Alternative Process Handbooks

The latest edition of my Alternative and Historic Processes Handbook is available for download here, if you need a copy. Note that I'd like to use more of your images to illustrate it, so send me scans of any you feel would be appropriate.

Alternative and Historic Processes: A Handbook for Photographers.


This is also available through myUCA and as a hard copy in the library - see shelf no. XX(281820.1)

Recommended Reading:
Below is the bibliography from my handbook.  I particularly recommend the Christopher James book.  It's expensive (about £40 from Amazon) but it's very detailed, covers almost everything you can think of and it's written in an accessible, enjoyable style. It's also filled with inspiring images from a great number of contributors and cogent discussion of the motivation and meaning behind the artists' work.

Adams, Ansel,The Print. 1983. New York Graphic Society

Anon. Argyrotype With Fotospeed. 2001. Fotospeed.

Anon. Polaroid Image Transfer.  1989. Polaroid Ltd. 

Busselle, Julien. 2000.  Printing Special Effects. Rotovision

Ephraums, Eddie.  Creative Elements - Landscape Photography Darkroom Techniques 1993. 21st Century Ltd.

Ephraums, Eddie.  Gradient Light. - The Art & Craft of Using Variable Contrast Paper. 1994, Working Books Ltd.

Fielding, Dennis. The Cyanotype.  Article in ‘Darkroom User’, Foto Format Publications. 1996/5

James, Christopher. The Book of Alternative Photographic Processes (2nd ed) Delmar. 2009

Langford, Michael. 2003.  Advanced Photography, 6th Edition. Focal Press

Langford, Michael et al. 2007.  Langford’s Basic Photography, 8th Edition. Focal Press

Millard, Howard, 1998. Liquid Emulsion. Article in ‘Darkroom User’, Foto Format Publications. 1998/3

Reed, Martin & Webb, Randall. 1999.  Spirits of Salts. A Working Guide To Old Photographic Processes. Argentum. 

Sanderson,  Andrew. 2002.  Hand Colouring and Alternative Darkroom Processes. Rotovision

Digital Transfer Film: Make digital negatives!

Beytan Erkmen has some Digital transfer film (for internegative/positive inkjet) available for use in G32. The film comes in A3 but will be available in smaller sizes  to keep test costs down. Student charges will be slightly more than Lustre paper , £2 per A4 and £4 per A3 sheet.

Beytan says: " I will attempt to profile the paper from digital inkjet output through the RA-4 printer to enable students to contact print DSLR capture or scans to C-type paper. I have spoken to Abbs and we will be moving the print and negative densitometer into G32 to allow students to understand how to profile the digital negative densities to match the Fujichrome crystal archive colour paper or Monochrome.
I will also be asking Peter Renn for his advice into using the digital transfer film with the alternative process workshops.
All being well, this should provide new opportunities for students to bridge the digital capture/output resources with traditional wet processes and making students more aware of the possibilities to print manipulated or constructed images onto C-type, monochrome and non-silver historic print processes."

 I've not had an opportunity to test the new material (it's ordered through UCA and comes without branding but it's manufactured by Permajet. see http://www.graphicdesignsupplies.co.uk/digital-fine-art-media-permajet-fine-art-media-permajet-traditional-baryta-digital-transfer-film-165-permajet-digital-transfer-film-165-sheets-p-5216.html

I will be making test negs for alternative processes as soon as possible, starting with Argyrotype,  Cyanotype and Liquid Light.   We will, of course make all our findings public here so you can select suitable print profiles and contrast ranges for your intended use.

Silverprint are moving...

After a quarter of a century, dear old Silverprint are moving premises from the unlikely-seeming and faintly dodgy building in Valentine Place to a new shop near Southbank University, London College of Communication and Elephant&Castle.  The new address is 120 London Road
London SE1 6LF.  The phone numbers etc. remain unchanged.  While not so convenient from Waterloo (Martin, will you still be able to pick stuff up for us?;-) it sounds like a better location. Here's a map:

The new shop opens on Mon. 20th May 2013.  For more info visit http://www.silverprint.co.uk/creative.asp

Note: I have no business connection with Silverprint (although I sometimes wish I had a penny for every time I've recommended them over the years!) 

Sally Mann documentary

Here is a link to a wonderful documentary on Sally Mann, wet-plate collodion photographer and one of the most genuine, unpretentious and personally honest artists I've seen.  Lots of great footage of her at work both shooting pictures and at work in the darkroom. 
I love the comment she makes at one point: "I hope I never get too good at this". - Referring to the 'flaws' in the collodion process: the swirls, streaks and spots which would be derided by a 19th century practitioner, but which we now regard as wonderful, authentic adjuncts to the process.  

Generally with alternative/historic processes we aren't too obsessive about perfection, but interested in the things which give the images character. It's a fine balancing act, keeping the image truly photographic, while allowing just the right amount of imperfection (if that's not a contradiction in terms!) As Sally says, "You pray... please don't screw it up - but just screw it up enough to make it interesting!"

http://watchdocumentary.org/watch/what-remains-video_fe114b6df.html

NB: The video is also in the UCA Farnham library DVD collection.

Emulsion Lifts

I've been having a bit of a play with emulsion lifts recently.  As with so many processes there are conflicting bits of advice and/or opinions out there, but it's actually pretty simple.  I'll write it all up for the Handbook but first I'll try and give an overview of what I actually tried and what worked - and what didn't!

