Cyanotype

The cyanotype is one of the most recognizable processes due to its blue tone. John Herschel, the man who coined the term photography, invented it in 1842. Like most of those who were developing photographic processes, Herschel was a scientist and this process gained fame for scientific reasons. Anna Atkins, a botonist, created the first book to include photographs by using the cyanotype process to create photogenic drawings of British algae. Atkins also used this process to document ferns and other plant life.

Anna Atkins. Cyanotype

The cyanotype process is very simple and can be done by anyone. It is a simple mixture of two solutions, potassium ferricyanide solution and ferric ammonium citrate solution. When these two solutions are mixed in equal parts the form a green liquid. The cyanotype process can be performed on any surface that will absorb the mixture. Any paper, cloth, wood, and even stone can create a cyanotype. I have tested several different types of papers as well as wood for this process. Simply coat your surface with the chemical mixture out of UV light, when it is dry place your object or negative in contact with the surface and expose. This process is fixed simply by rinsing the photograph in water. If there is not a good surface and the solution did not get absorbed the image may wash completely off the surface.

I have had my image wash off significantly and that is very frustrating. It is easy to avoid when you know which types of papers work best, my favorite paper is the 100% rag. I enjoyed creating cyanotypes on wood more than any photographic process I have tried. To get a good image I coated my wood with a gelatin layer before coating twice with cyanotype mix. I found that the image really comes out with a lot of washing since the solution can be absorbed deep into the wood.

This Photograph of my wood print does not show the level of detail visible when observing the piece up close in high light. I have made 3 prints on wood and plan to continue experimenting with this process.

My favorite aspect of cyanotype printing is the versatility. I have seen people create very interesting objects such as clothing, stone tiles with photographs, and photographs on other cloths. I enjoyed printing on wood, an idea I became interested in hoping to cyanotype a skateboard.

Links:

http://www.alternativephotography.com/wp/processes/cyanotype/cyanotype-classic-process

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eAZYdXve8iE

http://www.bostick-sullivan.com/cart/home.php?cat=51

Albumen

Alexander Gardner. Abraham Lincoln, April, 1865. Albumen Print

Albumen printing rapidly grew in popularity from its invention in 1850 until the turn of the century. Its acceptance was due to the greater amount of detail and clarity. This is “because the image resided in the compact layer of albumen on the print surface, instead of deep within the fibers of the paper.” (Reilly) Dictionary.com defines albumen as “egg white, or the protein contained in it.” Louis Desire Blanquart-Evrard developed this method to use egg whites as a binding layer to increase photographic clarity. He published his findings in the bulletin of the French Academy of Sciences in 1850. The success of this process is partly due to the collodion wet plate negative. These superior negatives have a high density range and fine detail. Collodion wet plate process required a printing process that could complement the high quality negative, and albumen was a perfect match.

Links:

http://albumen.conservation-us.org/library/c20/reilly1980.html

http://www.alternativephotography.com/wp/processes/albumen/albumen-printing

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EgLFsU2kvG0

To create an albumen print you must start by separating the egg yolk from the egg white, 500 ml of egg white is a good amount. When this is done mix your egg whites with 3 ml of vinegar and 7.5 g of sodium chloride. Strain the albumen mixture through a cheese cloth into a dish for coating. To coat the paper you will simply float it in the albumen bath. To avoid curling bend the edges up the paper upward to creat a boat, allowing only one side of the paper to touch the albumen, this also prevents an undesirable print-through effect of having albumen on both sides of the paper. Watch out for bubbles, they can be scraped away with a toothpick. Hang the paper up to dry. To apply a double coat you must dip the papers in an alcohol bath in-between coating.

My albumen prints suffer from some streaking, due to the runoff of hang drying. There is also evidence of bubbles damaging the image. My single coating prints turned out better than the double coating. I found that the double-coated albumen paper requires a double coat of silver nitrate to form a strong image. My images co

uld benefit from stronger negatives; one reason that albumen prints of the past look so strong is because of the glass negatives. Below are my results.

