Explore Historical and Alternative Photographic Processes

The nineteenth century left us an extraordinarily rich legacy of photographic processes, many of which can still be used in contemporary artistic practice.

We can work with them as photographers did more than a century ago, or treat historical formulas as a starting point for experimentation and contemporary creative work.

This world extends far beyond photography based on commercially manufactured film and photographic paper. It includes processes that allow us to make our own negatives, create prints on paper, glass, metal, wood or fabric, as well as techniques in which a unique image is produced directly in the camera.

Below, we introduce some of the most important processes we work with at Szlachetna Fotografia.

I. Prints – Positive Processes

Cyanotype

One of the best processes for beginning your journey into alternative photography. It is relatively simple, yet offers surprisingly broad creative possibilities.

Its most recognisable feature is the intense blue colour of the image. This does not mean, however, that every cyanotype has to remain blue — the colour of the finished print can be modified through toning.

Another great advantage of cyanotype is the variety of surfaces that can be used: paper, fabric, wood, glass, metal and even glazed ceramics.

It is an accessible process for beginners, yet versatile enough to remain a valuable tool for serious artistic practice for many years.

Van Dyke Brown

A process that produces photographs in a wide range of warm brown tones. Closely related to kallitype, but somewhat simpler, it is also a good choice for those beginning to explore historical silver-based processes.

It can be used not only on paper, but also on surfaces such as glass, wood, metal and fabric.

The resulting images have a warm, classical appearance strongly associated with nineteenth-century photography.

Platinum and Palladium Printing

Among the most highly regarded, prestigious and permanent photographic printing processes.

The image is formed in platinum or palladium, giving properly made prints exceptional permanence and an extraordinarily rich tonal range.

Depending on the process and working method, the resulting photograph may range from neutral black and white to subtly warm tones.

These are demanding and costly processes, but their distinctive visual qualities are difficult to confuse with those of conventional silver prints.

Kallitype

One of those processes that appeared in the history of photography just a little too late to achieve the popularity it deserved.

Kallitype can produce exceptionally elegant photographs with a rich tonal scale. A well-made kallitype may visually resemble the considerably more expensive platinum print.

Today, it offers an intriguing alternative for photographers seeking the refined appearance of noble metal printing without necessarily working with platinum or palladium.

Chrysotype

A rarely encountered process today in which the photographic image is formed from gold — although, contrary to what the name might suggest, the finished photograph is not simply gold in colour.

Chrysotype produces subtle, highly distinctive images and is valued both for its aesthetic qualities and its permanence.

Salted Paper Print

One of the oldest positive photographic processes, with origins reaching back to the period before the official announcement of the invention of photography.

It produces delicate, warm-toned prints with a characteristic matte surface and a remarkably subtle rendering of the image.

For a significant part of the nineteenth century, salted paper was one of the fundamental methods of producing photographs on paper.

Albumen Print

One of the most important photographic processes of the nineteenth century.

Paper coated with albumen — egg white — made it possible to produce photographs with considerably greater detail and brilliance than earlier salted paper prints. Demand became so great that factories manufacturing albumen paper consumed millions of eggs.

For decades, albumen dominated photographic printing, and papers intended for albumen printing were manufactured commercially for around seventy years.

Gum Bichromate

One of the principal so-called noble or manipulative printing processes.

Unlike many photographic techniques, gum printing does not restrict the photographer to a straightforward reproduction of the negative. It allows extensive intervention in the formation of the image, which can be built up almost like a painting.

Because pigments are used to form the image, gum prints can be exceptionally permanent. The process also offers something relatively unusual among historical photographic techniques: the possibility of producing colour photographs.

It is one of the processes in which the boundaries between photography, printmaking and painting become particularly fluid.

Carbon Transfer / Autotype

One of the most sophisticated photographic printing processes developed during the nineteenth century.

Carbon transfer can produce photographs of extraordinary depth, tonal richness and exceptional permanence. Historically, it was one of the few processes capable of competing with platinum printing in both prestige and image quality.

Like gum bichromate, it uses pigment to form the image and can therefore also be used to produce colour photographs.

Oil Printing

Another of the classic noble or manipulative processes, in which the final appearance of the photograph depends to a considerable degree on the hand of the artist.

The process allows extensive control over the image: individual areas can be strengthened or reduced, tonal relationships altered and each print given its own character.

As a result, two prints made from the same negative do not necessarily have to look identical. It is a form of photography in which making the print itself becomes an integral part of the creative process.

