Alternative photography: Cyanotype, Photogram and Pinhole Photography

 It was so fun learning to do these.     

 *Here are a small handful of photos taken in "dark rooms" with a mobile phone - poor quality images for record purposes only. Final photo's of work produced to follow later.
 
The first one we learnt about was Cyanotype Photography.

Here are the chemicals

 





These chemicals are carefully measured into seperate, resealable containers, and each mixed with water.  Then they are added together, in a specific ratio, in a seperate containter - to make a yellow liquid that is painted on to paper/silk etc.  We had to decide on a object to use for our images - either an inverted acetate / transparency or an flat-ish item.  These were then exposed to UV light, in a lightbox for various recorded timeframes ranging from 2 - 15 minutes  (Inside) to 30min/1 hour outside (under glass).  Firm contact between the itme and the paper produced the best results.

 
I used a transparency my tutor lent me and a feather that I brought with. 
The items under glass, inside the lightbox.  Note UV Light is harmful to the eyes, so the lightbox is only switched on once the lightbox is closed.

This is the exposed result and the items used.  Next the image is washed and hung up to dry (this removes the yellow chemicals and some of the chemical that has already turned blue (on being exposed to UV light)



Before being washed






After being washed and hung out to dry.  This was very exciting and I loved this cyanotype process.

Here are some others I made:



M
More paper waiting to dry (this can also be dried inside a cupboard or with a blowdryer.
A skeleton leaf, before being washed out.

Slices of apples waiting to be exposed.

 
Hanging up to dry after being washed





SSome feathers exposed onto a piece of silk.






The beetle print - This one turned out nicely.


This is a print of a local polytunnel project.  An inverted image on acetate was used for this image.


Photograms - In the darkroom, we placed items onto photographic paper and expose these to light for a few seconds. These were two of my results - hanging up to dry after being washed off. It was amazing to see how the light can penetrate the objects, in such a short time.

 
The photographic paper in the dark room

 

 
I used fruit and veg for my items as well as a peeler and a knife.  These related to my Personal Sketch Book topic of the local poly tunnel project of growing and selling local produce (Vegetables, seasonal fruit and salad items.

A chilli pepper, a slice of apple, some corn/mielie seeds, fennel seeds, a peel and knife

 
Apple and cucumber slices, peas, chillie pepper and a carrot.  Its amazing how the light of the enlarger (in the darkroom) penetrated the peas to reveal their 3D nature.

After exposure these prints were placed in the 4 photographic trays:  developer, stop bath, fixer and then washed in water.  Then they were hung up to dry.




The darkroom safe light, that allows you to see in very dim light but does not contain ultra violet (UV) Light that will damage the photographic paper ( Light sensitive).  The exposure time is only 6 seconds which is a very short time to produce an image.




NEXT:  PINHOLE PHOTOGRPAHY



This was my first image with my "biscuit tin pinhole camera" (It had been painted black and modified with a tiny pinhole in the lid, a strip of tape for a shutter (seconds for exposure to light) and some photographic paper in it! It was amazing to see the results. *Note this is a negative image. The final positive images will be posted later.

Thanks to our tutor for teaching us this method of photography.


This was my second image.  I placed the "biscuit tin" pinhole camera closer to the subject (20cm) so that the subjects (Mug and water bottle)  took up more of the frame.  Exposure time was 12 seconds (outside)



 This was one of my images in the wash tray after exposing and developing the image.



It was quite fascinating that a tiny pinhole in a biscuit time could produce such defined results.  Note these are negative images.  The positive image is created by creating contact prints in the darkroom, onto a new piece of blank photographic paper.




This is a photo of  "My pinhole camera" (Biscuit time with a pinhole 'lens' busy taking an indoor photo (15 minutes) Final image to be posted shortly.