Hand-tinted Albumen

I have done some prints with the Albumen technic using digital negatives. The quality of the print is ok comparing to the orignal shot in 35mm. I have printed the tweaked file in a normal inkjet printer using a simple tranparency sheet so I can't really expect much quality to be honest...

The great thing about this picture is that I could test some watercolours onto the print. This image was printed on Hahnemuhle proof paper which is cheaper and yet really good, I love the way the colours rendered onto the Albumen.

It's a shame I missed some of the details in the shadows, especially in the model's face, but I guess the colours really added some atmosphere to the shot.

Hand-tinted Photograph

Another found photograph hand-tinted by myself using pencils and mineral oil. This photo is in great shape and everything went well with no visible oil marks or anything.

Here's a little bit of my "step by step":

Hand-Coloured Photographs – My Family Album

I have been going through my mum's photobox for the first time since I left London. I've decided to digitalize the very old and the most important ones to start just in case they get damaged or lost but my plan is to add more with time. I intend to post these copies onto a website and make them “safe” somewhere like flickr, photobucket etc. Going through this box of photographs is something I've been doing since my childhood and it will be sad if one day they disapear.

So while going through the box I've found some copies where the images were hand-tinted. I had completely forgotten about these photos after all these years... and this is a photographic technique I've learnt while living in London which I really like. I've been buying old photographs and hand-colouring them for quite sometime so to me it was a kind of surprise to find few examples within my own family album.

My mum's photo of her First Communion...

My father and my mum below ...

 

... and this is me.

The most interesting one is my grandparent's portrait. This photo is about 8x10 and is heavily coloured, a style very known in Brazil through Mestre Júlio Santos.

Hand-Coloured Photographs

Another set of Hand-Coloured Photographs I have made using the Lakeland Fotocol Kit and the Johnson's oil.

Hand - Coloured Photographs - Johnson's Baby Oil Test

I'm running low of the original oil that came together with my old Lakeland Fotocol kit so I decided to do some tests using another type of oil and on the photograph below I used the "Johnson's Baby Oil", which can be easily found in any supermarket or drugstores.

After rubbing a bit of the product onto the paper's surface I felt it was quite easy to apply the pencils, and the colour effect given is exactly the same as when using the original oil. The only thing It has to be considered for the next time is not to soak too much the surface as this particular oil is thinner.

Looking closer to this photograph you can also see the oil marks that penetrated on the paper, I'm not really concerned about that since I had the same problems before using the original oil, I believe this is more a paper issue rather than the liquid applied but for sure I'll be doing some more tests.

The photographs below were done by applying the original oil from the kit.

Hand - Coloured Photographs

Another trip to my local antique market and I found some more old photographs to add some colours.

Not all of them were matt and my colour pencils does not work on glossy paper, but there were so many interesting ones that I ended buying them anyway... after few hours I manage doing these ones:

I had this happened again... the oil used before I apply the pencils penetrated in the paper and left these awful marks.

I can't really do anything with this picture below since it has a glossy finish, the reason I bought it's because it looks so similar to the Echo & the Bunnymen's record cover "Flowers".

I've looked on the sleeve notes and it's written "Original cover photograph courtesy of the State Historical Society of Wisconsin".

More Hand - Coloured Photographs

Some other results with my hand-coloured experiment.

The picture below is my first mistake... the oil I use to moist the surface before applying the pencils soaked the picture and left quite a few marks, interestingly the spots were visible only on the day after. On top of that, I though I'd try fixing the colours with the polaroid "squedge" emulsion that comes with the 55 type film but the fixer not only vanished the colours away but also left more marks .

Hand - Coloured Photographs

Not a long time ago I found on ebay a nice old colour kit to be used in B&W photographs in very good condition. The box has everything, even the original cotton to apply the oil onto the picture was there!  

So today I finally decided to use it, I went to the antique market close by and bought about five old photogrpahs to try the kit and here are the first results.  

 

My first impression is that the colours works better on brighter pictures. The picture with the man is a bit too dark when scanned but looks much better on the original.

  

And here's the Kit... It's called Lakeland Fotocol, on the top of the box it's written "To Sally, with love from auntie Mary and uncle Ron , 1958".