Pinhole Camera, making Van Dyke prints

Help!

 

I have tried 30 minute to 3 hour exposures and still have no image-any suggestions?

Combining alternative cameras with alternative printing processes is an appealling idea. It seems likely your problem is with the chemistry in this case. Probably better to seek expertise on that in the <a href="http://www.photo.net/bboard/forum?topic_id=1564">B&W Photo - Alternative Processes Forum</a>.

well if you're saying that you're using VDB for an in camera pinhole neg.-I would think your exposure time might be more like 3 days. I usually use RC enlarging paper ,which is light years faster than VDB,and my exposure times range from 1-12 minutes or longer in some cases.

 

if you're using in camera enlarging paper or film negs. ,and then contact printing to VDB paper and you have no image at all,I would suspect problems with your chemical solution.

If you could provide more information on what you are doing it would be easier for us to help. Assuming that you are attempting to make a VanDyke print <I>in</I> a pinhole camera, you are not likely to succeed. The printing a VanDyke is done with full, unobstructed sunlight striking the entire negative for a number of minutes. The equivalent level of light getting through a pinhole would be difficult to calculate. I would strongly suggest using negative film for the pinhole and then doing the contact print onto VanDyke coated paper. The result would be the same as what it appears you appear to be attempting, with <B>much</B> less trouble.

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Let us know how it works out either way

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- Randy

Some of the earliest photographs were made with a process similar to van Dyke (Kallitype, IIRC) in a camera, but that was a lensed camera using lenses made for an artist's camera obscura or adapted from a telescope -- typically around f/8 to f/11 -- and still required many minutes of exposure in daylight. Above estimates of multi-day exposure times for van Dyke in a pinhole camera probably aren't far off.

 

Now, if you want to make a van Dyke *print* from a pinhole camera *negative* (previously exposed on film or modern printing paper and developed normally), then full sun exposures should give nice prints in a few minutes to an hour, depending on your latitude and time of year. If printing from a paper negative, you might find you need two to four times as much exposure due to the density of the paper.