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Thread: Contact prints without a darkroom?

  1. #21
    Donald Qualls's Avatar
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    Contact prints without a darkroom?

    If you want to be even more "period" you could underexpose a bit (how much is a matter for testing) and sandwich the dry, finished negative over black velvet in a simple frame to make a faux ambrotype. Scattered light from the developed silver will make the highlights show light against the black backing. I've thought about doing this with a monobath developer and minimum-liquid processer to be able to go dry-to-dry in something like 20 minutes on a push cart, and hand out original "ambrotypes" in a lunch break. My cameras are a little on the new side to look right for Wild West or Civil War reenactors, though -- might have to work on that.

    Other authentically period processes (some a little faster than POP) are cyanotype -- cyanotype was the first printing process, predating glass negatives by 20-30 years (it was used for reproducing line drawings and making photograms before there were negatives to print with it) -- albumen, salted paper, or van Dyke, all of which are printing out processes (meaning you can expose the print by eye).

    Cyanotype is especially good because of low toxicity (the chemicals are safe for children), and will print out fully in five to ten minutes in full summer sun; only water is needed as developer, and paper can be sensitized ahead of time and kept, at least for a while (there are a couple sources of commercially precoated paper, so the box life must be at least a few weeks), and since it's UV sensitive, you can load the printing frame in a good light as long as the UV is filtered out.

    Salted paper is the next simplest, but the sensitized paper doesn't keep as well as cyanotype, and has some sensitivity to blue, so you have to work in safelight; in addition, you need silver nitrate solution to sensitize the pre-salted paper, and fixer to stabilize the image after exposure.
    If a contact print at arm's length is too small to see, you need a bigger camera. :D

  2. #22

    Contact prints without a darkroom?

    I think there is POP information on the Alt list: http://www.usask.ca/lists/alt-photo-process/ Getting fiber prints dry and flat in a reasonable time may take some thought. I don't know what weight POP is, but the Azo contact paper that Tom Perkins mentioned only comes as single-weight so it should dry faster than double-weight papers. Agfa Neutol-WA or Ansco 130 give much better color to Azo than Dektol. A dry mount press is supposed to be the best way to flatten prints, but I don't have one, so I can't give any information on that. I've seen plans for a DIY dry mount press if you want still another project.

  3. #23

    Contact prints without a darkroom?

    Yup, gonna have to haul out my old darkroom manual and look at some of the other processes to. Always wanted to play with some different methods of printing.

    It is challenging in that your average fair-goers arrive sometime in the morning (9 a.m.) , spend the day, and leave between 4 and 7 p.m. If I could send them home with a antiquie-looking print for $5 to $10, it would be a big seller (maybe too big!). Having a picture of the kiddies on the back of a steam engine, a picture that looked like it was taken in 1900, would be a unique souvineer! Most of the visitors pack a modern point-and-shoot camera, so the antique look of the print is important to make them saleable.

    (I never had so many pictures taken of ME as last year when I was photographing, in costume, with the LF!)

    Ellen: Sorry, it isn't in "the U.S. of A." - try Manitoba, Canada! It's the Thresherman's Reunion at the Manitoba Agricultural Museum, 27 to 30 July 2005 It typically attracts 10,000 to 18,000 visitors over the 4 days.

    Thanks for all the ideas group!

  4. #24

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    Contact prints without a darkroom?

    You may want to look closer at the cyanotype process. You don't have to have darkness to coat the paper just semi-dark. You expose the print in daylight and you process the print in water!! All you need is a good harrison changing tent and a drum for developing the film and you are ready. It is also very cheap to do cyanotype prints. I beleive you will be well within your target cost to be able to sell an afordable product. On top of it all cyanotype was the first process print that was used. It is the grandfather of blueprints as we know them today.
    Good luck and keep us posted on your progress, we would love to know.

  5. #25

    Contact prints without a darkroom?

    Wasn't there one (or more?) of the old processes that photographed directly on to glass and the glass became the print? DANG! I'm sure, but I can't remember what it was called..... (Suffering from CRS!)

  6. #26

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    Contact prints without a darkroom?

    The process you are probably thinking of is the Ambrotype, basically an underexposed wet plate that is backed with black velvet (or something similar) once processed. The image then appears as a positive. Obviously I'm a POP fan so here I go again: you can expose it on cloudy days (still plenty of UV) or you can expose it to black light, easy to get at a lighting supply shop. There is also a RC version of the paper if flattening is a problem, and unlike AZO, the fiber paper comes in DW. That's the last I'll say about it, I promise. Other non-silver processes are fun too, cyanotype and Van Dyke brown are simple and inexpensive. There is also a Liquid Light Tintype kit out there, which uses a gelatin emulsion on a metal plate, similar to what was done in the 1860's. Also fun.

  7. #27

    Contact prints without a darkroom?

    Erik, Erik, Erik . . . what am I going to do with you ;-)

    Fear not! I have already started toward ordering some POP paper and chemicals. I'll try it out, see what the results look like, and see how the total processing time works out. I will use a UV lamp to get more predictable results (and probably shorter exposure time). The rest of the process is pretty straight foward.

    Thanks.

  8. #28

    Contact prints without a darkroom?

    It is usually recommended for Azo and most alt processes to shoot a much more contrasty neg than for normal silver paper. Maybe Erik can comment on this for POP.

  9. #29
    Donald Qualls's Avatar
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    Contact prints without a darkroom?

    CJ, you can see an effect similar to ambrotype by taking any modern film negative (underexposed or perhaps underdeveloped, highlights need to be thin but shadows shouldn't be blank -- that's a subject for testing) and mounting it on a light-absorbing black background (velvet etc.); glass plates would be most authentic, followed by lacquered iron with the emulsion painted on, as with the tintype kits, but the appearance is much the same done with film, and would require much less additional equipment. Inexpensive frames with card and velvet replacing the corrugated inner spacer and a vignette mask or similar replacing the glass would produce a reasonably authentic look, cheaply; you can get the simple metal self-standing frames in 4x5 for a few dollars each at retail, and might be able to save some if you buy a case or two. Alternately, you could get frames printed in card stock that would fold up and accept the negative and velvet slipped inside, plus incorporate a cover like the old Daguerreotype cases (similar styles were commonly used for ambrotypes, also, and occasionally for tintypes/ferrotypes).

    The down side of ambrotype style photography is that you give up the negative -- like shooting a Polaroid, except that the negative, though thin, can still be scanned or printed (with some small effort) at higher quality than duplicating a print. If you're not concerned about giving up the camera original for these images, this may be the way to go.

    Also, an option to consider for the short-stay visitors is to offer mailing of the finished photo for a small extra charge. Then you don't lose customers because they won't be around long enough to pick up their finished photo.
    If a contact print at arm's length is too small to see, you need a bigger camera. :D

  10. #30

    Contact prints without a darkroom?

    I am finding the concept of alternative print making absolutely fascinating! I feel like I have stumbled into a whole new world of possibilities :-D I found a couple of books, "Coming Into Focus: A Step-by-Step Guide to Alternative Photographic Printing Processes" and "The Book of Alternative Photographic Processes". Have any of you read these? Would you suggest one over the other?

    Many thanks ya'll!

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