Saul Bolaños
Has conducted independent research most of his life. He is an Authority in Alternative Photography.
An Artist and Inventor of Several Alternative
Photography Processes himself, among them Silver Halide Coffee Art. About his Inventions See
  Silver Halide Coffee Art

What is Alternative Photography?

Alternative Photography is the practice of any process of photography, where the worker has to make his own light sensitive materials because these are not produced by factories or manufacturers in a large scale because the process is not practiced by the masses.

This fact makes of "alternative photography" a practice of the elite, the selected few, the workers who are the most creative in a society, "the artists".

It is no wonder that the most valuable and impressive works of art are products of thinking and working out of the box. below is shown a perfect Example of what Alternative Photography is.

if you wanted to create works of art on the surface of a chicken egg, you could not go to the store or the nearest supply house of photographic materials and ask them to sell you a dozen of light sensitive chicken eggs.

You would have to find the right photographic process that allows you to do such a work and sensitize the eggs yourself.

Only with Silver bromide or silver chloride liquid emulsions can you make this particular form of alternative photography work, Why only with silver?

Because convex irregular curved shapes like the surface of an egg would yield uneven out of focus images if the sensitized surface of the egg was to be printed by "contact" with a negative, as it is the usual printing practice with all other alternative photography processes not employing the greater light sensitivity of silver salts, and the greater advantages of gelatin as binder or vehicle.

So how do you print the image on the egg then?

You do it by projection. The black and white negative is place in a photo enlarger, the negative image is projected so it falls on the sensitized surface of the egg.

a photo enlarger works in principle just like a slide projector. The size of the light image projected on the light sensitive surface of the egg is adjusted by moving the lens closer or further away from the egg.

the projected light image thrown on the egg is made sharper by focusing the lens of the photo enlarger or slide projector in the normal manner.
in order not to "fog" the light sensitive surface of the egg with the light of the image projected on the egg while focusing and adjusting the image size, a red color filter is place in front of the enlarger or slide projector lens.
(Silver bromide and silver chloride are not sensitive to red light)

Once the image is seen to be in focus and of the right size on the sensitized egg, the red filter is taken off, and the normal white light projected image is allowed to work on egg for a few seconds or minutes.
then the egg is immersed in a developer solution which develops the print on the egg. (makes the projected image visible) then the wet egg is transferred to a fixing bath, for a few minutes, now the egg bearing the silver image on it, is washed to get rid of the fixing solution and dried.

As to the type of silver emulsion to be used for alternative photography, a Silver bromide gelatin emulsion is good but extremely sensitive to light, you would need to work in a darkroom illuminated ONLY by red or dull orange light to which silver bromide liquid emulsions are not sensitive .

Most beginners who start by using silver bromide will fail, because the emulsions fog easy and and it is difficult to work in very dark rooms. They never really get to "see" and "feel" or "know" the emulsion while coating it, room light illumination is just too low.

A silver chloride gelatin liquid emulsion, like LUCENTA SILVER CHLORIDE, is much easier to use because it is not so sensitive as silver bromide, It can be worked under VERY BRIGHT yellow light, in fact no darkroom is really necessary and it still has enough light sensitivity to do this type of alternative photography work, by projection on an egg or any other shape.

LUCENTA silver chloride photo emulsion, can also be contact printed to do other types of fine alternative photography works that will amaze every one.

It is the silver emulsion for beginners and advanced alternative photography artists as well.

Other Known Alternative photography methods that yield beautiful results which are permanent are:
1) the Carbon process which uses permanent pigments as coloring matter for the image.

2) the Platinum and palladium processes which are the most popular in alternative photography circles and use noble metals, These salts are much more expensive than silver Compounds.

3) the metal Chromium, for example which is also used in all alternative photography processes employing light sensitive (with organic matter) bi chromate or dichromate salts. (which are toxic)

4) Asphaltography is An alternative photography process which does not use metal salts at all, it uses mineral pitch or bitumen as a sensitizer. It is the oldest of all photographic processes but not sensitive enough to print by projecting light images on it, to make prints on eggs for example.

the alternative photography methods mentioned above are great and beautiful, but all things considered, for beginners there is nothing like the liquid emulsion gelatin silver process,

1. It is non toxic, no odors, no fumes, it does not stain the hands or fingers.

2. It is one of the least expensive of all.
3. it has more light sensitivity than all others.

4. it yields Silver prints of great stability, the author has gelatin silver chloride prints more than 100 years old, (made in 1885) in absolute perfect conditions!

