In this video I show you how I build a UV Printer that I use to make my alternative prints (i.e., salt prints, albumen, Van Dyke browns). Actually any process that is POP (Printing Out Paper) using UV light will work with this printer. If you don’t have a darkroom but want to make your own custom prints then this might be a solution for you. If you want to make prints like the photographers did back in the early 19th century then you can do that with this printer too.
The term printing out paper or POP dates back to the late 1800′s when Ilford used it for the gelatin-chloride papers. The term now commonly means any paper that needs UV light to be processed as opposed to chemical development like we do with darkroom silver gelatin prints. POP prints are unlike any other prints and in subsequent articles I will be writing about various methods and techniques to show you how to explore this genre of photography. In effect you coat 100% cotton paper (watercolor paper) with a sizing (salt, albumen, etc) and then sensitize it with silver chloride making the paper sensitive to ultra violet light. Then by contact printing (placing your negative on top of the paper) you can make a print. You could use the sun to do this but using a UV printer has many advantages in my opinion. Regular sunlight does a great job with contrast so don’t discount it from your process. You can take any negative from whatever source (film, glass plates, paper negatives, digital negatives on transparency film, etc.) and make a POP print. You could even take a digital RAW file from a brand new digital camera, make a digital negative on transparent film and POP print it. I personally prefer a traditional approach using paper negatives, glass plates or sheet film, but that is my personal preference. The possibilities are left up to your own imagination. You can even make photogram’s like they did back in the 19th century by laying things like leaves or feathers on the paper to make art. There is a lot more to it but I wanted to put the UV printer that I build in the video into context for you.
If you want to read about the different choices for UV light sources then read the article written by Sandy King and you will learn everything you ever wanted to know.
If you have any questions about the UV printer I build don’t hesitate to ask and I will do whatever I can to help.
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Post your traditional darkroom prints to my new Flickr group dedicated to analog photographs in a digital world.
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Tim Layton
© Tim Layton – All Rights Reserved – 2011. You may not republish or use any information or media of any format, in part or in whole, without my written permission. For permission and more information you can contact Tim Layton on the web at blog.blackandwhitefineart.net or via email at tim@blackandwhitefineart.net or via the telephone at 636.422.0002
