Photo by:
Paul Webster
Equipment Used:
Canon EOS50 and 14mm Sigma lens in Subal housing, Ilford Delta 3200 film rated at ISO1600, shutter priority set at 1/30th.
While the use of computers has provided a revolution in image manipulation,
19th-century photographic techniques using chemicals and long-forgotten printing skills can provide fascinating results. Colin Doeg talks to Paul Webster, a modern-day exponent of some of these vintage methods
An interesting and exciting wave of creativity and experimentation is sweeping
over underwater photography. For some years photographers have been producing
very similar images - but now a number are experimenting with new ideas.
One of those busy doing something different is 39-year-old Paul Webster, a software
engineer who lives at Cheadle Hulme, in Cheshire. His approach is an alternative
to computer manipulation. He explains: 'I have revived two 19th-century techniques
that date back to the beginnings of photography as we know it today. Both of these
techniques involve hours of darkroom work but the results are exciting because
every print is unique.
The Cyanotype process produces prints which are blue, those from the Van Dyke
process come out brown. 'Each involves mixing special chemicals and then
painting the mixture onto a surface of your choice. This is the photographic emulsion.
I paint it onto handmade, deckle-edged paper of the type which is used by people
painting in water colours. 'However, you first have to have a negative which
is the same size as the finished image. I start with a 35mm negative, taking all
these pictures in natural light with fast black-and-white films such as Ilford
Delta 3200, Fuji's Neopan 1600 or Kodak's ISO 1600 emulsion. At times
I uprate the film to ISO 6400 and generally overdevelop it in Ilford DDX, which
is a convenient one-shot liquid developer. Fifty per cent overdevelopment seems
to work best for me. 'I then make a 10in x 8in print, burning in and dodging
as necessary and copy this onto 10in x 8in film to produce a second, larger negative.
This is the one used for the final image.
'Once you are ready to make either the Cyanotype or Van Dyke print, you paint
the emulsion onto the paper. You can do this in subdued light, as the emulsion
is so slow. When it is thoroughly dry, place the big negative on the paper, put
both into a contact printing frame, or merely lay a sheet of glass over them and
expose the sandwich to light. I began using sunlight but now I have a tanning
lamp, which gives greater control over the quality of light and the timing of
the exposure - about an hour for the blue prints and around 20 minutes for
the brown ones.'
Paul prefers to use a very wide-angle lens - in his case, a 14mm Sigma -
to take the original shots. 'It gives me more options for composition. I
like it for photographing divers and wrecks as well as large animals such as seals
and dolphins. 'Recently I went to South Africa, diving in the Cape Town area
and then moving along the coast. I had decided to devote the majority of the trip
to shooting black-and-white film. It was nerve-racking because I didn't know
if any of the experiments would work. Just to be safe, I also shot a few rolls
of colour film so I had some pictures to show my friends in Stockport Underwater
Diving Group.' The image featured here is a striking interpretation of an
original black-and-white shot of a honeycomb stingray (Himantura uarnak). It was
taken at 32m on Aliwal Shoal, near Durban in South Africa, and then converted
into a Cyanotype print. Paul has been diving for 14 years. In that time he and
his partner, Bethan Roberts, have dived extensively in UK waters and the tropics,
including Israel, Jordan, Egypt, Thailand, Kenya, South Africa, Cuba, the Cayman
Islands, the Bahamas, and Baja California and Florida in the US. He is a BSAC
advanced and extended range diver as well as being a club instructor and an IANTD
advanced nitrox diver.
He started taking pictures underwater around seven years ago with a Sea &
Sea MotorMarine II and twin YS50 strobes, but only became really serious when
he upgraded to a Canon EOS50 in a Subal housing with Sea & Sea YS120 and YS30
flashguns. He is not entirely new to photography, however, because he is also
interested in landscape photography, mostly in black and white, and that feeds
back into his underwater work. While he is beginning to concentrate on wide-angle,
black-and-white images, he also shoots in colour and does macro photography with
his Canon 50mm macro lens.