Permanent Alternative Photography Silver Images,  Made by a non toxic, odorless and clean sensitizer with a long shelf life, and can be applied on any surface.   I would not ask for more!

Step by Step instructions
on how to make your own Rapid Silver
Chloride Gelatine Emulsion at Home in less than 45 Minutes !

How to make
your own

Alternative Photography photo emulsion

with only Lucenta Gelatine
and silver nitrate

see below

Buy 250 grams
of Lucenta Gelatine
for $ 50 USD

Enough amount to Make 10 half of Pint ( 250ml )
Batches of Emulsion

less than $ 15 per half of pint of emulsion

Alternative Photography Emulsion How to Make it Yourself
How to make your own 35mm negative film or plates

LUCENTA silver chloride emulsion is easy to apply

Almost all alternative photography processes can be made without a darkroom because the light sensitivity of the materials is not too high. No Darkroom is an advantage.

To carry out the process it is only necessary to work like you would with LUCENTA CHLORIDE SILVER EMULSION, that is, at night under artificial light sources like ordinary tungsten incandescent bulbs. ( not daylight fluorescent tubes)

These Alternative photography methods require a Large Positive or Negative on a clear transparent medium like glass or acetate to be used as a matrix from which any number of positive copies can be made. Silver liquid emulsion like LUCENTA CHLORIDE PHOTO EMULSION require a negative.

An Alternative Photography Contac Printing frame you can make yourself is shown in picture below. You can also use it to make pictures on material sensitized with LUCENTA silver chloride emulsion.

the copying
or printing from the matrix is effected by
placing it in close contact with the home sensitized material.

contact printing
You Can Make Contact Printer above. Just Tape a
Glass to a Board. Place sensitive material under a
negative. Let the glass down so its weight presses
the negative into good contact with the sensitized
material. The glass will let the light through the
negative  to impress the sensitized material below it
when making the exposure to light.  In contact printing
the sensitive material must be flat like glass plates,
paper, tiles, metal sheets, boards, canvas, cloth, etc.
Today you can make with your computer
Large Digital Negatives on clear acetate.
These transparencies are not difficult to make.

LUCENTA LIQUID LIGHT SENSITIVE
SILVER CHLORIDE GELATIN EMULSION
For Contac Prints or small enlargements by Projection.

Ready for alternative photography work,
comes in the form of  " Dry " thin sheets.

You soak these dry silver gelatin sheets in cold water for a few Minutes until they swell by absorbing the water and then you melt or liquefy them in a hot water bath to make the working sensitizer, as shown in the figures below.

Soak the Dry Gelatin Emulsion Sheets in Cold Water for a few minutes.

Dissolve the swollen Gelatin Emulsion Sheets  in a hot water bath until all have completely liquefied, after melting emulsion, filter and use.

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A Rapid Emulsion you can make yoursel for Alternative Photography Work , see Lucenta Amazing Gelatine below.

Photo Emulsion How to Make it Yourself

Home, Costa Rica Coffee Art.com
Make your Own Photographic Paper
Lucenta Silver Emulsion Instruction Manual
Liquid Silver Emulsions, Problems and Solutions
How To Make Archival Gelatin Silver Prints On Wood
How To Make Archival Gelatin Silver Prints
on Glazed Ceramics
How to Make Silver Prints or Images on Coffee Wood
Photos Developed With Coffee
Saul Bolaños - Inventor of Silver Halide Coffee Art
Photographs Made with Ground Coffee

  Buy
  100 grams
  of Lucenta
  Dried Emulsion
  To Make 1 liter
  for
  $ 99 USD

  Plus Shipping.

INFO ON
LUCENTA LIQUID PHOTO EMULSION READY TO USE

© 2006, Saul Bolaños