okay this is my deal..i have a pinhole camera and what i have done is painted a pieace of paper w/ van dyke dev. chemicals..i allowed it to dry and placed it into my pinhole camera and all i got was nothing..what i doing wrong...???? please help me

-- sarah ann (monkichi10@hotmail.com), June 13, 1999

Answers

I've dabbled a little bit in Van Dyke prints and can offer you a bit of help with your problem. The chemicals used to Van Dyke prints are not sensitive, I believe, to visible light which is why the paper can be coated under tungsten (indoor) light. Van Dyke paper is, however, sensitive to ultraviolet light. Generally, Van Dyke prints are made by contact printing a black and white negative in sunlight. Of course, the larger the negative the better.

-- Wes (sechlerw@missouri.edu), June 25, 1999.