This process opened up the world of photography to depict all kinds of new scenes. Daily life was being documented more as well as major events, such as the civil war. Good prints could be created to keep record of objects and events of the time. The civil war was the first major event in United States history that was well documented photographically.

Timothy O’Sullivan. A Harvest of Death, Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, July, 1863. Albumen Print

Camera Obscura

The term Camera Obscura comes from the latin words camera, which means "room", and obscura, which means "dark." In the 5th century B.C. Mo Ti of China was the first to acknowledge the phenomenon of the camera obscura when he noticed that the reflected light from an illuminated object will create an inverted image when passing through a pinhole into a darkened room. Aristotle noticed this as well when an image of the sun during a partial eclipse passed through a small hole in the wall. In the 13th century camera obscuras were used by astronomers to view the sun. It wasn't until the 16th century that artists used to camera obscura as an aid to achieve perfect perspective and more accurate detail in drawings. The camera obscura was also used as a leisure activity during this time. People enjoyed spying on unsuspecting passers-by from inside the room where they could not be seen.

camera obscura

Artist using a camera obscura to make a drawing

From the 17th to 19th century there were several improvements made to the camera obscura technology. Lenses were added to increase sharpness, mirrors were added to correct for the inversion, and portable camera obscuras were made for traveling artists. The camera lucida was invented in 1807 by William Hyde Wollaston. This device used a prism and a lens on a stand to superimpose an image on drawing paper to make transcribing easier. The camera lucida allowed for artists to view both the actual scene and the image of the scene on the paper as they draw to create the most accurate drawing.

camera lucida

Relevant links:

http://www.photography.com/articles/history/camera-obscura/

http://www.ehow.com/how_4450643_make-camera-obscura.html

http://www.howcast.com/videos/387145-How-To-Transform-a-Room-Into-a-Camera-Obscura

http://www.rleggat.com/photohistory/history/cameraob.htm

http://www.gilai.com/article_23/How-to-Use-Your-New-Camera-Lucida

I used the online directions on ehow.com (link above) to begin my camera obscura. I used a shoebox and cut a hole slightly smaller than my magnifying glass lens in one end. I cut apart the opposite end of the box and removed part, but left a flap as a door so that the inside could be completely dark while you view through an eye hole.

I had difficulty constructing the camera obscura at first because I didn't realize that the lens would change the focal length. I didn't know how to calculate the focal length nor did I get it correctly with any of my guesses. I was stuck until I realized that I needed to include moving pieces.

I found a toilet paper roll and taped my lens to the end so that I could slide the lens forward and back to get good sharpness. To ensure that I would be able to achieve a good sharp image I decided to make my wax paper (the viewing surface) a movable element as well. I found a box that would fit inside my shoebox and made necessary cuts so that the wax paper could be viewable and slide back and forth.

Finally I taped up all holes and wrapped the box with black paper to make it look prettier and to keep excess light out.

Here is my result-

My camera obscura is very easy to use and the magnifying glass lens creates a strong image. The box is a bigger than necessary but that isn't a major flaw. The only think I would change about my camera obscura is the size. The only difficulty I had was not knowing the focal length and having to figure out how to work around that.

At first it seemed silly to me that people would pay to go inside a camera obscura and watch people from inside. I didn't realize that we still do the same thing all the time. Whether its just looking out the window at people walking by, unaware that you're watching, or looking at someone's webcam across the world from them. It seems that we are doing the same thing as people of the past but the technology that has advanced allows us to do it at a much greater scale.

The camera obscura is a simple tool. They are simple to make and simple to use. Today they do not have much use due to all the technology we have. During its time the camera obscura was revolutionary and exciting. This discovery ultimately lead to photography being researched and developed.

Photogenic Drawing/ Salted Paper

In 1833 William Henry Fox Talbot was the first to create a silver image on paper. He originally used this process to create photogenic drawings. Photogenic drawings are contact prints created by placing an object on top of sensitized paper and exposed in the sun. Anna Atkins, an English botanist and photographer who learned directly from William Fox Talbot, used the cyanotype process to create photogenic drawings that catalogued British plants, such as the one below.

