Manipulating Colors

Color slide projected
and rephotographed with
black and white infrared film,
and then the infrared negative
printed; the print sepia toned
and hand colored
with Marshall oils

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Draw on and color in areas on a black and white photograph with colored pencil or marking pens. Colored pencil works best on matte surfaces. A plain old #2 pencil can be used to touch up thin lines or lightly shade areas. Pencils or marking pens can be used to touch up color or black and white photographs, however, some marking pen ink fades with time. If the marking pens have water based ink you can smear the ink or add water (on cotton or your finger) to achieve delicate wash-like effects. Other kinds of ink dry too fast, but you can experiment with solvents such as nail polish remover, which might thin or dissolve the ink. (definitely try this on scraps first). Broad tipped, bright pens will give the print a festive or garish look. Try different kinds of pens on reject prints first.

Or, try coloring copy negatives. Draw on or color in areas of high contrast negatives with any marking pens whose ink sticks to the film. Water based ink might bead up, but you might like that effect. If you print the negative on direct color paper, you will get an image pretty much like the colored negative. If you print the negative on color reversal paper, as in this example, the colors are the opposite of what you drew. Also, try drawing on clear film, or scratch the emulsion on solid black film and then color the scratches, and then use the colored film for a negative and print on color paper. (or black and white paper, and get a gray tone image).
Don't use ball point pen. The ink is greasy and never really dries.

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Color paper has several emulsion layers, and papers like the old Cibachrome had emulsions in thin layers of plastic, which could be scratched or peeled easily when wet. Try scratching or peeling wet scraps to see what effects you might get.
Photocopying or scanning and then printing images changes them slightly and can give an interesting feel to the image. Xerox, Canon and other color copiers, and various scanners and computer color printers have different resolutions and render color differently, so it is up to personal preference as to which is best.

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edge of a color solarization,
showing finger mark where paper was held, and solarized margins. Room light was tungsten. The print is from a black and white negative of tree roots. The image was a warm gray and white, and after re-exposure, the background turned orange, the highlights turned dark blue and the margins turned magenta.(66k jpeg)

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Color Filters

UNDER CONSTRUCTION

Use Color Filters for Special Effects:

Color Filters:
Ideally, a red filter admits red light and blocks cyan light,
green admits green and blocks magenta,
blue admits blue and blocks yellow,
cyan admits cyan and blocks red,
magenta admits magenta and blocks green,
yellow admits yellow and blocks blue.
In reality, some other stray colors are admitted or absorbed, including infrared or ultraviolet, or adjacent colors (eg. cyan plus some blue and green).

• When printing color prints
  • Print a black and white negative with color filters on color paper to make a black-and-color print
  • Burn in areas with filters different from the printing filter pack, by simply holding a color filter between the light and the print while burning.
• When taking color pictures,
  • a color filter over the lens can change mood, bring out colors, give everything a color cast.
  • Use filters to make rainbow effects. Put the camera on a tripod and make superimposed multiple exposures (double exposure, triple exposure) through color filters of a scene where something is moving and something else is still. For example, a hillside under moving clouds, or a dancer by a piece of furniture. Make multiple exposures through different color filters, for instance, one through a magenta filter, one through cyan, one through yellow. Careful calculations for the exposure must be made, figuring roughly 1/3 of the total for each exposure but remembering to figure in filter factors. It is a good idea to bracket something like this. Or, make separate exposures and print them together in register in the darkroom. In the resulting image, everything will be their normal colors except whatever was moving, which will be multicolored, rainbow-like.

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Other Films

UNDER CONSTRUCTION

Color infrared film can make very strange and interesting color renditions with different color filters. It might be difficult to get it processed, though. Many local labs don't process color infrared (E-4 or AR-5 processes) and I have had to search around and find a lab that does, usually far away and I have to mail the film. I used to do E-4 at home and it was kind of fun, but recently I've found E-4 chemicals in large quantities only, and they tend to go bad quickly the way most color chemicals do, so if you have, say, 50 rolls to develop, it might be worth it to do it yourself.... (see the links on back to alternative photography page for more information.)
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Color infrared film has three emulsion layers:
one layer is sensititve to red, which makes green on the finished slide;
one sensitive to green light which makes blue on the finished slide;
one sensitive to infrared light which makes red on the finished slide.
All three layers are also sensitive to blue light, which gives a blue cast to the finished slide.
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Ideally, a red filter admits red light and blocks cyan light,
green admits green and blocks magenta,
blue admits blue and blocks yellow.
In reality, some other stray colors are admitted or absorbed, including infrared or ultraviolet, or adjacent colors (eg. cyan plus some blue and green).
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Various color films, when pushed to their limits, or used in ways for which they were not intended, can yield interesting effects.

• Using tungsten film in daylight gives images a blue cast, which is normally undesirable, but could be desirable in some circumstances.
• Making extremely long exposures with color films and not compensating for reciprocity can result in interesting color casts.
• Pushing film can increase grain, and in color films, sometimes grainy images can look almost like mosaics or pointillist paintings. Extreme enlargement can also give this pointillist effect.

Experiment with different kinds of film and subject matter. Don't be afraid to try old, outdated film for experimental purposes.

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Color Printing

UNDER CONSTRUCTION

The same negative or slide printed on different papers can result in very different images. Try printing black and white negatives on color paper, color negatives and slides on black and white paper, slides on reversal paper or negatives on direct paper.

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Toning

under construction

An overall color can be added to black and white prints with toners. There are many toners to choose from, many of which come in small packages with instructions.

(see the links on back to alternative photography page for more information.)