Creative Photo Printmaking [Paperback]

Theresa Airey (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 1, 1996

Using an illustrated step-by-step approach, this manual explores both new and traditional non-digital printmaking techniques. Experienced photographer and teacher Theresa Airey taps into the increasing popularity of techniques that enable photographers to experiment with and personalize their images, in some cases without expensive darkroom equipment. She demonstrates working with infrared and Poloroid Time Zero films, solarization, selective bleaching and toning, handcolouring, and image and emulsion transfer, as well as alternatives for printing on artist papers, wood, and glass. To make the book easier to use, the flaps open flat on the worktable, freeing the reader's hands.

Product Details

• Paperback: 160 pages
• Publisher: Amphoto Books (October 1, 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0817437258
• ISBN-13: 978-0817437251
• Product Dimensions: 10.4 x 8.5 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.5 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #875,123 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #63 in Books > Arts & Photography > Photography > Darkroom & Processing
  • #82 in Books > Arts & Photography > Photography > Color

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

39 of 39 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Essential for learning to create speical effects, June 12, 2001

By 

Angel Lee "Liocorno Amethyst Moonstone" (Cleveland, OH United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Creative Photo Printmaking (Paperback)

This is an essential book for any photographer who wants to learn to how to create stunning photographic artwork by manipulating photos. A wide variety of unusual and spectacular effects are presented. The beautiful examples have really inspired me.

First it covers manipulating, hand coloring, scanning and even recycling mistakes made with time-zero Polaroid film. Then black and white infrared photography using filters, metering and flash is covered along with film processing and printing. Bleaching and toning are next including great sections on copper split toning, posterization effects and creating pseudo flesh tones. Then emulsion transfers are shown including silverprint and liquid light. These create some great effects on non-traditional surfaces.

Image transfers and emulsion lifts follow. You are shown how to used a slide printer to make a print, make a projection print and transfer images onto non-paper surfaces like glass or silk, even getting two prints from one. Lastly, Polaroid instant slide films, solarization, photo transfers and hand coloring are discussed in detail.

All the instructions are excellent and thorough, covering everything from loading the camera to choosing and developing the film. There are a few demonstrations, lots of examples and great troubleshooting sections for each technique.

The appendixes in the back are very helpful. They include paper selection and characteristics, instructions on working with a copystand and a list of suppliers. This is a wonderful book to help the photographer with some darkroom experience move on to create awesome special effects photos.

26 of 26 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Good and Bad Advice on a Variety of Creative Techniques., October 27, 2004

By 

mirasreviews (McLean, VA USA) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)    (COMMUNITY FORUM 04)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Creative Photo Printmaking (Paperback)

In "Creative Photo Printmaking", author Theresa Airey attempts to cover 9 different photo and printmaking techniques that are alternative or supplementary to conventional practices, and which will expand any photographer's means of creative expression. I have found that books that discuss a variety of photographic skills, instead of being an exhaustive study of just one, tend to be cursory, serving as an introduction to their subjects more than in-depth guides. That's fine as long as they are solid, accurate introductions. "Creative Photo Printmaking" isn't one of the better multi-skill books that I've read. Some chapters are reasonably good, while others are, frankly, bad. Organized lists of necessary supplies and equipment are generally absent.

"Manipulating Polaroids" (Chapter 1) is a decent introduction to Polaroid "Time Zero" (SX-70) film. Advice on manipulating the film is adequate, and there are instructions for modifying modern 600 Series Polaroid cameras to accept SX-70 film. There is an interesting section about sandwiching SX-70 prints by removing the emulsion. The recommendation to duplicate and enlarge your prints by copying them to slide is outdated. Now you would simply scan them. Oddly, there is advice about printing slides onto Time Zero film with a conventional enlarger, but not with a DayLab, which is more common practice.

