It passed quite a while since I built my UV Box but sometime life gets in the middle of our fun projects! Now finally I tested the UV Box and I can say it works great. . . I made a test with two different negatives: a very soft flower subject lighted with painted light and a very sharp subject lighted with a very contrasted light. I wanted to see how this printing process deals with different subjects. I proceeded with some step test to find the corrected exposure for my negatives. I did 2 seconds steps and as you can see in the video I was a little optimist with my first strip of 2,4,6,8 seconds exposure. At the end the correct exposure resulted of 11 minutes. . You can see the tests I made in the video below. I was expecting shorter exposure times ’cause I seen some other boxes made with the same LED giving short exposure times with other alternative processes. Still I like the slow times when I work with film and so I kinda like to have time to think while I wait for the paper to be exposed. The Arduino timer is working […]
I was always told: if you have to do something, do it with your own style! So here my Italian style UV box to expose the papers coated with antique photographic processes. At the origin of photography many technologies of printing required the exposure in UV light. At those time sun was the perfect source and the exposure was usually made outdoor. The quantity of UV light from the sun can vary a lot in different seasons or with different weather, plus, baby it’s cold outside now in winter! For this reason I decided to build a UV Box. I was inspired by some similar projects videos on YouTube but I added a personal touch. First of all I used an old wood box for wine bottles instead of a modern plastic box. The wood box was in my cellar, free, and wood looks better and more coherent than plastic with old techniques. Second I decided to add a timer for a precise exposure instead of counting the seconds with an external timer and manually switch the lights on and off. . . Check out the video to know more about the UV Box and see how it works. . […]
