Developing photos from objects, not negatives

Thread view:

Enable EMail Alerts

Start New Thread

Thread rating:

Johan - 29 May 2006 22:23 GMT

Hi, hope I'm in the right place.

I remember someone telling me about a method of developing photos from
objects such as leaves, twigs, geometric shapes etc, rather than negatives.

I can't for the life of me remember the name of the technique.

Can anyone help?

- Johan

Reply to this Message

Greg - 29 May 2006 22:38 GMT

> Hi, hope I'm in the right place.
>
[quoted text clipped - 6 lines]
>
> - Johan

Slow day on the newsgroup or someone would have beaten me to this reply:

Photogram.

Signature

The sometimes insomniac.

www.gregblankphoto.com

Reply to this Message

Johan - 29 May 2006 22:40 GMT

>> Hi, hope I'm in the right place.
>>
[quoted text clipped - 10 lines]
>
> Photogram.

Ah, that's the one - thanks a lot!

Would you have any recommendations of books that either explain how to
make them, or that have collections of photograms?

I have a friend who has recently got interested in developing her own
photos, and thought this might be a good present for her.

- Johan

Reply to this Message

David Nebenzahl - 29 May 2006 23:36 GMT

Johan spake thus:

>>>I remember someone telling me about a method of developing photos from
>>>objects such as leaves, twigs, geometric shapes etc, rather than negatives.
[quoted text clipped - 11 lines]
> Would you have any recommendations of books that either explain how to
> make them, or that have collections of photograms?

Believe me, you don't need a book to do this. (Assuming you know how to
develop photographic prints, that is, which is explained in any basic
photo book.)

All you have to do is find stuff you think might be interesting, put it
on top of a piece of photo paper in the darkroom, expose the paper to
light, and develop it. You can learn all you need to know through
experimentation (different objects, different length of exposure,
multiple exposures, etc.) Try it--it's fun.

Signature

I hope that in a few years it [Wikipedia] will be so bloated that it
will simply disintegrate, because I can't stand the thought that this
thing might someday actually be used as a serious reference source.
Because in its current form, it's not to be taken seriously at all.

- Horst Prillinger (see
http://homepage.univie.ac.at/horst.prillinger/blog/archives/2004/06/000623.html)

Reply to this Message

Greg - 30 May 2006 03:07 GMT

> >> Hi, hope I'm in the right place.
> >>
[quoted text clipped - 20 lines]
>
> - Johan

Man Ray.

Just a start.

http://photography.about.com/library/weekly/aa092799a.htm

http://photography.about.com/library/weekly/aa092799c.htm

http://photography.about.com/library/weekly/aa092799d.htm

Signature

The sometimes insomniac.

www.gregblankphoto.com

Reply to this Message

Alan Smithee - 31 May 2006 13:59 GMT

> Hi, hope I'm in the right place.
>
[quoted text clipped - 6 lines]
>
> - Johan

You could do this using the cyanotype process. Hand coat your paper with a
brush and leave the objects on coated paper while exposing in the sun. Just
use water to clear the print after 15-30 minutes.

Reply to this Message