Beautiful Alternative Processes for Photographers

The history of photographic printing is a fascinating intersection between art and chemistry, and you might be surprised to find a cadre of incredible, contemporary practitioners of techniques well over 100 years old. Here’s a round-up of some of our favorites.

Carbon Transfer

A labor-intensive process that uses carbon pigment rather than inks or silver salts to produce a gorgeous black and white image. The carbon transfer method creates prints with deep, rich blacks that do not fade. Calvin Grier of The Wet Print offers bespoke printing services starting at $135 for an 8×10.
Caffenol Processing

In the search for an eco-friendly printing solution, the team from Cahute bypassed photographing onto film, and instead created a solution of vitamin C, washing soda, and coffee that is used to process Harman direct positive paper.

Correction on 4/11/2017: Caffenol was actually invented in 1995 at the Rochester Institute of Technology in the Technical Photographic Chemistry class supervised by Dr. Scott Williams. Here’s the original paper..

If only coffee stains could look so good! Traveling to Helsinki? Book your portrait session for 59€.