This is the first photograph I have taken with my new hundred year-old camera! When I bought the camera, I just wanted it so that I could look at - it is such a beautiful piece of 1900's technology. Then I started thinking that it might be fun to try and take some photographs with it. Because I haven't used my darkroom for 25 years, I decided not to shoot film, but instead to use enlarging paper and make paper negatives. Then I would scan the negatives, and in Photoshop, reverse the tones and end up with a positive image, as you see above. I also toned the image a sepia color to add to the sense that the photograph is older.
I asked Kathy to take a photograph of me when I was using the camera to take the photograph you see above this one. I have a black cloth draped over my shoulders, because that's what I put over the camera and my head in order to see the image on the ground glass.
And this is what the paper negative looks like when I scanned it. It is reversed from left to right, because that's what negatives look like after they come from a camera.
Wonderful photos. I have never heard of paper negatives. I think of your dark room in basement on Seaside. Very cool camera.
ReplyDeleteJoan
Sounds like a lot of work using the paper negatives but a wonderful end result!! What a lovely "old" camera. Enjoy. Looking forward to more photos...betsey
ReplyDeleteHow many megapixels?
ReplyDeleteWe seem to be on the same wavelength. I was just a the Whitney too. :-) And lately, I have been using pinhole cameras (1830s technology) to make negatives on photographic paper.
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