Print Your Photos Using an Old 1800s Salt Printing Technique
If printing your film photos with the usual chemicals isn’t old school enough for your taste, you should try your hand at making a salt print.
Salt printing is one of the oldest processes photography has employed, pioneered by Henry Fox Talbot back in 1839. The process hasn’t changed much since then. Basically, you start by coating paper in a solution of water and sodium chloride (I ended up using table salt) and letting it dry. Next, in a darkroom environment, a silver nitrate solution is applied to the salted paper, creating a light sensitive emulsion. Let it dry. At this point, a contact print can be made by sandwiching a film negative or some sort of transparency and letting the paper sit in the sun. In my case, I had access to a powerful UV light with a timer, which worked in a similar fashion, and allowed me to work at night in the winter. It’s quite neat seeing the image once it’s been exposed, and after washing and fixing, you’re done. [#]
You can find a more in-depth tutorial over at Dulce Photography, or browse some more sample salt prints in this Flickr group.
Image credit: Photograph by Andrew B. Myers and used with permission