Overview: What is an emulsion lift?

An early experiment with Fuji FP100-C. crinkly edges are optional!

'Peel-apart' instant films such as Polaroid, Impossible Project and Fuji consist of a negative* sheet, a sachet of chemistry and a receptor sheet. One the negative has been exposed, pulling it out of the film pack spreads the chemistry over the surface, which is in contact with the receptor sheet. The image is formed as a thin, plastic-like emulsion which sticks to the receptor sheet and makes the print.  If you take the finished instant print and put it into very hot water, the emulsion layer will lift off. It can then be re-attached to another substrate. The image can be distorted or wrinkled in the process, or a textured, coloured or reflective substrate can be used, altering the appearance.
*The negative can be post-processed and used too!  See below.

You will need:
A small heatproof tray or dish to hold water at a temperature of 100C or so (so NOT a plastic developing dish! - A small Pyrex dish or other ovenproof cookery container is ideal.

A clean soft bristled paintbrush.
tweezers (metal)

A kettle full of water

Scissors

Substrate material. This can be almost anything. I used different art papers for my experiments but try whatever you have around.

PVA glue or 'Gel Medium'. - Technically this is optional but it depends on your substrate. PVA is standard white glue sold in art shops, builders merchants etc. Gel Medium is more specific, being used as a modifier for acrylic paints. 'Liquitex" is the brand I've been recommended. It comes in gloss, matt or semigloss types. (more on this later.)

A source of instant film images. I have built a couple of Polaroid backs for my 5x4 Wista and my quarter plate Thornton Pickard, but you can use a back for a college medium format camera or buy a cheap old Polaroid on Ebay (NB: you need one which will take TYPE 100 size film and you shouldn't have to spend more than £10). The last option is to buy a 'Daylab' instant film slide copier which allows you to copy transparencies and allows you to make editions of prints, but you need to make the 35mm slides first).

Method:
Shoot the instant film and allow it to develop fully. Peel it apart and set the negative aside to dry, preferably in the dark.  Let the print dry fully: You may get better results if you leave it alone for an hour or so. There doesn't seem to be any upper time limit. I've made it work with prints which were years old!

Take the print and carefully trim off the white borders with scissors. This is important as it exposes the emulsion edges for the next stage.

Fill the heatproof dish with boiling water to a depth of an inch or so. (at this point I'm sure I'm supposed to put in a Health and Safety Warning on handling boiling water but if you can be trusted to make a cup of tea unscathed you'll be fine;-)
Immerse the print in the water and keep it under with the tip of the paintbrush until it stays submerged.

Now prepare your substrate. I tried a variety of art papers. The most successful was a lightly textured watercolour paper such as 80lb Somerset (available in the UCA art shop)  the worst was Daler-Rowney cartridge paper;- unsurprising as it's less resistant to getting wet.  Start with something like paper and then progress to more difficult substrates like metal or glass once you've mastered the technique. Lay a suitable piece of substrate on a clean, flat surface.  You can mark your target area with light pencil dots at the corners. Prepare some gel medium or a small container of PVA mixed 50/50 with water.

Check on your print. After a minute or three you will see the emulsion at the edges starting to separate and 'frill'. help it lift by gently running the paintbrush between it and the print surface. Pretty soon the whole image will come off the print and float around the dish like a scrap of coloured seaweed. If you can, catch it again on the print as it's easier to handle that way. Hold the print in the tweezers so you don't scald your fingers and persuade the emulsion back onto it. Don't worry about wrinkles etc.

Now you're ready to transfer the emulsion. Using the paintbrush, coat the target area with a thin film of PVA or gel medium (some people recycle the glue off the print and it does work, but it's more difficult).
The glue will start to dry immediately so you need to work fast. The technique is simple: slide the emulsion off the print and onto the new substrate. spread it out with the paintbrush (or even your fingers) and coat the top surface with more glue. Wrinkles and rough edges are generally what people want from the process so experiment with how they look. The one thing you don't want is air bubbles as this means the emulsion is not adhering properly. Work any air bubbles out by smoothing from the centre outwards.  The emulsion will stick either way up so ensure your image is the right way around. (see the note below though!).

I used some old genuine Polaroid material for my first tests. Dark images were quite robust: The emulsion was almost like a piece of clingfilm. Lighter pictures however were very, very flimsy and some disintegrated in the water. This may well have been due to the age of the film though. I have not tried Impossible Project film at this stage but it's reportedly rather thin and fragile.   Fuji FP-100C however is terrific! Really strong and easy to work with, BUT the emulsion tends to curl down at the edges a lot. This makes spreading it out on the substrate difficult as the rolled edge is on the underside. If you don't mind reversing your image, flip the emulsion over and it's then easy to spread it out.

Allow the image to dry slowly. If parts peel away when dry, reattach them with a small amount of glue.

As the image area is so small (interestingly, the size is the same as the old nineteenth century 'quarter plate' size)  simple, graphic images or portraits work best. However, being direct camera images the level of detail is very high indeed.

* If you treat the negative with household bleach to remove the black backing it can be reclaimed and scanned. I'll put more details in the manual but for now see: http://new55project.blogspot.co.uk/2010/04/blog-post_6525.html

I'll post some more images here soon...