Scratched Emulsion

Ambrotype are direct-positive photographs shot on glass plates dipped in a wet collodion silver emulsion and shot while wet. It chemically produces a mild negative image on the surface, which appears as a grey-toned positive image when viewed with a dark background due to the mildly grey silver and strongly black background. The glass can optionally be coated in black varnish in advance.

Ambrotype is one of the wet collodion emulsion processes. In modern times, simply saying "wet-collodion process" or "wet-plate photography" implies an ambrotype. The related tintype is also a wet collodion process.

Tintypes are direct-positive photographs shot and developed on a sheet of metal with a dark coating and a wet collodion silver emulsion. They are related to and practically equivalent to ambrotypes.

Both ambrotypes and tintypes can be produced with an alternative collodion silver emulsion consisting of gelatin or albumen (egg white), which can be pre-coated and allowed to dry. The emulsion tends to be significantly slower than the wet-plate variant.

Anthotypes are contact-printed images with emulsions produced directly from crushed plant material (generally flowers) of particular light-sensitive plants. Light-sensitive emulsions can be made from beetroot juice, sour cherry juice, turmeric, violet, seabuckthorn, red chili, and much more. Different plant material combined with different solvents (ex: vodka, isopropyl alcohol) produce variously colored emulsions.

A direct image is formed from exposure to a powerful UV source (i.e. the sun) for several hours to days, which can be further chemically developed or preserved. Anthotypes are considered unstable, and degrade over time.

Phytograms are contact-printed plant material, like leaves or flower petals, using the phenols in the plants as the developing agent. The leaves are dipped in a vitamin C and washing soda solution, effectively producing the same recipe as caffenol, but within the plant itself. This can be done on film or paper, in daylight.

Chemigrams are camera-less, abstract "paintings" made directly on photographic paper by alternately applying developer and fixer to control the development, and using "resists"—chemical or physical additives like wax, oil, varnish, butter, glue, or tape—to roughly control which parts of the paper are exposed and developed. The artist has great influence, but the final result is unpredictable. Like film soup, the resists are often a combination of household chemicals and items.

Photograms are camera-less photographic images captured by placing items directly on film or photographic paper. Opaque items fully block exposure, while transparent and translucent items create more varied texture. Complex shadows can develop as well, depending on the size of the object and light source.

Similar to photograms, lumen prints are camera-less images captured by placing objects directly on the light-sensitive emulsion, but exposed to strong UV light for a long period of time rather than traditional exposure and development. UV-exposed photo paper can develop bright, pastel colors as they develop out.

Watergrams are photograms with liquid (typically water) as the object on the photo paper. The water is agitated during exposure to make waves, ripples, splashes, or bubbles, which cast shadows on the final print.

Handmade negatives are non-photographic negatives produced by manually applying or removing material to or from film or other transparent plastic, producing a translucent object that can be used in a negative carrier or contact printed. Handmade textures combined with sandwiching negatives is an option.

A lith print is an alternative print development method using additional formaldehyde in the developer solution to trigger "infectious development", meaning the tones develop exponentially faster as they darken. It gives different tonality and contrast than can be achieved with normal paper developer. The behavior depends on the paper it is printed on, with old bromide-based papers being particularly well-suited.

Oil prints are film negatives contact-printed on a paper sensitized with a dichromate (as opposed to silver halide), fixed, and then painted with dark oil paint. The paint sticks to the well-exposed areas, and washes away from the less-exposed ones. Prints have a unique combination of photorealism and painting-like texture. Bromoil is a similar technique that can be used with an enlarger.

A modified variant of oil prints, bromoil involves first enlarging a negative onto a standard silver halide photographic paper, fixed, chemically bleached, and finally inked with oil paint.

Cyanotypes are contact prints made on emulsions made from chemicals that deposit iron in response to UV light, and print to a bright, monochromatic blue. Toning after development allows obtaining a wide variety of mostly-pastel colors in the final print.

Kallitypes are UV contact-printed images similar to cyanotypes, but using an iron-silver emulsion (ferric oxalate), which produces a more traditional silver-toned image with high tonal range. Kallitypes are frequently toned with metallic salts—gold, platinum, palladium, or mercury—for both color and improved permanence.

A UV-exposed contact-print process very similar to kallitypes, but using ferric ammonium citrate, which produces prints with a rich, deep brown tone. Van Dyke brown prints expose to completion, meaning they can be produced without a darkroom.

A modern derived process called argyrotype attains similar prints with less work.

A UV-exposed contact-print process very similar to kallitypes, and also using ferric oxalate, with additional platinum and/or palladium salts. Platinum/palladium is deposited on th paper, as opposed to iron or silver. The paper is not gelatin coated, resulting in a matte silver image known for extremely large tonal range.

Combining the platinum into the emulsion is considered different from toning, but similar results can be achieved by platinum-toning kallitypes.

A UV-exposed contact-print process using regular table salt (or other salts) dissolved in water to sensitize paper, which is then brushed with silver nitrate, dried, then exposed to UV light, and finally fixed. The appearance is unique compared to other prints due to the image being more deeply embedded in the paper.