
-Precipitation
-Emulsion Washing, illustrated in 9 steps
-Re-melting washed emulsion,
- Second Ripening / Testing by dividing
It in Separate Lots
-Second Ripening with “normal” type
Of gelatine
-with overactive, fogging gelatin type x
-Second Ripening with “Inert”
Type of Gelatines
-Ortho-Chromatization with Erythrosine
-How to get more speed with # 1 Emulsion
Keeping uncoated emulsion in refrigerator
-Coating Finished Emulsion
-Shelf Life of Coated Material
CHAPTER VI
Hand Coating Plates & Paper
Coating 35 mm Glass Plates
-Preparing a coating Table
-Drying Glass Plates
-How to Pack the Plates
-Exposing the Plates
-Exposure table for ASA 3 Sensitivity
-Processing the Negative
-Paper Developer D 72 Formula
-Fine grain boric acid film developer
-Printing the Negative by Enlarging
-Enlarging exposures for emulsion # 1
-How to Coat Paper with a brush
and how to dry it with warm or cold air
CHAPTER VII
Chloride &
Chloro-bromide Emulsion
-Unwashed Positive Emulsions
LUCENTA Chloride and Chloro-bromide
Emulsions, general principles
-Developing Times / Warm Tones
-Variable Contrast
-Enlarging Speed /Chloride emulsion # 2
-Combining Molecular weights of Sodium Chloride with Silver Nitrate
CHAPTER VIII
Chloro-bromide Unwashed Positive Emulsions
-Rapid Positive emulsion # 2 Formula
-Text Instructions
-Illustrated step by step instructions
-Contrast / Speed / Stability
- Tones: Black to Sepia
-D 72 Paper developer formula
-Processing/ develop/fix / wash
-Emulsion Capacity
-Extra Rapid Emulsion # 3 formula
Read Table of Contents Below:
CHAPTER IX
Chloride Unwashed
Positive Emulsions
-Contact Speed Emulsion # 4
-step by step how to make it
-processing Chloride Emulsion # 4
-LUCENTA boric Alum Hardening Stop Bath Formula
-Contact Speed / how to Contact Print
-Coating Paper / Drying Paper
-Emulsion Capacity
-sensitivity to white light
-Contact Printing / Make exposure
-developing for blue black tones
-processing, develop, fix/ wash
- exposing developing for warm tones
-extra warm hydroquinone developer
-Ortho-Chromatization with Erythrosine
of Chloride & Chloro-Bromide emulsions
-Washing Emulsion ( optional)
-LUCENTA Chloride # 5 Extra Slow
Positive Emulsion formula
-Compared Light Sensitivity of 3 different
Positive Chloride emulsions
-LUCENTA extra Rapid Chloride Positive
Emulsion # 6
-Covering Power, Emulsion Capacity.
CHAPTER X
Rapid Negative Emulsion
-Antihalo fine grain/Analysis of Formula
-Role of: Potassium Iodide/ excess of halide / Concentration of precipitants/
Concentration of Gelatine/ Agitation during mixing / Rate of addition of Silver
/precipitation time/ nucleating with 20% of Silver in Advance / Mixing Temperature/
Making different quantities of Emulsion/
- Ratio AG / Gel
-Washing excess of free bromide
-Second Ripening Temperature
-Gel concentration during second ripening
-Volume after washing
- Rapid Negative Emulsion# 7 Formula
- Spectral or color Sensitization by bathing / preparing Erythrosine baths
- use of Nitrobenzimidazole as stabilizer instead of Potassium Bromide
- Panchromatization /Dyes added directly to emulsions: Pinacyanol, Pinaverdol /
-Panchromatization by bathing/ formulas
-how to process glass plates without damage
-Gold Sensitization / preparing Gold thiocyanate sol / Dosages/ Testing.
CHAPTER XI
Emulsion Problems/Solutions
-Age Fog
-Testing liquid emulsion when chilled
-Melting Points of Gelatin
-Testing for Biodegradation
-Test for chemical Fog
-coating / drying/
-Testing for frilling
-processing baths and sequence
-Developing times for different types of emulsions, Chloride/ Chloro-Bromide/ Bromo-Iodide.
-emulsion improver compositions
-Antifrilling composition # 1 / potassium alum added to Emulsion
-Antifrill comp. # 2 hardener, Chrome Alum
-Chrome Alum
-Effects of over hardening
-Mild Antifogant
-Potassium Bromide antifog/ dosage
-Nitrobenzimidazole/ as fog clearer
dosage in emulsion / dosage to developer bath/ Molecular composition/
Hypersensibilization of Emulsion
with Sodium Sulphite / With Sodium Carbonate/
-List of Emulsion & Processing Faults
blisters/ stains/ frilling / softening/
-Emulsion Coating Faults/ uneven pools of emulsions / Over working the fixing Bath.
-Conditions affecting speed and Contrast.
-Speed changes/ contrast/ maximum blacks/
-COATING WEIGHT OF EMULSION ON GLASS
CHAPTER XII
Formulary /Subs / Toners / picture varnishes/ baths / etc
-Preparing different materials prior to coating with emulsion.
-Clear Sub # 1 for wood / porous materials and plastics sanded with steel wool
-Sub # 2 for glass glazed Ceramics
-Sub # 3 for glass/metal/ special applications
-sub # 4 Heavy Duty for glass & glazed Ceramics
-Sub # 5 White Primer for filling porous
materials and impart white ground.
-Sub # 6 For adherence of emulsion to acrylic or oil primed commercial artist Canvas.
-How to coat Bare Metal with emulsion
-Clear Varnishes or Opaque Paints as subs or colored grounds
-Polyurethane Varnishes
- Coating Plastic Materials
-IMAGE PROTECTION / clear Acrylic varnishes
-Boric Acid, pot alum/ Acetic Acid in Fixing Bath
- F5 Hardening thiosulphate Fixing bath formula
-Capacity of fixer for hand coated materials
- Processing Hand coated emulsions
-How to Prepare Sodium Thiosulphate
-LUCENTA Direct Sepia Toners/
Hot Toner 406 / Cold Toner 407 with Thiosulphate and Tartaric Acid/ Hot Toner 220 by use of commercial fixing baths/
-ANTISEPTICS & FUNGICIDES to prevent mould on Liquid uncoated emulsion / Ethyl Alcohol/ Salicylic Acid/ Nitrates as Antiseptics in Unwashed Emulsions
CHAPTER XIII
Pinhole Photography
Camera without a Lens
-Simple Pinhole Camera
-Outdoor exposure table for ASA 8 without a Light Meter
-Perspective by hole to plate distance
-Pinhole Camera for Copying /macro work 1:1 Magnification
-How to Make the perfect Hole
-Diameter of standard needles
-Diameter of hole on image quality
-how to measure pinholes
-Focal Values of Pinholes
-pinhole with a 35 mm Reflex camera
-Calculate exposure by using a light meter
-Photography without a lens and coating your own plates
--------------------------------------------------------------
The Most Illustrated
Silver Emulsion Book Ever Written
-------------------------------------------------------------
Portrait of the Author
" I have written this book to be useful Today and even more tomorrow when all experts on this art will have all gone away.
It is a Valuable tool for Artists,
Scientists and Students.
It is not about Theory,
It is all about Practice with explicit
Working Directions & illustrations
of my own authorship ...."
© 2008 Saul Bolaños / Costa Rica July 2008
LIMITED EDITION BOOK
HAND PRINTED
Black & White Illustrations
Price Includes Shipping
To Any Where in The World
-------------------------------------------
USD $ 150
Orders: Contact Us
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