Why you need it: A developer reacts with the exposed areas of silver in the paper's emulsion turning these parts black to form an image. Even the timer on your mobile phone could be used. Why you need it: This is used to time how long the paper is in the developer, stop bath and fixer, although accurate timing is less important than it is with film processing.Īlternatives: If your clock or watch has a seconds finger you can use that. If you do develop your own films you will have a thermometer If you do develop your own films you should already have a thermometer.Īlternatives: The temperature of the developer is the most important but, unlike film, you can watch as the image appears and time the development accordingly. The temperature of the developer is the most important part but, unlike film, you can watch as the image appears and adjust the developing time accordingly. Why you need it: The thermometer is used to ensure the chemicals are at the correct temperature. Why you need it: Printing paper is coated with a light sensitive emulsion and is used to expose the items on to make the photogram. You'll see the whites become grey, when processed if fogging is occurring. Some lamps are only coated over the bulb and the base area lets white light through. These can be used providing you do tests with your paper first to make sure it doesn't fog. Why you need it: A light source with a red or orange dome that does not fog paper so it allows you to see what you're doing in a room that would otherwise be totally dark.Īlternatives: Red bulb that replaces your household lamp. This is used to hold flat subjects in close contact with the paper or to raise the subject from the paper to produce a softer edge. This provides an ideal concentrated light source for the exposure of the photogram, but is not essential because they can be made using the room light or a reading light.
Most photographers who make photograms will also be making prints using an enlarger. Some photographers convert a spare room into a permanent darkroom others temporarily black out a bathroom or spare bedroom while they work.
I'll show you how to make one, but first let's look at what you equipment you need:Ī room that's blacked out with enough space to lay three 10x8in printing trays in a row with a bucket of water nearby and an area where you can expose the paper to light. Choose used and get affordable access to kit that doesn’t cost the earth. Every month, visual storytellers sell more than 20,000 cameras and lenses to MPB. MPB puts photo and video kit into more hands, more sustainably. Fox Talbot's paper negatives are more two-dimensional because the subject, feathers, leaves etc are in contact with the paper. Man Ray's rayographs have a three-dimensional feel with various tones of grey as the 3D subject distorts the light.
He started to experiment with other objects exposing them first to light and called the resulting photos rayographs. When he turned on the light he noticed silhouettes of the objects begin to appear, distorted as the subject became further away from the emulsion. He stumbled across the process by accident when he placed a small glass funnel, graduate and thermometer over an unexposed sheet of paper that had accidentally been previously submerged in developer. Fox Talbot had used this technique to make shadowgrams, but it was arguably the surrealist Man Ray who made the technique popular. The principle is simple - you expose a sheet of light sensitive emulsion, in our example photographic paper, to light and block its path with the subject to create silhouette shapes were the light is blocked. A photogram takes the principles of photography right back to its roots using light to paint pictures.