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Producing paper negatives is a creative technique that many photographers have experimented with. The commonest technique for producing them is with a pin hole camera. A piece of photographic paper is attached to the inside a light-tight cardboard box, and a pin-hole punched in the opposite side. The "camera" is then positioned with the pin hole facing a subject (usually a landscape or a still life composition) and left for a few minutes to allow the photographic paper to capture the picture. When the photographic paper is developed in the usual way, it produces a paper negative. The light areas of the original scene appear dark, and the dark areas appear light. The perfect negative will have some detail in both the darkest and lightest areas so that it can produce a good quality picture.

This photographic experiment can produce some amazing results. Because the time taken to produce the photo is minutes rather than seconds, it is possible to create ghostly illusions as people or moving objects appear to travel through the picture, and changes in light can also result in amazing effects.

Although experimenting with pinhole photography can be exciting, it can also be frustrating until it is perfected. A simpler way of producing a paper negative is with another photograph. This method involves placing a photo, face down, onto a sheet of photographic paper, face upwards. Both are covered with a sheet of glass to get a perfectly flat contact between them. Then the enlarger lamp is turned on. The light will pass through the lightest areas of the original photograph, exposing the paper beneath it (and holding light back from the darkest areas). When the photographic paper is developed in the usual way, it will form a perfect negative of the original if there was a good contact between them.

This method also provides plenty of room for experimentation. Using patterned glass, drawing on the back of the original photo, writing on the glass, or introducing feathers, grass, shells, will all give creative effects on the paper negative. It's also possible to reverse the paper negative, by placing the original photograph face up onto the photographic paper.

These techniques have always fascinated traditional photographers, but now even digital photography is beginning to find ways of producing them. Scanners and digital software, usually Photoshop , are used to create or print paper negatives, giving highly unusual graphic images that fascinate and intrigue the viewer.

Black and white photography, whether traditional or digital, is a creative form that begs for experimentation, and producing your own paper negatives is not only informative and challenging, but highly rewarding. Just ensure that the paper you choose doesn't have a brand name written across the back, and get started. The possibilities are endless.

Learn more about this author, Gill Breeze.
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