Anna Atkins Cyanotype photogenic drawing (not salted paper print)

Talbot achieved a faint image by applying a sliver nitrate solution to paper, however when he pre-coated the paper with a salt solution the image was much stronger. This process is a printing-out process, this means it requires no chemical developing and the image is completely formed during exposure. Talbot used this process to create the calotype, paper negatives were created by placed salted paper in a camera (example below). These were criticized for their grainy appearance and long exposure times, but were used because it was the only method to create multiple prints from a negative until the wet plate process was invented.

William Fox Talbot. The Open Door. 1843. Salted paper print from calotype negative

Here are some useful links for salted paper prints and more examples of the process.

http://www.alternativephotography.com/wp/processes/saltprints/a-dash-of-salt

http://albumen.conservation-us.org/library/monographs/reilly/chap3.html

http://books.google.com/books?id=6HECAAAAYAAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=photography&hl=en&ei=2wu3TcDoJMaSgQe_xYGCAQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CGcQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q&f=false

The process is quite simple. You start by mixing the two solutions: salt solution and silver solution. Add 2 grams of sodium chloride (salt) to 100mL of water and stir to create the 2% salt solution. Next add 12 grams of silver nitrate to 100mL of water and stir to create 12% silver solution. It is important to where protective equipment such as safety goggles, gloves, and a lab coat when mixing and handling the silver solution because it can cause damage to your eyes, skin, and clothes.

After the solutions are prepared you can begin to coat your paper of choice. Some papers are better than others but most papers will work. I have found that 100% rag paper works best. In the Philosophical Magazine that Talbot published he suggests using a good firm quality paper with a smooth surface. Use a brush to apply one coat of salt solution to your paper. Use even brush strokes and be careful not to overwork the paper. Dry the paper before applying any more coats. You can let the paper air dry or use an electric air dryer to hasten the process. Once the paper is dry apply the first coat of silver solution. Dry the paper and apply the second coat brushing perpendicular to the direction the first coat was applied.

After the paper is dry you can place your objects on top of the paper and set it in the sunlight to create a photogenic drawing. In my experience the exposure should take anywhere up to 10 minutes depending on how sunny it is. According to a photography manual written by Robert Hunt and Francis Peabody in , Talbots exposures were only a few seconds, and his fastest exposure was only half a second with the help of full sunshine.

Although there is no developer in this printing-out process it does require a fixer, a solution of thiosulfate (hypo) can be used. The fixing process will bleach the image to an extent, to avoid this being a problem you should expose the image to be slightly darker than you think is appropriate. First rinse your print in a bath of water for a few minutes then transfer it into the hypo bath for another few minutes. Then wash the prints in water again for at least an hour and hang them to dry.

My experience of this process was positive. We coated the papers well and quickly. The only difficulty we had was the paper began exposing during the coating process so we did not get bright highlights. This process is fast and easy so I can see why it was used to make quick, accurate representations of objects.

We tested solid objects, a semi-transparent object, and transparent color filters.

Below are pictures of our process and results.

As you can see, the blue filter (on top) is darkest. This means that this process is most sensitive to the blue wavelength of light, since the blue filter blocks other wavelengths. The red and yellow squares are close in darkness, however the yellow is slightly lighter (on bottom). This process is least sensitive to yellow light.

The warm tone of the images is obvious. This is a result of the small particle size of the silver. The silver particles are only 10-20nm, which scatters blue light and transmits yellow light.

The image tone is changed upon fixing with hypo. This is because hypo removes silver chloride from the matrix and lowers the refractive index. The lower refractive index will change the absorbtion band to lower wavelengths.

The salted paper process was the first step towards making negatives, which would allow for the reproduction of photographs and the ability to include photographs in books and newspapers. Although salted paper prints produced a gritty image, they inspired others to pursue a better method to create negatives. George Eastman gained his success by creating a flexible transparent film that was better than paper. Talbot laid the foundation of photography as we know it.