Sloooow UV vegan photography

[Kino]

Check your weather forecast for the UV index. That helps when I printed Cyanotypes in the Sun...

 

[Andrew O'Neill]

Check your weather forecast for the UV index. That helps when I printed Cyanotypes in the Sun...

Great idea! Thanks!

 

[Andrew O'Neill]

Today and tomorrow, UV index is moderate...

 

[Focomatter]

Oops, the left parenthesis did not register while writing the reply! 1/1000 of 1 ISO! The nice thing about immediate chimping is real time trial and error previously used.

 

[MMfoto]

We now have 35mm UV-sensitive film available and in stock. It's very low ISO (10 mins with the sun out), but high resolution. Developing there are 2 options - remove it immediately from the camera and develop with heat (contrast fades within minutes) for a negative. Or give it a couple of weeks, flash with a high brightness UV light and develop with heat for a positive. We can provide the positive processing if needed through our custom machine that includes a UV lamp and a heat drum. It's a very impractical way of taking photos, but a lot of fun, and no animal products as not emulsion based so great for vegans. For anyone interested please drop us an email through sales@jacrofilm.com .

Is it UV-sensitive as a way to make a vegan film stock? Or did you find a suitable gelatin substitute and decided to make a UV film?

 

[Jacro]

Is it UV-sensitive as a way to make a vegan film stock? Or did you find a suitable gelatin substitute and decided to make a UV film?

It's not a gelatin substitute, and doesn't use the traditional photochemical process. To develop you need only heat (immediately applied) for a negative, or to wait a few days/weeks and then flash with strong UV, and then heat for a positive.

 

[SMD]

The wikipedia article about vesicular film gives a good oversight about the working, the capabilities and the avaibility of this product: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vesicular_film

After reading it, I would like to ask Jacro what exactly they mean by "now have avaible and in stock".

Is this some old stock they slit? If so, what quantity are we talking about? (As in for how many years do they think the supply would last.)

I doubt somebody will ramp up a production, given the market once this product was intended to be produced en masse did drift logn ago to more practical products. But who knows? (I wildly guess it is a lot easier to produce compared to coating silver emulsion and that it can use the infrastructure of existing plastic foil plants, making it wort even for not so large batches.)

How does Jacro's warning to not store this product near argentic emulsions correlate with the mention in the wikipedia article about an improved second version of Kalvar to eliminate the outgassing of HCl? I hope it is not considered badmouthing to arise the suspicion this is some stock that was dropped for being from the corrosive production.

 

[Jacro]

The wikipedia article about vesicular film gives a good oversight about the working, the capabilities and the avaibility of this product: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vesicular_film

After reading it, I would like to ask Jacro what exactly they mean by "now have avaible and in stock".

Is this some old stock they slit? If so, what quantity are we talking about? (As in for how many years do they think the supply would last.)

I doubt somebody will ramp up a production, given the market once this product was intended to be produced en masse did drift logn ago to more practical products. But who knows? (I wildly guess it is a lot easier to produce compared to coating silver emulsion and that it can use the infrastructure of existing plastic foil plants, making it wort even for not so large batches.)

How does Jacro's warning to not store this product near argentic emulsions correlate with the mention in the wikipedia article about an improved second version of Kalvar to eliminate the outgassing of HCl? I hope it is not considered badmouthing to arise the suspicion this is some stock that was dropped for being from the corrosive production.

Hi SMD

It’s new old stock, plenty of it, produced long after that issue. But as a precaution we referenced storing it separately anyway.

Please let us know if you have any other questions.

Thanks!

 

[SMD]

Hi SMD

It’s new old stock, plenty of it, produced long after that issue. But as a precaution we referenced storing it separately anyway.

Please let us know if you have any other questions.

Thanks!

Thank you. Do you intend to produce new stock or think this could be possible with the giveness of today?

 

[Jacro]

Thank you. Do you intend to produce new stock or think this could be possible with the giveness of today?

Yes, we plan to establish market with the stock that we currently have (which is plenty), which would then justify a new custom production run.

 

[leaflitter]

Hi i am really interested to try some of this film - am UK based should i just email you to order?

 

[koraks]

am UK based should i just email you to order?

This seems to me the most obvious approach:

For anyone interested please drop us an email through sales@jacrofilm.com .

 

[leaflitter]

This seems to me the most obvious approach:

Hah yes thank you.

 

[Andrew O'Neill]

Hi i am really interested to try some of this film - am UK based should i just email you to order?

I stuck a video using Jacro UV film in this thread...

 

[leaflitter]

I stuck a video using Jacro UV film in this thread...

Thank you! I definitely have some creative applications for this and the developing process couldn't be easier from the looks of it so i am hoping Jacro respond to me so i can get some. It looks much simpler for contact printing negatives than using ortho film as can be done in daylight / on the move.

I have a leitz elida contact printer and a uv chamber (i use it for photo intaglio prints) which would make this quick and simple.

Curious to see how duplicating colour negatives to positive on this black and white could work and the contrast changes. This process could lead to a really nice analog only workflow to get to photo intaglio plate prints or large format paper negatives for alternative print.

 

[koraks]

Curious to see how duplicating colour negatives to positive on this black and white could work and the contrast changes.

It's UV-sensitive material, so I imagine that duplicating color negatives may end up being a rather disappointing endeavor.

 

[leaflitter]

It's UV-sensitive material, so I imagine that duplicating color negatives may end up being a rather disappointing endeavor.

Do colour negatives potentially not mask UV? I want to take the colour neg and try to greyscale it while duplicating it - the idea of duplicating a negative, allowing it to rest a week and then be able to develop as a negative image without chemical reversal is interesting.

I've photographed with a few duplicating stocks at iso 0.5 and 1 which I enjoyed a lot so this could fit nicely with my series too.

 

[koraks]

Do colour negatives potentially not mask UV?

Yes, but the question is 'how' - both in a qualitative and a quantitative sense. In a quantitative sense, the answer is probably going to be "a heck of a lot". In a qualitative sense, you may be faced with surprisingly low contrast, because essentially the entire negative pretty much blocks most UV with less distinction than you might expect. The results may also be quite surprising, with e.g. the yellow dye turning out to form a very contrasty image, while cyan may not do much at all. So the results may be quite different from what you imagine. Whether that's a good thing...only you can decide based on an experiment.

 

[leaflitter]

Yes, but the question is 'how' - both in a qualitative and a quantitative sense. In a quantitative sense, the answer is probably going to be "a heck of a lot". In a qualitative sense, you may be faced with surprisingly low contrast, because essentially the entire negative pretty much blocks most UV with less distinction than you might expect. The results may also be quite surprising, with e.g. the yellow dye turning out to form a very contrasty image, while cyan may not do much at all. So the results may be quite different from what you imagine. Whether that's a good thing...only you can decide based on an experiment.

Even more interesting! Thanks for the thoughts and insight.

 

[MattKing]

FWIW, you would also be wise to avoid T-Max 100 black and white film, because it has a built in UV blocker.

 

[koraks]

FWIW, you would also be wise to avoid T-Max 100 black and white film, because it has a built in UV blocker.

Only the sheet film product though, AFAIK. In 135 and 120 it doesn't have this.

 

[MattKing]

Only the sheet film product though, AFAIK. In 135 and 120 it doesn't have this.

Oh it does - at least in 120.
I have the featureless attempt at a Van Dyke to prove it .
Thankfully I had some T-Max 400 negatives with me when we did our workshop - they worked fine.

 

[koraks]

Ah right, I didn't know; thanks!