Lumen Workshop

Last week at NBCCD we had sort of "on the spot" Lumen Workshop for those interested. Erin Colwell, a student in the second year diploma, has been studying this technique for a few months now. For those interested, some of her results are on display at Charlotte Street Art Centre in our show, "Not From Concentrate", and in front of the photo area at NBCCD. What is a lumen print firstly? A lumen print is created by taking darkroom photographic paper (paper meant for darkroom printing), placing objects an liquids on the surface of the paper and then letting an image slowly form under them from exposer to the light. Confused? Let me explain further, in the dark room, we expose a projection of our negatives onto the paper and then apply it to a chemical process to make the image appear in seconds. With out that process the exposer to light happens very slowly, this technique takes advantage of that. So, it still might be confusing to you, but the results are quite incredible an once you understand, very simple to execute. After we exposed the paper with our objects in place, held down by a glass plate, for a few hours in the sun, you already have incredible results. Here are some images of our prints in process.

Once you've reached a good level of exposer, we take the prints, wash off all the fruit bits and juice with water (darkroom paper is designed to go in liquid) and scan the image on a flatbed scanner. Then it becomes a matter of playing with your colour levels and maybe inverting the image. From the workshop I made two images. The first is a straight forward scan with some colour adjustments.

The next one I got a little more creative in Photoshop.

I got really excited by this, and during the open house at the school the next day, I made a few more in between my other work I had on showcase. 

Thanks to Erin for show me and the others this cool technique!

-Larry M. Holder