Develop a Photo by Adding Water

A while back I made a 'Develop in the Can' pin hole camera. It worked great and so I wanted to see if it could be used to develop a photo by just adding water. It can be. Here's how....

• Develop in the Can Pinhole camera
• Photographic paper
• Washing Soda
• Instant Coffee
• Vitamin C powder
• Waterproof gloves

Combine 2 teaspoons of instant coffee, 1 teaspoon of washing soda, and approximately 1 teaspoon of Vitamin C powder or a crushed tablet. Stir the mixture, then add it to the 'Develop in the Can' pinhole camera, which should already contain some photographic paper. Remember, the photographic paper must be placed inside the can in a photographic change bag or a darkroom due to its light sensitivity.

Capture a photograph using the pinhole camera. I captured some images with an exposure time of one minute in bright sunlight. The camera was secured to a tripod with tape to prevent any movement.

• While in the shade and wearing gloves, add water to the can through the light stop.
• Shake the can to mix the active ingredients with the water.
• Shake the can every 10 seconds over 3 minutes
• Pour out the solution.
• Rinse by pouring in some water and shaking for about 30 seconds.
• Remove the light stop from the can and remove the photo.

The photo will be a negative image and will fade away quickly as it hasn't been fixed.

If you want a more permanent image. Take a photo of it with your phone's camera and then convert it to a positive image using an app like 'negative image'. Do a bit of enhancing and cropping as desired. My workflow is to:

• Convert to black and while image.
• Mirror the image.
• Crop it.
• Convert to a positive image using 'Negative Image App'
• Enhance the photo's contrast and brightness.

After developing a photo, you can reuse it to capture more images.