Alternative process.. Will construction paper fade fast enough to make a print?

[ibcrewin]

I don't know where to put this but here it goes. My daughter is only 2 1/2 so my wife doesn't readily approve of her hovering over chemical trays. That said, I made her a pinhole camera out of a usps express box.
So a for a non chemical solution, I was thinking of using a piece of construction paper as a negative or rather a positive. I figure it will fade where the light hits it, thus giving me a positive image. The only real draw back is that it's going to take a couple of days. Sunny ones at that!

I read up on sun prints but this seems a bit different. Anybody have some experience with this?


Ivan

 

[Bryce]

I think you'd be waiting a long time; construction paper fades pretty slowly in direct sunlight by photographic standards, so with the image formed by a pinhole your daughter may be dead of old age before a perceptible image forms...
How about leaf prints? You know, where the chlorophyll in plant leaves form an image where light hits them?

 

[pine_cone]

Hi, I believe sun prints were made with printing-out paper:

http://www.albumenworks.com/faq.html

This paper is still available from the Chicago Albumen Works: http://www.albumenworks.com/pricelist.html

This may be more than you wanted to spend on a child's project, but the paper makes very nice prints.

 

[ibcrewin]

Sunproofs would be cool.

Bryce. I bought some construction paper at the dollar store. We made a clock out of the paper and hung it in the kitchen by the window, (which btw doesn't get direct sunlight) The paper faded in about a week. I'm thinking in direct sunlight I should be able to get it down to a few hours!
I'm going to try it first before doing it.

 

[Todd.Hanz]

here's a recipe for albumen paper: http://www.alternativephotography.com/process_albumen_paper.html

Todd

 

[dazedgonebye]

Sunprints with cyanotypes...pretty harmless stuff. You can buy the paper already sensitized. I imagine using it as film for a pinhole camera would take at least all day if even that would do it.
Alternatively, you could lay found objects on the paper and leave them out in the sun. A simple wash in water afterwards does the "development."

 

[JoeV]

There's a fancy term for making a plant-dye based tint, that's painted onto white paper (Chrysotype??), and then placed in a contact printing frame against a transparent image, like a large format negative (or positive). It's placed in the sun for a few hours or days and the UV fades the plant dye in the areas of the image that are clear... so it's a positive (sorta 'reversal') printing process: to get a positive print you need a positive transparency to contact print against.

The pinhole aperture would let in so little light that it wouldn't make an image for many days or months, if at all. You could, however, use a large lens, like a magnifying glass, operating wide open at a small f-number; this could let in enough light to fade a plant-dye based tint in a practical time span. You'd have to experiment with focus on the lens, however; but that's a fun experiment for children to get involved with.

The sunprint papers are simple cyanotype emulsions, using an iron-based formula; invented by Sir William Herschel, and are UV sensitive. These are not very chemically toxic for children, and are available through Freestyle Photo. Printing out papers are also available, too.

OTOH, teaching children to safely work around simple paper photo chemistry can also be instructive, depending on the age of the child. Chemicals are not to be feared; but rather, respected. It's a good educational opportunity, perhaps in a few years. PPE (Personal Protective Equipment - safety glasses, gloves, splash apron, safe lab practice, decontamination and cleanup, etc - these are all things kids should eventually learn.)

~Joe