Unblinking Eye

Traditional darkroom photography and historical photographic processes

Altering a Negative’s Personality: Reduced Agitation Film Processing

Stand, semi-stand and extreme minimal agitation give a unique and powerful means of affecting mid-tone contrast, and put the personality of the negative more in your control than ever.

The Virgin River, from a reduced-agitation negative.

Articles on photography

Working methods and theory, written by the people who make the prints. All articles

Mordançage

by Christina Z. Anderson

An arcane bleach-etch process that lifts the dark emulsion from the paper so it can be moved, draped or washed away.

A 7 × 17 inch carbon transfer print, made in 2001. Pigment in hardened gelatin, one of the most permanent of all photographic processes.

Read The Carbon Transfer Process

More from the articles

Grouped by process family.

Iron and silver-iron

Pigment and dichromate

Silver, developers and toning

Cameras, lenses and printing

Photographic formulae

Developers, toners, sensitizers and fixers, with working notes.

Film development times

Times and dilutions for common film and developer pairings.

The Cyanomicon

Dr. Mike Ware’s history, science and art of cyanotype, free to download in its updated edition (PDF, 5.2 MB).

Poetry

Waiting for the Asteroid

New poems by Ed Buffaloe. $5 plus shipping in the U.S. How to order