Oil Transfer

A close relative of the oil printing process, with the additional possibility of transferring the image and producing several, or even a dozen, individual versions.

It creates a fascinating bridge between photography and traditional printmaking techniques.

Aristotype

A process that began to replace the previously dominant albumen print towards the end of the nineteenth century.

It produces exceptionally elegant photographs with warm tonal qualities. One important variety used a light-sensitive emulsion based on collodion.

Aristotype played an important role in the transition from photographic papers prepared by individual photographers to commercially manufactured photographic materials.

Silver-Gelatin Emulsion

The technology that ultimately came to dominate photography and from which modern black-and-white photographic materials developed.

Its history, however, is considerably richer than the familiar commercially manufactured photographic paper might suggest. Early emulsions could produce images with very warm tonalities, and some were printing-out papers that did not require conventional chemical development.

Working with photographic emulsion from scratch offers a very different perspective on what we now call “analogue photography” — not simply as working with ready-made materials, but as an opportunity to create the photographic material itself.

II. Negatives – Negative Processes

Historical photography is not limited to making prints. Early photographic processes also allow us to prepare our own negative materials — from paper negatives to glass plates.

Paper Negative

The earliest practical negative process, associated with the work of William Henry Fox Talbot.

Compared with later glass negatives, paper may appear technically imperfect. Today, however, that very imperfection forms an important part of its appeal.

The texture of the paper, the softness of detail and the individual character of each image can produce results far removed from the technical perfection of contemporary photography.

Albumen Glass Negative

One of the earliest practical methods of producing photographic negatives on glass.

It is capable of producing images of remarkable quality, although its low sensitivity requires patience and a deliberate approach to working with the camera.

Today, it is particularly interesting for photographers who wish to prepare their own large-format negatives using historical materials and processes.

Wet Collodion Glass Negative

One of the processes that genuinely transformed the history of photography.

Introduced in the mid-nineteenth century, the wet collodion process made it possible to produce highly detailed glass negatives considerably faster than earlier techniques.

The plate must be prepared, exposed and processed while still wet. In the nineteenth century this was a serious practical limitation. Today, that very working method is one of the reasons why collodion photography fascinates photographers once again.

Dry Collodion Glass Negative

A nineteenth-century response to the greatest practical limitation of wet collodion.

A properly prepared plate could retain its light sensitivity for considerably longer, freeing the photographer from the need to complete the entire process immediately after preparing the plate.

The development of dry plates was one of the stages that eventually led to commercially manufactured photographic materials.

Silver-Gelatin Glass Negative

The direct ancestor of modern black-and-white photographic film.

Silver-gelatin emulsions were considerably more sensitive than earlier collodion processes, while prepared plates could be stored and exposed when required.

Today, preparing such negatives independently offers the possibility of making large-format analogue photographs without being entirely dependent on the availability of commercially manufactured materials.

III. Direct Positive Processes

Not every historical photographic process fits the familiar negative → print model.

In direct positive processes, a single, unique image is created directly on the material exposed inside the camera. There is therefore no negative from which an unlimited number of identical prints can subsequently be made.

Each photograph is an original.

Daguerreotype

The process that marked the official beginning of photography in 1839.

The image is formed on a silver-coated metal plate. A daguerreotype is neither a print nor does it have a negative — it is a single, unique photographic object.

Its extraordinary detail and the characteristic way in which the image changes according to the angle of viewing and illumination make the daguerreotype unlike almost any other photographic process, even today.

Ambrotype

A process closely related to wet collodion photography and based on the particular visual properties of an underexposed collodion negative.

When viewed against a dark background, the image appears as a positive. The result is a single, unique photograph on glass.

In the nineteenth century, ambrotype offered a considerably less expensive alternative to the daguerreotype and was sometimes referred to as the “poor man’s daguerreotype”.

Today, its status is very different. Ambrotype has become one of the most recognisable and popular historical photographic processes practised today, valued around the world for its uniqueness, physical presence and distinctive visual character.

Which Process Is Right for You?

You do not need to understand every historical photographic process before beginning your journey into alternative photography. Individual techniques differ in their level of difficulty, required equipment, cost and, above all, the character of the resulting image.

If you are just beginning, visit our “Where to Begin?” page. If you are looking for materials for a particular process, you will find them in our shop.

And if you are developing your own photographic or artistic project, wish to explore a particular historical technique in greater depth, or need individual guidance, you can work with us through Mentoring with Dr. Radosław Brzozowski.