Print Techniques

Hand Coloured

Each of the works in the current hand-coloured galleries started with a print from a 35 mm Kodak High Speed Infrared negative. I sometimes use Kodak Tri-X and Ilford Delta 100 for hand-coloured work as well. Existing prints were made by me on Agfa fibre-based paper, FB 118, which has a "fine-grained matte" surface. This surface facilitates the use of paints and pencils. Prints made from 2007 on will be on another paper as Agfa has stopped production. Some prints are toned in Kodak Sepia Toner, a two-step process where the image is first bleached and rinsed and then re-developed in the toner to create the brownish hue. They are then washed again in an archival print washer. Once dried and flattened I use a combination of Marshall's Photo Oils and Photo Pencils to colour the image. Finally the print is sprayed with a protective UV-inhibiting lacquer.

Using infrared was a deliberate choice to impart a surreal feeling to a scene, and it tends to render people in a less literal, more anonymous fashion. These images are not after all portraits of specific people, but meant to evoke a feeling of a time and place, places from dreams and memories. The sepia-toning, where used, has been chosen for its warmth and nostalgic effect, while the colouring was a way of giving life to the people in my landscapes while still keeping reality at bay.

Polaroid Transfers

The Polaroid Transfer Galleries feature both "image" and "emulsion" transfers. The other collections feature some of each, the more matte-finish ones, often with "schmutzy" edges, being the image transfers.

Emulsion transfers: Also called "lifts", these are made by soaking the emulsion layer of a Polacolor print off of its backing paper and transferring the filmy, translucent emulsion onto another receptor surface, commonly some form of watercolour paper. A hot water bath starts to loosen the emulsion from the backing. It is then transferred into a cold water bath to complete the removal by scraping it gently way, usually with my thumbnail.

Once it floats free, the backing is discarded and the intended receptor surface may be put into the cold water bath under the emulsion and the emulsion floated and manipulated into place on the paper and removed for drying. My preference is to use an acetate sheet under the emulsion and place the image where I want it in reverse, then transfer it from the acetate onto the paper using a soft printer's brayer. My usual choice is Aquarelle Arches or Art Lana lanaquarelle 140 lb. hot press watercolour paper. Other possibilities include receptors such as glass, wood, silk, metal or just about anything.

Image transfers: This technique also involves the transferring of the Polaroid image onto a different receptor from the original Polaroid paper. Instead of beginning with a fully-developed Polaroid print, however, we expose the Polaroid and then interrupt its development in the first 10-15 seconds, peeling it apart before the dyes have fully migrated from the negative to the positive. The negative is then immediately placed face down on the alternate paper, pressed gently into place with a brayer and allowed to complete its development on the new surface. After a development time of up to 2 1/2 minutes, the negative is carefully peeled off and a somewhat painterly image remains. Unlike the emulsion transfers, these do not work so well on surfaces that are shiny or hard, but do better on more porous substances, preferably paper but also fabrics and wood.

In both types of transfers,the final print may be augmented with pastels, coloured pencils or watercolours among other things. My preference at the moment is to use either Marshall Photo Pencils or Caran D'Ache Supracolor Soft water-soluble colour pencils. I then spray them with a fixative, usually a matte finish for the image transfers and glossy for the shinier emulsion transfers.

To obtain the initial Polaroid print, one can either shoot "live" using a Polaroid back on a view camera or medium format camera, making each print a true original, or work from existing slides using an enlarger or a self-contained slide printer such as the Vivitar or DayLab slide printers. I enjoy the flexibility of working with slides and a DayLab printer. The DayLab has interchangeable bases, allowing one to use 3 1/4" X 4 1/4", 4" X 5" or 8" X 10" Polaroid films. At present I use the small and large formats, type 669 and type 809 films, in the DayLab.

For everything you need to know about the precise steps in making Polaroid Transfers, see Kathleen T. Carr's excellent book: Polaroid Transfers, (Amphoto books: New York, 1997). It is a complete guide to technique and equipment. The Polaroid Corporation also has step-by-step guides available for these techniques.

SX-70

While I do have the Caribbean Dreams collection of SX-70 images available as digital pigment prints, alas it appears no more SX-70's will be made by me or anyone who has no refrigerated stockpile of the film. Polaroid discontinued it in 2006 and there does not seem to be anything that works the same way, so this fun process is no longer available. As for the ones that do exist, the process is as follows.

SX-70 images generally start with a photograph on an older model Polaroid SX-70 using what is now called Time Zero SX-70 instant film, the kind that develops before your eyes. Newer instant cameras can be modified to accept this film but I have not tried that. There are web sites which will tell you how. When the image has developed and while the dye layers under the plastic coating are still soft, the image can be manipulated by pressing and pushing on it with some kind of stylus, a spoon handle, a dull pencil, a wooden clay modeling tool, etc., being careful not to puncture the surface. Basically you are moving the dyes around underneath and accessing the lower layer of white titanium dioxide, making patterns or outlining parts of the photo in any way you like to render it more painterly in effect. If temperatures are warm this may be possible up to 24 hours after taking the picture. Some people suggest you can warm it up later to work on, but I have had limited success and prefer to work the image within an hour or two. Being in a warm environment is helpful.

An alternative to the SX-70 camera is to copy your slides onto the same film using a DayLab slide printer with a film pack base designed especially for SX-70 film. This has been available directly through the DayLab manufacturer. This by-passes the problems of avoiding x-rays at airports when traveling, having time and a place to manipulate the image when you are out shooting and discovering on location that your film has defects or light streaks, as I have had in my travels. On the other hand, part of the fun of working with SX-70 is the working of the image on location when you can frame the composition to fit the format and then while away some time in the sun or in a cafe "smooshing" the image to capture to mood you have while you are there.

Since these result in a small (approximately 3" X 3") image with no negative, your options are to frame the glossy original as is or scan it and make digital prints. My choice is to produce Epson Ultrachrome pigment prints on a watercolour type paper.

Black & White Infrared Prints

This series was photographed on 35 mm Kodak High Speed Infrared film which has many inherent challenges in exposing and processing, being fragile, prone to flaws and highly light-sensitive, requiring one to change rolls in the field in a black film changing bag or dark room and taking extra precautions to avoid lights leaks in the camera and processing in the darkroom. I have processed it by hand and printed the negatives in my darkroom on Ilford Glossy fibre-based paper. Each one was selenium-toned after the initial development and washing, then washed again in an archival print washer.

The infrared film was chosen for its distortion of tones, adding a surreal mood to the scene, the lighter, smoother skin tones adding an ethereal quality to the people, suggestive of their essential spirit and innate beauty. The project "Earth Air Water Spirit" was conceived at a time when I was exploring her own awareness of "something greater" than ourselves and finding joy in a connection to nature and the spirit it inspired. I decided to look for that sense of joy, connectedness and inner peace among friends and acquaintances who would be willing to model, unclothed in nature, to find expression of this theme.

These are neither figure studies nor literal portraits although they do reflect some of the essence of these individuals. Using infrared black and white film to impart a sense of "other-worldliness" to the scene, the images are about people celebrating the peace, beauty and earthly spirituality of being in touch with nature in their natural state, a sense of oneness with the world, each other, and their higher selves.

Digital Colour

Most of these images have been captured on a Canon 20D digital SLR, but a few will have been photographed on 35 mm transparency film then scanned to create the digital file. I do very little computer manipulation, usually adjustments for exposure and minor tweaking of colour balance or brightness and dust-spotting. Prints are output on an Epson 7600 printer using Epson's Ultrachrome inks on either Enhanced Matte paper or Somerset Velvet for Epson paper, depending upon which the texture is appropriate.