Carbon Printing - a beautiful and old photographic technique from the 19th century

I followed a course in carbon printing in Middelburg, The Netherlands at Polychrome (Kees Brandenburg).

Carbon printing is an old photographic procedure, in which carbon black (lamp black) was used for making black & white prints. This technique is (probably) developed by Alphonse Poitevin in 1855. This technique was adapted in 1868 by Louis Arthur Ducos du Hauron into color printing with pigments. These techniques were commonly used well into the middle of the 20th century. 

(carbon print by Mark Sink, "The Great Sand Dunes #7")

Carbon printing is - besides gum printing - one of the most durable and lasting printing techniques. The carbon prints will stand out as if they were made yesterday among all kinds of prints from the 19th century available in foto archives.

How does carbon printing work? A sheet of paper is coated with a layer of pigmented gelatin. When the paper has dried it is made sensitive to light with dichromate (applied with a brush). After the paper has dried again, it can be exposed by contact printing with a negative. The exposed paper is then put under water and it makes contact with an other sheet of paper: the final carrier of the image. Some light pressure is applied to this sandwich for some time. When removing the sandwich from the water, keep the sandwich together and wash it gently in warm water. The original sheet of paper will come lose from the pigmented layer: it is now transferred to the new sheet of paper. This sheet with the image is now washed with cold water and will harden.

This technique is still taught in The Netherlands in Middelburg by Kees Brandenburg. 

There is an english forum about carbon printing.
A free english handbook (100 pages) can be downloaded here: www.carbonprinting.com.

(Pitch and Toss - carbon print by Albert Octavus Knoblauch from 1909)

Interesting links:

• Polychrome (Kees Brandenburg)
• workshop carbon printing in KM 70 from Kees Brandenburg (dutch language)
• carbon printing on wikipedia (carbon print)
• Alternative Photography (english website)
• english article from Sandy King on unblinkingeye.com
• example of modern use of “color carbon printing”
• historical processes forum (bostick & sullivan)
• The Carbon Works (website)

(carbon print from 1878 made by Thomas Annan)

Pinhole body cap for Nikon & Canon

I  found a nice and well made pinhole body cap for Nikon and Canon. 

(Body cap with pinhole for Nikon)

(Body cap with pinhole for Canon)

It has a very nice metal pinhole (laser drilled, 0.2 mm) incorporated into the cap. 

I'll make some tests shortly.

My first pinhole image ever (2001)

This is the very first pinhole image I have made in my backyard in 2001:

(my vert first pinhole image)

I had build me my first wooden pinhole camera and loaded it with Ilford photographic paper. Exposure time was 30 seconds. The camera is made of Afzelia wood, size 11 x 11 x 11 cm. The negative size is 10 x 10 cm. The pinhole was made out of a soda can (pinhole size 0,3 mm). I had a lot of fun building it. And I was very pleased that my first test shot (picture above) was a success. The beginning of a pinhole camera building career ;-)

(my daughter standing still for 30 seconds)

This is an image of my daughter (3 years old) trying to hold still for 30 seconds in June 2003 (paper negative). This test shot was made with an old Gevabox from 1951, I converted into a pinhole camera. Negative size 6x9 cm on 120 rollfilm Kodak Tri-X.

(the original Gevabox model from 1951)

DIY pinhole camera projects - building your own!

Here are some nice pinhole camera projects. 

Get inspired and get out there!

"Have fun and catch a light beam"

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1) Building a wooden pinhole camera:
PDF on www.popularwoodworking.com

2) The Camera Truck (Okay, he uses lenses, but it is also doable as a lensless camera):
Website: www.cameratruck.net
and Camera truck on youtube

~ photo from Camera truck - (c) Shaun Irving ~

3) Weekend project - Pinhole Panoramic Camera:
PDF panoramic pinhole on makezin.com
and Website: makezine.com

~ drawing of the panoramic camera (c) Ross Orr ~

4) A pinhole camera inside an egg:
the-egg-pinhole-camera on lomography.com
and website: www.francescocapponi.it

~ pinhole egg (c) www.francescocapponi.it ~

5) The Dippold pinhole camera. Download a plan with instructions and template for a serious cardboard camera:

website: www.francescocapponi.it

6) The Battlefield Pinhole Camera – load and expose 3 rolls of films at the same time within one camera:
the-battlefield-camera on lifehacker.com

