Sunprint Photography

Sunprints also refereed to as "blueprinting" is the oldest non-silver photographic printing process. 

Sunprints involve using natural light to produce a photograph/print. Similarly to photograms you use light sensitive paper - usually blue paper - and place an object on top of it then allowing the paper to absorb the light for a certain amount of time. After this you was the paper under cool water and leave to dry. As the paper dries it inverts the colours so the inside where the object was turns from blur to white and the outside light blue to dark blue.

Most people tend to use natural objects when doing this as the patterns they make can be quite interesting. However, following on with my own ideas about using dolls I will use a doll for my sunprints to investigate if the doll works better with photograms or sunprints. 

Mood Board

My own Sunprints

This was the first sunprint I tried. I found when it photographed the colours were more intense which was nice but the originals are IN MY BUSY BOOK. I used a small doll for this first one, however as I did this outside the wind blew the doll sometimes which meant it had the ghostly effect. When I look at it I can see a shape similar to that of a fairy which is quite sweet. I left it in the light for 8 minutes and I found this was a good time and meant it allowed the contrasts between blue and white emphasised. 

For this sunprint I used a Barbie doll again. When I did my photograms I found the Barbie worked well to substitute for a human so I wanted to re-use this idea. I like how the body is slightly distorted due to the sun being low meaning there was a larger shadow. I did this sunprint inside near a window which meant I didn't have to think about the wind blowing the doll and it meant I got this lovely sharp outline. Also I was very quick with putting the object on the paper and putting the paper in the light which helps remove the ghostly shadow.