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Full details of making successful and distinctive photographs

We have previously been exposed, in passing, to the manufacture of so-called - photograms - inside the black and white rooms. And now we put at the disposal of amateurs and professionals the most important details to achieve distinctive and successful images without using the camera at all.

A photogram is the simplest type of photograph, you don't need a camera to make a photogram. Just some photographic paper, a light source, and anything placed in the light path will cast a shadow on the paper, and the “photogram,” in fact, is the negative of that shadow.

The magnifier is the best light source, although we can - in principle - make simple photographs using a light battery or solar radiation. Photographs can be made either in black and white or in color. It can also be printed on any light-sensitive material - black and white paper, color paper, color reflection paper, and black and white or color film.

Photographs date back to the beginning of photography with two pioneers: Thomas Wedgwood and Fox Talbot, who began their first experiments on light-sensing papers. Hobbyists who make a few photograms once they start using a darkroom, may not stick to making them because they seem too limited or a simple art form to their eyes. However, photographs should not be a poor substitute for real photographs, and if we adopt patience and imagination, they can turn into a valuable substitute.

Gray scale:
Before we can start making photographs, it helps us to get acquainted with the advantages of paper by making a test print. With a bromide paper in the magnifier holder, we narrow the magnifier lens to f/11. This is to cover the paper with cardboard. Except for one narrow slide.
This slide is exposed to light for five seconds, then we add a second slide that we light as the first and for five seconds as well.
With perseverance in moving the carton over the paper, to make a series of exposures for a period of seconds each, so if we make eight such exposures, the first slice will have been exposed to light for 40 seconds, the second slice for 35 seconds, the third for 30 seconds, and so on. Then we show, fix and wash this print in the normal way
Thus, with exposures ranging from five seconds to forty seconds, the gray scale here must range between bright white and dark black, and from this print it is possible to know the exposure that produces a specific gray, black, or white degree, and a new gray scale must be created for each paper grade We use it.

Create a simple photo:
Place the magnifier lens at f/11 and a piece of paper on the base plate with a few things of your choice.
And we put it on top of this paper. And then we put an exposure that will produce a strong black, depending on the gray scale to determine the required time period. After this exposure, we remove our selections and acidify the paper as usual.
The result will be a black sheet of paper with white silhouettes of the objects placed on the sheet. As for the sharpness of the shadows' edges, it depends on the extent of the height of the concerned edge of the chosen object from the paper, i.e. the edge that casts the intended shadow, and it also depends on the aperture of the magnifying glass. The smaller the aperture, the sharper the edges. And if we change the depth of field in this way, we have to change the exposure time as well, so that it gives the same blackness to the paper.
The easiest materials for making photographs are the things we use in our daily lives.
Keys, scissors and coins. If you put these flat on the paper, they will be printed as bright white with clear edges. But if we use transparent or semi-transparent objects, these will be printed as varying shades of gray, depending on the amount of light that allows it to pass through to fall on the paper.
Scissors, keys, paper clips, and other fairly flat objects produce silhouettes whose origin we can easily identify, although silhouettes - and especially black and white - often work best if they are more experimental with objects of different degrees of transparency used to create shades. different grey. We can experiment by placing pieces of rolled silver paper, glass, or cellophane on the paper. Anything that reflects, deflects, or diffuses light is worth experimenting with.

The basic black and white photographs made in this format are so easy that even a young child can make them.
Another method worth trying is to move the subjects during the exposure. And with touching the objects placed on the paper during the exposure, the palm will appear in the print as a pale opaque area. To avoid this, we make a few multiple exposures without moving the indicated objects, except while the red filter is installed in its place, or while the magnifying lamp is turned. To find the exposure needed for each step, we divide the time required by an exposure. Normative on the number of movements we intend to make.

Using a mask:
On the photogram, we can make out-of-focus shapes by placing a mask between the light source and the paper, and we often use such shared masks with objects fixed on the paper, so that the inaccurate image of the mask appears as a background out of focus, while the well-defined shapes of the mentioned objects appear as a front.
This, and to work with a mask, we must first take a glass slide larger than the paper and put it on top of the magnifier stand. The best way to do this, which allows for adjusting the resulting space, is to use wooden cubes such as those used by children to make constructed vehicles. Thus the glass acts as a support for the mask itself, that which
We can make it out of black paper, if we want to stop all the light, or tissue paper. If we want his image to come gray. It should be noted that the light glows at the edges of the mask in a manner similar to the sun's halo during the eclipse, and the sharpness of the mask's image depends on the distance between the glass slide and the paper.
However, the strength and quality of the photographic image often gives us a sense of space, especially if the image is abstract, but here we must not get carried away with making a very complex image.

Using the passive carrier:
The most dramatic photographs are made by placing objects inside the magnifier itself, in place of the negative carrier.

