Study of hydrocinnamic/ascorbic acid-based formulation as chemical developer for commercial panchromatic photographic films

Abstract

Characteristic curves of photographic film are considered as an industry standard for all film manufacturers. Based on the optical density of suspended silver particles, a characteristic curve is unique to each film type providing a reference point to the users on the quality of any chemical development process subjected to the product. Most of the commercial developing chemical’s usage were calibrated towards the curves. However, the bulk of the published curves are based on commercialized standard chemicals formulation, absent in either newer or non-commercialized formulations. To justify the feasibility of these formulations, we must therefore construct the required characteristic curves, albeit qualitatively. This study suggests ways in which to utilize the trend in characteristic curves to provide a preliminary assessment of Caffenol developers over a few film emulsions from different manufacturers. All film emulsion tested give lower quality negatives, but KODAK and Ilford show usable results for normal photography uses.