So as not to hijack: Hand coloring

[frXnz kafka]

I was wondering if someone could provide some incite on hand coloring, or maybe just share some experiences. What exactly does this process entail? Are there any special chemicals involved, or will any old dyes/oils work?

 

[ScottS]

yes...


Thats about all I know
And yes I know im useless...

 

[Mitica100]

I was wondering if someone could provide some incite on hand coloring, or maybe just share some experiences. What exactly does this process entail? Are there any special chemicals involved, or will any old dyes/oils work?

You might want to ask our mod Terri about that.

 

[doobs]

I met a guy at a local darkroom once, and if I can remember correctly, I think he just colors them. There has got to be some way to keep the oils on the print like some kind of over glaze or something, because oil smears easily. I have no idea.

I do know, however, that FB works the best? I think. Technically I don't know then. I've never really liked the image it produces, but I figure I'd like to try it at some point in my photographical career.

 

[ann]

i am sure teri will jump in here and give you some good suggetion.

you might want to think about coming to Atlanta in March, she will be doing a workshop which will give you some hands on practice.
(i know she wouldn't suggest this, but i will

 

[Bobby Ironsights]

It's not that hard, in class, we just used food colouring, and some of the students acheived startling effects.

The gelatin in photo paper is absobent, so it just gets sucked right in.

I can't show you mine, because it's still in for marking, but I will make a couple recommendations.

1. Make a sheaf of prints, you will screw it up at first.
2. Use the smallest brush that the store sells, a 00 or 000 is best, and take your time.

Really, my final try, for grading, took about a half hour to do an detailed area, not much bigger than a silver dollar, because, on resin coated paper at least, the colour soaks in fairly slowly. I did the sparkled area from a sparkler at someone's birthday party...

HERE

http://thephotoforum.com/forum/showthread.php?t=100371

Except I just used the black and white print, not sepia toned.

 

[kaiy]

For the traditional hand-colored print, most practitioners use Marshall's photo oils, which are essentially little tubes of oil paint. You can use regular oil paint, as long as it doesn't have opaque white in it. When I hand-colored, I coated the surface of my matte paper print with painting medium (linseed oil), to help the paint move. Then applied the color with cotton swabs and cotton pads.
A good matte surface paper is necessary for this. The paint adheres to the tooth of the paper. Agfa stopped making my favorite, Multi-classic FB, and I haven't been inclined to search for another. Dyes also work, but I haven't tried it myself.