Handmade Negatives

A handmade negative is when you make your own negative using plastic then applying different materials such as Vaseline, salt, washing up liquid, food colouring and water. I really enjoyed this as every time you make a new handmade negative they all have different outcomes. I found that using salt, food colouring and water had the best outcomes. After I had produced as many as I was happy with I then made reversals of the prints. To make a reversal I placed my print face down on a new piece of photographic paper, put a piece of glass over the top of the paper to keep them flat then exposed it for 20 seconds on f8. 

I experimented with placing objects on the photographic paper while my handmade negatives were exposed to the paper. I then made a reversal of it. Below is one of my examples.

I really enjoyed this experiment as I could get really creative with the different materials and outcomes. By using a selection of materials like salt, food colouring and washing up liquid it always produced a different outcome each time and can be changed or I could start over again util I was happy with it. The vaseline worked well in the way that the salt could stick to it but as an element to the negative It didn't work as the vaseline was not visible when I exposed my image. The salt worked particularly well as it looked like particles under a microscope.