anthotype

[Steven Scanner]

I don't know if I placed this thread in the right place, but it is about a printing process.

I've recently discovered this old process. My goal was to find an alternative way to take a picture. One with an enviromental friendly use of products. Anthotype is a way to create images with sunlight and light sensitive flowers and plants.

So far I found this:
http://www.alternativephotography.com/wp/processes/anthotypes/anthotype-process

Has anyone ever tried this process before? Does the bleaching go as slow as the discolering of a newspaper of does it go faster? Can I use anthotype to replace light sensitive film and have an exposure time of a couple of days?

[Steven Scanner]

The best way to learn something is by doing it.
I've crushed about a dozen nice dark purple flowers. I used a garlic press for this. Faster and less messy than a pestle and mortar. I added a few drops of water and stirred it until the water picked up the color. I put this thrue a siv and repeated this 3 times.
Right now I've got 2 regular printing papers and 2 postcard aquarel papers coated in two layers of the pigment. I think I'm going to do two more coats and then I try them on my DIY camera. One paper will go in the camera, the other for refrence in direct sunlight.
Pics will follow later.

[csant]

My guess is that in a camera it will take weeks if not months - if it works at all… Consider this - a sheet of film might take a fraction of a second exposed to a bare light bulb, but maybe it needs an hour in the camera to be properly exposed.

If you print a negative, I would place a thin mylar sheet between the neg and the print - just in case the flower mix affects the neg…

[Steven Scanner]

I'm guessing the same thing. Couple of weeks or months (or not at all) My theory is this: If the bare exposed sheet is bleached by the sun, something might have happend to the camera sheet. If nothing happens to the bare sheet, nothing happens to the camera sheet.
The camera has got a 8cm diameter lens so it lets thrue a lot of light. I'm not going to use the aperture. The camera will be pointed towards our garden. The sun comes up on the left side of the garden and sets on the right, so full solar exposure during the day. And it's winter the sun stays low during the day. We've got a couple of trees and bushes in the garden to create dark spots on the image.
I'm not going to use a negative for the refrence sheet. (this would create a negative image, light parts are bleached, dark parts stay dark) I'm going to use some distinctive flat objects to create the image.

[David R Munson]

For the hell of it, I once contact-printed a few negatives onto cheap, colored construction paper. The dye in that sort of paper fades noticeably in a matter of hours. The results weren't amazing, but it was an interesting afternoon experiment.

[Steven Scanner]

The sheets have got their 4 coats of flower paint. It's purple Anemone. The paint is starting to smell bad, so I think I'll stop painting. The purple has turned into a brown shade. Tomorrow evening I'm going to give the scanner camera another try. It seems to work better with less light. After this I'm going to set up the camera with a anthotype sheet of paper in it.
I think considering the low sunlight and minor light sensibility of the sheets, I'm going to go for a full day exposure time. Let's see what that does and continue from there.
@David: Actually, this is actually for me "just" an interesting experiment. For all I know, it's never been done before. Contact printing has been done, but exposure via large format camera has never been done. I want to know why not. Doesn't it work? Does it work but not the way we want? I guess time will tell.

[Steven Scanner]

As I expected a day of winter sunlight wasn't enough to make an image. Both contact sheet and camera mounted sheet have nothing on them. I'm not using the camera for a couple of days, we'll see what that does. The contact sheet can go on for as long as it would take. Regular checkups will be made.
Meanwhile I'm looking for another alternative printing processes. My main goal is to find a way to take a picture without the use of exotic chemicals. Suggestions are welcome.

[imagedowser]

The water your using is one of the two universal solvents, alcohol is the other..... if you repeat the process with alcohol you may increase your pallet of hues and it might slow down the plant matter decay/smell. Or use both individually and blend the extraction. This sounds like fun.

[Steven Scanner]

I made another batch with alcohol (Denatured alcohol) and purple Anemone. This works 100% better than with water. It doesn't wrinkle the paper and it dries almost instantly. The trypod for my DIY camera is almost finished and this week there is going to be a couple of nice sunny days. I'm going to give it another try. Same as the last time. One sheet inside the camera, one sheet for refrence with a contact print.
I keep you posted.

[Steven Scanner]

the contact print worked. 3 days of sun bleached the paper good enough to leave a mark. With a darker painted paper to start with and a bit more patience the print would be better. The experiment with the camera didn't work, as expected. After 3 days nothing happend. At least the sun didn't burn a hole in the paper or started a fire. That's a good thing. :)

[eduardohildt]

Hello. I am Eduardo Hildt, from Argentina. I am searching the anthotype as a curiosity and a possibility to take photos without buy chemicals. I found a photo on Flickr taken with a pinhole camera using an emulsion of wine and one month of exposure.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/jophoto67/4929255535/in/photostream/
This shows that the technique is possible in long exposition time. I will try to do it with a compact 35 mm camera. I will comment the results. Thanks for sharing your experiences. Greetings

[Steven Scanner]

Hello Eduardo, if the picture you found on Flickr is taken with a pinhole camera with one month exposure, than I have to be more patient. I did a 3 day exposure with my homemade large format camera. I'm going to try again in the summer, when there is more light.

[eduardohildt]

Hello Eduardo, if the picture you found on Flickr is taken with a pinhole camera with one month exposure, than I have to be more patient. I did a 3 day exposure with my homemade large format camera. I'm going to try again in the summer, when there is more light.

Hello. I made a mistake in analyzing the Flickr photo: Apparently only is a positive impression (anthotype) of a negative made ​​with the pinhole camera. Another user told me it would take years to expose. Sorry for the promising error. Greetings.