Photographic Paper as a cheap "Film"

When I was younger, every bus or railway station, airport, Woolworths, Boots, shopping centers and department stores all had a Photo booth.  These booths allowed the sitter to have 4 pictures taken, in return for a suitable deposit of coins, followed by the actual silver gelatin black and white photographs in a strip about 1.5 inches wide and 5 inches long.  The pictures were accepted by the passport office and were of great quality.

I used these machines to have my photo taken and the little strips of photos were prized treasures.

How did the booth work though? Well they used photographic paper and reversal processed it to produce the positive image. This process lends itself to automation and is consistent in finished photographs,

1. Expose photographic paper in camera,
2. Develop paper as a normal negative in B&W chems
3. Rinse paper
4. Bleach paper to remove negative
5. Rinse paper
6. Fog paper with light
7. Develop paper in B&W chems
8. Rinse paper
9. Fix paper
10. Final Rinse

I still have many of the photos that I had taken in a Photo booth and they are as fresh today as they always were.

So roll on 40 years or so and I now have a 4x5 camera.

Film for any camera is great when you have the time to give to it's shooting, development, scanning and loading film holders.  Large format is even better, beautiful negatives at 4x5 are a wonder to behold.

But what if you want to do a quick shoot to try something or you just don't have time to do the faffing about with film.  Well paper negatives are a cheaper method of shooting 4x5.  The Photographic Enlarging paper is sensitized like film, just with a much, much slower emulsion. The emulsion is also Orthochromatic rather than Panchromatic, which means that you can develop under safe light and see what goes on.

Paper negatives are cheaper but you are still left with a problem in that you still have to scan the neg or contact print to make a positive.

Hence the recollection about Photo Booths.  How did they work?  They were fast, great quality and produced a positive image all automatically.

A bit of googling produced some information and so I set to producing an old style positive photograph by hand.

Stuff you need

• Black and White Photo Paper (Ilford Multigrade Resin Coated)
• Black and white paper developer (Ilford PQ Universal)
• Potassium Permanganate
• Sodium Bisulphate
• Sodium Metabisulphite
• Rapid Fixer

Bleach

• 4g of Potassium Permanganate in 1 liter of water (part A), bottle for use
• 34.5g of Sodium Bisulphate in 1 liter of water (Part B), bottle for use

The bleach has a really short working life, so mix 500ml of bleach using 250ml of Part A and 250 ml of Part B just prior to starting the development work

Clearing Solution

The clearing solution removes the yellow and red tint added by the bleach.

• 30g of sodium Metabisulphite in 1 liter of water, bottle for use.

Use 500 ml per developing session.

Method

1. Expose photographic paper in camera, using ISO 1 as a base line for exposure
2. Develop paper as a normal negative in B&W chems. 2 minutes in Ilford PQ Universal 1+9
3. Rinse paper, 2 Minutes
4. Bleach paper to remove negative, 1 minute always use fresh bleach never reuse.
5. Rinse paper, 2 Minutes
6. Immerse paper into clearing solution, 30 seconds.
7. Fog paper with light, 1 minute
8. Develop paper in B&W chems, 2 minutes
9. Rinse paper, 2 Minutes
10. Fix paper, 2 Minutes
11. Final Rinse

I manage to do several exposures in series, so that when the first one is being rinsed the second one is in the developer.

The quality of photograph that is produced is as good as film and the speed with which a positive image can be produced is pretty fast.  You end up with a one of a kind, hand processed photo for which no negative exists.  A unique physical item.