Making Sun Pictures - AccessArt Photography Teaching and Learning Resources

Making Sun Pictures Making Sun Pictures was created as part of Photograph - online learning and teaching photography resources. In an age of digital, the Photograph online resources concentrate upon elemental and experimental ways of making images with light. While many of the ideas can be used just as easily with digital cameras (such as snapshot and narrative), other modules focus on lower tech methods which remind us of the origins of photography (such as making sun pictures and building a camera obscura. These resources concern themselves with making black and white images, and with tone, contrast, shadow and light. Other resources in this series: Introduction to the AccessArt Photograph Resource Snapshot and Narrative Negative Positive - Making a Camera Obscura Negative Positive - Making a Pinhole Camera Setting up a Darkroom Contact Prints Test Strips Trace - Making Photograms Sun Pictures Sun pictures are made by arranging objects directly onto a piece of photographic paper and exposing them to the sun. Some of the earliest photographic experiments were produced using a similar method by William Henry Fox Talbot and Anna Atkins as far back as the 1830s. Lunar graphs, i.e. pictures made from the light of the moon, could also be made, although much longer exposure times would be necessary for these. Although they share similarities, the difference between sun pictures and photograms is that to produce sun pictures you don’t need an enlarger. Also the results produced have a violet or sometimes bluish tint rather than being black and white. Methodology of Sun Pictures You will need: photographic paper black changing bag (alternatively you could try a thick black bin-liner, though it will not be quite as ‘light-safe’) a range of objects - flowers, keys, cut-outs, etc. piece of glass or hard clear plastic tray of fixer tray of water set of tongs Method: 1. Firstly decide on your design on a piece of ordinary paper 2. Using the changing bag take a piece of photographic paper from the box 3. Very quickly arrange your objects on the paper 4. Cover the design with the sheet of glass/plastic to keep the objects in position 5. Leave exposed to the sunlight until the paper has turned a deep colour. (Don’t be alarmed if the paper becomes very dark very quickly - it will fade again later in the chemicals.) Leave for anything between 30 seconds and 30 minutes depending on the strength of the sun, although 3 - 5 minutes in fairly bright sunlight is a good starting point. 6. Very quickly remove the objects and place in the tray of fix. 7. Leave it fully immersed in the fix for as long as recommended by the manufacturer’s instructions. 8. Place into the tray of water and wash thoroughly with running water, before allowing to dry. Other resources in this series: Introduction to the AccessArt Photograph Resource Snapshot and Narrative Negative Positive - Making a Camera Obscura Negative Positive - Making a Pinhole Camera Setting up a Darkroom Contact Prints Test Strips Trace - Making Photograms