Dilute sulphuric acid and potassium permanganate. I'm fortunate that the Science Dept at the school where I teach let me use some chemicals.

Thanks. I was genuinely flabbergasted that it worked so well on the first go - your directions were spot on. The drama of seeing it emerge in front of one's eyes is terrific. It certainly makes the 10x8 back really tempting now.

Finally had a chance to give this a try earlier this afternoon. I'm amazed that it worked so well! Thanks for sharing your method in the article.

An easy way I do it is to pull 2ml developer into the syringe from a beaker, then pull it up to 20ml with water from another beaker. Same for fixer. I don't mix up large quantities first and there's no waste, as any leftover chemicals go back in their bottle. In case it's relevant, I also bought an extra set of syringes, so I have a back up set if I exhaust the first set when I'm out and about. I labelled the sets A and B with a Sharpie, so I don't muddle them. I play it safe and only aim for two shots per syringe.

Cool idea! I'm surprised the tracing paper didn't wreck the definition. Could do all kinds of stuff. I might try with some hieroglyphs...

Thanks a lot!

Thanks for sharing your experiments. How do you do this? I run a school hobby, and the cost of the HDPP is the real crunch. Any way of saving on that would be amazing to know about!

Just checking - is it appearing totally white or totally black? I assume white...

That's brilliant! Thanks for these responses. Those videos are really helpful and completely match my experience yesterday - wish I'd seen them before! I obviously need to a keep an eye on Instagram.

I was about to start a new thread on this subject, but then spotted this one. I ran a school club with pinstas today and it was probably the coldest it has been for a session (not freezing, but chilly, about 4C). The photos came out much paler than usual - that was after the kit had been outside for about an hour. I then tried an experiment and did another photo outside with the same exposure, but with chemistry straight from indoors, so room temp (mind you, the paper hadn't been outside for an hour). That photo came out fine - so the exposure was fine for the light level. So, do you think if it's impossible to keep the chemistry warmish in the field, then a longer development would work? Any experience of that? But what about if the paper inside the camera has got really cold? I noticed there was a lot more 'staining' on the photo from the chemicals going in, suggesting something happened as soon as it struck the cold paper. Any ideas how to avoid that? Any suggestions appreciated!

It's probably too late to be of use to you now, but this may be helpful for someone checking this thread in the future. Bellini make paper developer and fixer in an 'eco' range. I have been using both products in a school club and they work really well. They are advertised as low in toxicity and quick to wash. Regarding the latter - Iflord say their DP paper should be washed for an hour under running water (that's a lot of water and time). But with this eco chemistry, I have only been giving the photos an extra swill of about a minute under the tap. A few months in, and none have stained yet... Anyway, here are links to the chemistry (they're available elsewhere, too): Eco Paper Developer: Bellini Eco Range Paper Developer, 500ml - Print Processing Chemicals - Firstcall Photographic Ltd (firstcall-photographic.co.uk) Eco Fixer: Bellini Eco Range Universal Fixer, FX100, 1 litre - Film Processing Chemicals - Firstcall Photographic Ltd (firstcall-photographic.co.uk)

If you try it out, let us know how it goes! I had been wondering how a night sky might come out. I've been shooting for about six months and haven't tried that yet, but having had very limited success with interior shots, I wouldn't be hoping for much. For example, I tried a 3 hour exposure in a big, dark school hall with a christmas tree lit up in the background. Those pinprick tree lights were similar to stars; they were visible, but, of course, they were stationary (and probably brighter than stars would be). Still worth you experimenting though!

Thanks a lot for sharing this info - great to hear a simple method to try out. I'd tried pre-flashing against a white object or the sky, but it wasn't great. And then I actually warmed to the contrastiness as just a feature of the medium, and decided just to try to work with it. I rather like it now. That's my philosophy at the moment, but it'll probably change!

Lovely photo!

Glad to hear it! (Wish I hadn't bought that ebay paper though - it was as expensive as brand new!)

This is interesting, as these look very much like the photos I am getting from a box of direct positive paper I bought off ebay when it was out of stock with Ilford. Really pale and flat, and mine are even a bit discoloured (my results from brand new paper from Ilford were great, so my developing method is fine). So, how old is the paper you're using? I wonder what the shelf life of direct positive paper is.