"Infrared Photos" (Chapter 2) is about black-and-white infrared film, which is prized for its ability to record increased tonal separation in the midtones while decreasing tonal separation in light and dark tones, creating a "luminescence" in light skin tones. This is the worst chapter in the book, as it is filled with misinformation. Infrared film does not record heat. Red filters do not allow more IR to pass through them; they block out the rest of the spectrum. Surface veins can be eliminated by increasing exposure. IR negatives should not be dense and difficult to print. The author has drastically overexposed her negatives, something that I would expect of a novice. The book advocates doing a lot of exposure tests to achieve correct exposure. If they didn't help the author, I don't think they'll help you. Set the ISO on your camera to 100. Set the exposure to 1/125 at f/11 on a sunny day. Use any yellow, orange, or light red filter. Pay no attention to filter factors; infrared light passes through the filter. Bracket your exposures by one stop over and under that exposure. Be sure to load and unload film in total darkness. You'll do fine. Ignore everything in this chapter. It's disgraceful.

"Bleaching and Toning" (Chapter 3) introduces several toning techniques. Toning with selenium then bleaching down the skin areas on portraits until a flesh tone is achieved produces a beautiful result on the demonstration print. Another technique is copper split-toning that literally produces a metallic copper effect that is quite striking, but is not explained in detail. There is also brief discussion of color posterization, which produces unreal colors.

"Working with Liquid Emulsions" (Chapter 4) explains the use of both Silverprint and Liquid Light, coating emulsions that are applied to various surfaces in order to make them susceptible to photographic printing. The instructions for coating, developing, bleaching, and troubleshooting Silverprint are quite detailed. Liquid Light requires longer exposures, and its instructions are not as detailed.

"Image Transfers and Emulsion Lifts" (Chapter 5) are two popular Polaroid techniques. Image Transfers are made from peel-apart Polaroid films when the negative is peeled from the substrate and applied to another surface. Instructions are given for paper selection, printing a slide onto the film with a DayLab, Vivitar slide printer, or an enlarger, separating the negative, making the transfer, reducing (bleaching) the print, and troubleshooting. Emulsion lifts remove the gelatin emulsion from the paper backing of a Polaroid print and transfer the emulsion, which is semi-translucent, to another surface. Step-by-step instructions are provided, as well as advice on transferring emulsions to glass, silk, and wood.

"Polaroid Instant Slide Films" (Chapter 6) is dedicated to films that are no longer available, but were when this book was written. Two types of instant slide film, Polapan and Polachrome, are described and examples of photos with various filter combinations are given. Polaroid instant slide films were discontinued because the law enforcement and scientific uses of the film have been usurped by digital, and the fine arts community was not enough to make these films profitable. I admire the films a great deal. If you ever have the opportunity to use them, I recommend the Polachrome for manmade, especially industrial, subjects and the Polapan for architecture or portraits. The author has used them in rural scenes, which show the films off poorly. But the way, Polachrome came in two varieties. The high contrast version was intended to photograph graphics and is less suitable to fine art.

"Solarization" (Chapter 7) discusses the reversal effect (light becomes dark, dark becomes light) that can be achieved by re-exposing a print when it is partially developed. Papers and developers are recommended, and the procedure is described. The author also gives advice on how to copy a solarized negative or slide onto film, but the films she mentions are no longer available.

"Photo Transfers" (Chapter 8) are photocopies of photographs that are transferred to the artists' paper of your choice. This chapter takes you through choosing a suitable print, copying it on a color laser copier, selecting an artists' paper, and making the transfer.

"Handcoloring Photographs" (Chapter 9) provides very little instruction on handcoloring. The author prefers coloring with pencils, which is unusual. Most handcolorists use photo oils in conjunction with pencils for details. This chapter describes a variety of products, but not what to do with them. The author does a lot of handcoloring on artists' papers, not photographic papers, and she discusses methods of dealing with the challenges of applying oils to them. If you are in this situation, her advice might help you. But the instructions for preparing photographic prints for coloring are inadequate and confusing.

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A wonderfully diverse book, March 22, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Creative Photo Printmaking (Paperback)

This book is terrific for beginner or advanced photographers who love to transform their pix into something other than the straight shot. For slides, there are polaroid transfers; for prints, there are instructions on image transfers. There's information on handcoloring, printing on alternative surfaces, infrared,etc. In short, an excellent book with instructions on many topics.