We first place a plate of glass or a slide of strong acetate in the negative holder, and put something thin on it, such as a pin, then we return to the place of the negative holder and focus the image on the holder (ensel). Then we use transparent adhesive tape or a piece of cotton to fix the thing in question on the slot of the negative holder, taking into account that the support will appear on the print, and the things that you can try for this type of photograms include small toys, wreaths, pieces of jewelry, or anything of simple shape Especially if part of it is made of glass and plastic.
If we put something in place of the negative holder, we must make sure that it is fixed securely, otherwise it may fall on the lens and give it. It is necessary not to use dirty or altered things, as long as the bellows part of the amplifier is cleaned only with great difficulty. Then, as soon as the object in question becomes in the magnifier, it is correct for us to stop the strong light reflected from the space left by the negative carrier, with black paper.

It is inevitable that the scale of the image of the object placed in the magnifier will be magnified, more or less, as this depends on the height of the head of the magnifier. The depth of field depends on the aperture of the lens. There is also another factor that conveys the ease of prediction, is the amount of light that is reflected back to the object used from the lens bellows, and it helps to give the effect of three dimensions, like an image made with a regular camera. We may have to line the bellows with white paper or silver foil to increase this unusual effect.

Making a color photograph:
With colored materials, it would take a lot of practice to do all the steps involved in making photograms. In spite of the difficulty we face at the beginning, the good deeds of working with colors far outweigh the bad ones.
Just as the gray scale is useful for making black and white photographs, we have to start by establishing the color balance that we need to produce gray or black on color paper.
And for Kodak paper. Ectacolor filter should be 75 yellow 0 40 fuchsia, yellow dark blue, which is summed up by 40 00 75 - the table attached to this article can be used, and if we want to make a slight modification to the colors we have to subtract five filter points in the colorless we want to add, or Complementary color, and as the digital value of the filter pack drops, we underexpose, and vice versa
On the contrary, when working with color reflection materials, reverse transformations apply, and we can judge the colors by eye.
The color of the photograph depends mainly on the color of the filtered light source in the magnifier, but there are many other different factors that can affect the final results. When the used objects are stable on the paper, the color may change.
If something is luminous, highly colored, or semi-transparent, the color may also change
If the light is directed around the edge of the used thing, add to this that the color may change as well if we replace the use of the black paper mask by using colored filters or materials such as cellophane, colored thin.
We get to the semi-transparent stuff. Glittery colors that are placed inside the enlarger, they often appear on the final layer as if they were colored, if the light happened to reflect its surface in this case. We have to use the magnifier at zero filter. The bright red thing will be printed as dark blue on color negative paper or red on reflective paper, and any shift from zero filtering can cause chromatic aberration that cannot be controlled.
Colored photograms can be used as paper negatives and we can make a contact-printed positive print on a sheet of paper.
Color negative.

We can also make one of the most effective and unusual forms of colored photograms by using two polarizing filters placed on the magnifier by placing one of these filters in the negative holder after placing cellophane or stretched nylon in the bellows sector. As for the second polarizing filter, we connect it under this lens, and it will happen to the transparent nylon that is under pressure that it will be exposed to the paper in a different number of colors. If we then rotate the lower filter, the light areas exchange their locations with the dark colors. An interesting and fun way to make photographs, possible in black and white, but much more effective with colour, is to create blend prints.

We put a few things on top of Klee's paper. Then we give the paper a reflection exposure in the enlarger stand with a long photomarking to burn all the unprotected areas in the light. Now we put transparency in the previously tested amplifier with regard to filtering and exposure. Then we remove the objects of interest from the paper to give it a second exposure. Now the image is recorded only on those parts that were previously covered in the paper, while the rest of the paper appears white. Suitable objects to use with this method include vegetable leaves, jigsaw puzzles, and the like.

Making paper negatives:
Working with standard positive-negative materials, either black and white or color, the photogram will be a negative image of the things we use. If we want a positive image, we can make a photogram on a negative slide film, which we then use to print a positive by contact. One of the alternatives to this is to use the photogram as a negative by itself and print it by contact, the sensitive layer on top of the sensitive layer, on another slide of this same photographic paper, and the image will be sharp in prominence, but it is reversed from right to left. But it is less than its predecessor in terms of the intensity of prominence to some extent.
The exposure required to make a print will not be less than four times the normal exposure. Paying attention first to whether the trade name of the product is printed on the back of the paper, as long as this will be printed in turn and overlap with the image.

There is another type in the paper negative photogram that uses pieces of photographs, newspaper clippings, or drawings, and is based on conducting contact printing of the clipping complex on a photographic paper slide. We can also draw designs on the example and acetates. We put it on a transparent sheet of paper before exposing it to light. It is a method that can be practiced in association with any other methods of making a photogram.
Whatever type of photography we choose to make, we will find that the element of experience is the key to success. Photograms can be fun and often surreal as they put our imaginations to the test, brightening up images in the darkroom. This, a lot to our understanding of how to produce it, and it should be noted finally that photography is one of the art forms that have faced a lot of neglect, while it deserves the attention of all beginners and professionals alike⏹