shooting paper instead of film?

[Daniel_Buck]

I'm curious about this, when I was in college I made quite a few pinhole cameras and always shot directly onto paper instead of using film. The images were negative, but they were on paper and quite fun!

Are there 'normal' paper types (positive paper?) that could be used to shoot directly onto and not have a negative image? I bet this would be enjoyable, to shoot directly onto paper and get a B&W print on the first develop?

I realize contact printing would yield the same (or better?) results, but I'm curious about shooting paper. An 8x10 sheet of paper should load into an 8x10 holder, correct?

[vinny]

Some papers will fit but not all will fit. There aren't any b+w pos papers that'll process out but ilfochrome will for color, although there are serious drawbacks like high contrast to deal with.

[cotdt]

you can use vevlia

[Clay Turtle]

Used to be a method (chemistry) for making b&w transparencies out of negative film but not sure if it could be translated to paper. Lot easier to use the paper negative & contact print the positive.

[Nathan Potter]

I have used Ilfochrome - quite a while back. Made a homemade rig for doing still lifes by cutting a hole in my old darkroom wall in Massachusetts that would accept a film holder/lens setup and later a Linhof view for 8X10 sheets. Used 3200K lamps for illumination and small CC filter packs. Color balance was a bit of a PITA but results were quite beautiful.

Nate Potter

[Daniel_Buck]

Not talking about film, I'm talking about paper, non transparent :-) Sounds like that's not going to work. I was just curious, because I remember how much I enjoyed looking at the paper negatives.

Thanks for the replies though! I'll eventually get into color transparencies I suspect.

There aren't any b+w pos papers that'll process out

Thanks, that's what I was looking for. :-)

[jnantz]

daniel

the chicago ferrotype company used to sell postive paper and chemistry
for their camera, the mandelette ... this was in the 1920s.
i know there are street photographers (or so i was told there were)
in mexico who will make a portrait while you wait on paper. it is the same
stuff as the mandelette / chicago ferrotype camera ...

john

[Nick_3536]

There have been various discussion about doing this with colour paper. Both RA-4 and Ilfochrome.

I sort of remember similar discussions about B&W paper on Apug.

[Randy H]

There are indeed some "positive" print papers out there. I do not recall immediately what or where. Go to APUG and do a search under their "Pinhole" forum. You will be able to find it there. They have quite a pinholer following, and this has been addressed several times there. Some shots had been posted there, and they look pretty good. my mind is not functioning 100% this early in the morning, but IIRC, it seems like panalure will shoot positive. Don't hold my feet to the fire on that. I would have to go see if that is what I did. It has been a few years here, too, for pinhole stuff. Still have a hubacious 8X10 pinholer that hasn't been out in about 4 years. May have to dig the thing out.

[Martin K]

I think it would be fun to try a variation of Fox Talbot's process which was a paper negative and gave a very distinctive feel. Use a RC paper and peel the emulsion. It will curl a great deal of course so stick it under glass and make a contact print.