In-camera anthotype pinhole?

onkeltuka · May 5, 2020

I was looking at Justin Quinnell's Youtube videos about making pinhole cameras that get exposed for months. I've also been looking at making anthotypes and I started thinking would it be possible to use anthotype "film" in such a "long-term" camera? Would it get enough light to make a picture?

Donald Qualls · May 5, 2020

I think it unlikely that the material (flower petal) would keep its color long enough to take an image via pinhole. Even cyanotype isn't done in pinhole, much, just takes too darned long (exposure times under a negative run to tens of minutes even in direct sun). Anthotypes are slower than cyanotype in direct sun. I think you'd have trouble getting an image in camera even with a pretty fast lens.

onkeltuka · May 6, 2020

Hmm yes, maybe it's just wishful thinking

My worldview has changed so much in twenty years that as I'm now getting back to developing and printing, I find myself horrified with all the toxic chemicals... So I guess I'm trying to think of workarounds. Caffenol is already on the to-do-list.

Donald Qualls · May 6, 2020

Yep, if you want to minimize toxicity, you want Caffenol for negatives, and cyanotype or salted paper for prints. Cyano chemistry is fairly benign, possibly more so than silver nitrate. Can't get around fixer, though, and you need Ware's 2019 "simple" cyanotype to be able to control contrast without getting (carcinogenic and environmentally nasty) potassium dichromate involved. FWIW, thiosulfate is pretty easy on the environment; if you one-shot it, it can even go into municipal water treatment in home-lab quantities without trouble. Or just put it on your roses...

onkeltuka · May 7, 2020

Thanks! I'll look into cyanotypes and salt prints. I actually ordered "The book of alternative photographic processes" by Christopher James a couple of weeks ago, should be here tomorrow, I believe it has info on those processes among others.

EastCityStudios · May 7, 2020

I actually tried doing an anthotype in a pinhole last summer, I left a leaf in a pinhole for two weeks. what happened was the leaf died in the box before an image could form. I have done some cyanotype negatives, but in a Crown graphic wide open at 4.5 for two days, and only then I was just getting information in the highlights, and the shadows were silhouetted.

removed account4 · May 7, 2020

onkeltuka said:
Thanks! I'll look into cyanotypes and salt prints. I actually ordered "The book of alternative photographic processes" by Christopher James a couple of weeks ago, should be here tomorrow, I believe it has info on those processes among others.

that is the last book you will EVER need !
great guy, great author. fantastic reference

Donald Qualls · May 7, 2020

onkeltuka said:
Thanks! I'll look into cyanotypes and salt prints. I actually ordered "The book of alternative photographic processes" by Christopher James a couple of weeks ago, should be here tomorrow, I believe it has info on those processes among others.

That's probably not going to include Ware's 2019 "Simple" cyanotype formula -- the book predates that innovation. There's a post in the Alternative Process subforum from Ware himself that gives the formula, as well as what to vary for contrast control. It really is pretty simple, even though it has more ingredients than classic cyanotype -- and samples I've seen show excellent gradation as well as high resolution (assuming a high resolution negative to print from). There's also a complete, current copy of Ware's treatise on cyanotype in that thread.

In-camera anthotype pinhole?

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