~ The Battlefield pinhole camera - (c) Steven Monteau ~

7) The Blinky camera kit – designed by two ladies from France and the UK: the blinky camerakit

~ Blinky the pinhole camera - (c) http://blinkythepinholecamera.tumblr.com ~

8) DIY project: “Converting a cheesy focus-free 35mm into a pinhole camera”
plastic pinhole cam on silverbased.org

~ Choosing the right pinhole - (c) silver based.org ~

9) A pinhole camera existing only of photographic paper:
website: www.papercams.com

Pinhole cows with an Agfa Click I

I have rebuild an old Agfa Click I camera into a pinhole camera. I removed the plastic lens and placed the pinhole on the outside of the body but behind the original shutter. This camera and the Agfa Clack can be converted easely into pinhole cameras. The Clack has a slightly curved filmplane and a negative size of 6x9 cm. The Click I has a negative size of 6x6 cm. Both use 120 rollfilm.

I  loaded it with Fuji NPC 160 rollfim and went into the fields on a very hot day for a testdrive. I found some cowes willing to pose for a few pictures. I placed my camera in the field and let the cows come close.
They are very nosy animals....

Exposure time was about 30 seconds on the middle of the day in the full (and hot!!) sun. These were the results:

Check the Pinhole Photography & Cameras Group on LinkedIn for more info on pinhole cameras.

Making dry plate glass negatives with a LF camera

I followed a course in making dry plate negatives (on glass plates) yesterday given by Dutch photographer Norman Post. It's a very nice and old technique.
I made these 2 portraits with this technique:

- Iso = 1 (yes: only one!)
- Exposure time = 1 second
- Apperture = f /4.5
- location = outdoors in the shade.

I used an old Russian large format camera: FKD 13x18 (almost 5x7") with an Industar 215 mm lens and an Industar 300 mm lens.

I'm gonna use this technique with my own FKD 18x24 cm LF camera (almost 8x10") and with my self build wooden pinhole cameras. These glass plate negatives are perfect for contact printing (like cyanotype or gum printing).

See flick.com for my images.

See some of the portraits made by Norman Post (scanned from dry plate negatives).

(photo made by Norman Post)

Check the Pinhole Photography & Cameras Group on LinkedIn for more info on pinhole cameras.

Review of the new ILFORD Pinhole Photography Kit

The new Harman Titan Pinhole Camera Kit (produced by Harman/Ilford) is available now. I read a nice review of this pinhole camera posted on ueberlicht.com.

It's a longer article about the camera and how to use it. They show several good example shots made with the Titan. As soon as I can find a good & cheaper supplier (for The Netherlands) I'm gonna get me one. I already found a box of the Harman Direct Positive photographic paper, but I haven't tested it yet.

Here are the links:
- Article in english     - Article in german

- Harman/Ilford about this camera

Check the Pinhole Photography & Cameras group on LinkedIn for more information about pinhole photography.

(the photos above are taken from the article on ueberlicht.com)

Creating a ceramic pinhole camera

Steve Irvine makes beautiful ceramic pinhole cameras, just like this one: 

To see more of his cameras, click here:

And if you want to try to make one yourself, here are his instructions for you.

Inspiring pinhole projects

Here are some ideas, cameras and images to get inspired again!!

Beautiful Inspiring Pinhole Photographs  (click & scroll down for more images)

photo by Mackeson (c)

Make a simple – but effective – Polaroid Pinholce Tin-camera

A Pinhole Camera out of (only) photographic paper: the Papercams

Making the Populist Pinhole Camera out of paper (with original plans)

The Flying Pinhole Camera: Creating a World Pinhole Image

Year-long exposure of Toronto skyline produces 'dreamy' image

Opening this blog

Well, this is the world of blogging....
And I'm entering it. What will it be about? All kind of things I suppose, but most probably about Pinhole photography and cameras, alternate photographic procedures, my cameras, my believes and anything else I would like to share with the world.

(THE book about alternate photographic procedures)

I would also like to invite you to the Pinhole Photography & Cameras Group  on LinkedIn.

(my very first pinhole image made with a homebuild wooden camera)

 
For now, I would like to simply promote Compassion to you all, if you're interested in helping young children around the world.

"Have fun and catch that lightbeam"
TheToadMen