While incredibly easy to make, lumen prints are hard to master. I was unlucky and had awful weather (thanks, Storm Barra!) so I had to make do with my UV lamp inside. It was a process of trial-and-error, as I didn't know how long to expose the prints under the lamp.
I also made a bit of a rookie mistake. In the first image here, I accidentally had the paper under the rose upside down. The first pair of prints in the fibre-based section are considerably lighter than the rest - this is why. Interestingly, the UV light was able to penetrate through the back of the paper and still create an impression of the rose, just not a very strong one.
Below are my resin-coated lumen prints. These were made using my generic RC darkroom paper, and as such, developed a cool-pinkish tinge around the flowers, as seen in the left of each pair of images. On the right, however, is the result after the print was fixed. The colours didn't change drastically, but definitely became warmer, with an almost orange hue. I tried to crush the flowers to draw out some of the juices, but this didn't seem to make much of a difference.
I'm quite underwhelmed by these prints, but I think that using more delicate flowers and exposing for longer could have created more interesting pieces. These were under the UV lamp for anywhere between 20 to 45 minutes. My paper was also not expired, and I wonder if that would have made a noticeable difference. Next time, I'll see if I can get hold of a mystery box of expired paper and see what happens!
My cotton rag paper, however, gave some stunning results. These scans do not do the depths of colour justice. When exposed, the paper turned a rich indigo, with the delicate petals creating a warm purple. The areas around the tulip stems began to turn blue, likely because I exposed these ones for longer (an hour). After fixing, there was a dramatic change to the colours. The indigo became a stunning coral, with the lighter areas turning more orange and the deepest tones changing into a warm pink. Interestingly, the areas around the stems of the tulips that were once blue began to turn to a warm purple. I wonder what would happen if I exposed them for longer - would the colours become richer, with more variation? This may also help to counteract the slight bleaching by the fixer.
These lumen prints have more of an ethereal feel than the previous ones. This paper is able to show the layers of petals and some finer details, even in the tulips, rather than just a solid silhouette. Interestingly, the juices seemed to have a little more of an effect on this paper, which you can see in the stems of the tulips. It may be that they were able to soak into this fibre-based paper, but merely sat on top of the resin-coated paper. In the unfixed prints, those areas are red, and during the fixing process they turn yellow. This would be great fun to experiment with further.
I loved the colours on the cotton rag paper so much, I tried again with some ferns, but this time I left the prints to expose for two hours. This resulted in some much deeper tones, and after fixing the prints turned almost burgundy. These are definitely my favourite lumen prints.
If you've had a go at making your own lumen prints, please share your experiments below - I'd love to see your creations and learn about some of the techniques you use.
Comments