Self-isolation and quarantine have led me down the path of experimenting chemically with my film supplies as something to reinvigorate my love for the analog medium. One of my big to-dos that I’ve been super excited about was creating a ‘film soup’, or ‘souping my film’. The basic premise is you drop a roll of color film (either already exposed, or fresh) in to a liquid, leave it there to soak for a while, dry completely, and then either develop or expose and then develop.
There are great tutorials on this that gave me general guidance:
- A post from Shoot it With Film by Tom Box which goes through much of their trial and error process
- Some inspiration on different soups to try on this PetaPixel post by Polina Washington
- As always, some social media posts and blog from Lomography gave me inspiration to research and try it out in the first place
For my film soup, I purchased cheap, 24-exposure Kodak 400 Walgreens film to work with. I decided on the soup-first-expose-later method as done in Tom Box’s process, and then picked three different cocktails to drop my rolls in – coffee & cream, lemon gin cocktail, and Earl Grey tea. I mixed all of the soups with hot or boiling water in mason jars and then dropped my film in, sealed, and left on the counter/in the fridge for 24 hours. After leaving them to cook, I rinsed thuroughly in tap water, and then left to dry in rice for about a week. After the rice, I left the rolls to stand on the counter for a full month before taking the first one to expose.
This first set is my ‘coffee & cream’ set. The other two are still waiting for exposure in my desk when the mood hits me right. I chose this first because I was most concerned about the effect of any spoiling milk inside my spool. I did experience some sticking when I initially started the roll, but it smoothed out as I worked my way through and I had little problem going through a normal developing or spooling process after. And, I love the results. I think that I could have souped this roll a bit longer because the colors aren’t as psychadelic as others I have seen. However, the tint to blue and the waves of slightly richer color make these shots seem kind of ethereal and surreal to me, which I’m really enjoying.
Excited to shoot the other two rolls and share the results. I used my Olympus XA for these because it’s a super compact, easy-to-use camera that I take with me everywhere. For one of my next, now knowing that the film doesn’t stick badly and there was no damage to the camera from using the souped rolls, I’ll likely take out my Minolta instead.
Camera: Olympus XA
Lens: Standard Olympus F-Zuiko 35mm 1:2.8
Film: Kodak 400, 24 exposures
Double exposure at the beginning of the roll due to some slight sticking. 
Theodore Wirth Park. 
July 4, street view. 
July 4, day view. 
July 4, sky view. 
Backyard vibes. 
Plantings at Shadow Falls Park. 
Watermelons, empty market. 
Triple-exposure at the end of the roll, where I couldn’t believe I had already used all of my exposures (and accidental cut at the corner). 
Art guitar. 
AM walks through the neighborhood.
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