How to DIY photographic paper

Pinholegz said:

I read that beet is good for Anthotype. Is also good idea to use in a pinhole camera or in a solargraphy?

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Pinholegz said:

I was thinking what about to do a mix of lemon + salt.

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Pinholegz said:

(Silver nitrate looks dangerous ).

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Pinholegz said:

I m a beginner ans probably first tries will go bad.

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NedL said:

It will probably be too slow for a pinhole camera, or almost any camera. If you can find some low cost photographic paper, you can do solargraphy. With some developer and fixer, you can get started with pinhole photos!

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selyfriday said:

Also for developing said paper you could also perhaps use caffenol (a mix of instant coffee powder, washing soda and vit. c powder).

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Pinholegz said:

I was looking on the internet but It cost like 30€. ..

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koraks said:

No. Your exposure would take many months. In that timeframe, the paper treated with beetroot would likely degrade by other means (e.g. fungus/rot etc.)



That won't yield a light-sensitive compound.



It's not very dangerous, per se, but it tends to leave very nasty stains.

There are several recipes for making a photographic paper (based on silver nitrate) online. A good resource to start reading is here: http://thelightfarm.com/
You'll also find several recipes in this sub-forum here on Photrio: https://www.photrio.com/forum/forums/silver-gelatin-based-emulsion-making-coating.93/



The best way to start is by buying some ready-made photo paper. It'll be easier to use, faster than anything you can DIY (which matters a lot with pinhole) and it'll be cheaper than acquiring the equipment and ingredients to make and coat your own emulsions. The technical quality will also be infinitely better.
A pack of e.g. Fomaspeed RC paper in a small size (10x15xm or 13x18cm) isn't very expensive, neither are a small bottle of paper developer and fixer.

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selyfriday said:

Alternatively you might also be able to find people selling their old stockpiles of darkroom paper for lots cheaper than fresh new boxes. These are pretty good still for trial and error starting out I've found. Also for developing said paper you could also perhaps use caffenol (a mix of instant coffee powder, washing soda and vit. c powder).

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Donald Qualls said:

And you can easily make your own fixer from sodium thiosulfate sold in pool & spa suppliers as chlorine reducer. It's pretty cheap that way, too. By easy I mean 240 g of thiosulfate per liter of water, use it one printing/developing session or one day, and discard. Or you could buy some sodium sulfite from an Amazon seller and add 30 g per liter of that, and use the fixer for up to 30 8x10 prints (or 120 4x5).

There are many cheap ways to do this. They aren't always the best ways, but they'll work fine until you get some experience.

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Donald Qualls said:

Look on eBay for new old stock or expired photo paper -- it should be a good bit less. There's a small risk of getting paper that's badly fogged, but mostly it'll have only a very light fog if any, and you can work with that for pinhole negatives, at the least.

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Pinholegz said:

Do you recommend me any online shop to buy any of that?

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Donald Qualls said:

I've got some pinhole pictures I'm very happy with that were made on some pretty old film.

Fixer-Upper #2

• Donald Qualls
• May 3, 2021

A different angle on this falling-in ruin.

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koraks said:

I'm sorry, I'm not very well aware of the shops in Spain, specifically (or perhaps Portugal if you'd like to order from just across the border).
I do know that @hiroh has fairly recently moved to Portugal and has been sourcing materials lately. I think he also did some forays into the Spanish market, so perhaps he could comment. We have some more members especially from the east coast, but the names evade me at the moment.

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Pinholegz said:

Hello
I m new here. I ve been reading for a while about pinhole cameras and other related techniques. I want to do my own photografic paper. Any tips? I don't want to expend many money, because I m a beginner ans probably first tries will go bad.

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Pinholegz said:

But if analogic photography is not that popular I guess with pinhole technique there are even less people.

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Kino said:

I don't want to sound unsympathetic or like a jerk, but you need to expect failures to learn how the materials work. Doing research, taking good notes in the field and in the darkroom will help minimize your failure rate, but photochemical photography always has a certain level of uncertainty that is overcome with experience; good and bad.

The main thing is to persevere and don't get discouraged because failures also give you very valuable information that instant success would not otherwise provide.

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koraks said:

No, but in the end, it doesn't matter what other people are using the paper for. Also, I'm sure there wil be one or two online shops that can ship some paper to you at reasonable cost. It's a fairly common product and not necessarily very expensive. Again, I'd recommend starting with something like Foma Fomaspeed, although Kentmere paper would be fine, too, or Adox EasyPrint. Start with an RC/PE paper, not a fiber-based baryta paper.

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Pinholegz said:

Don't worry, is ok. I was busy. But hopefully I can start soon to try. It s really difficult to find the paper. I asked to some local shops and they were like oh are you going to try that kind of photography? . They don't sell paper. And films b&w are like almost 20€...

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Kino said:

You can shoot X-ray film in 8x10 with a pinhole camera and print cyanotype images. X-ray film is much less expensive; about $50 USD for 50 sheets of 8x10 inch film (my local price for Fuji HR-U), which can be cut into 4 - 4x5 sheets, which is still large enough for a reasonable size contact printed image.

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Pinholegz said:

I looked for that in wallapop and omg really expensive.

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Pinholegz said:

It s really difficult to find the paper.

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