Topic: Photosensitive Ink

[Francois]

This is a new one for me.
This company has out on the market some special light sensitive inks. Just expose them to sunlight and you can transfer any image directly on whatever it is you want an image on.
I'm not sure but I think it is a photopolymer, so no silver is involved.

Probably something to keep an eye out for as it can possibly be quite interesting.
http://inkodye.com/collections/dyes

[LT]

definitely interesting Francois.  The only pitfall I think for photographic use is that it has to be exposed while the dye is wet - possibly rendering the negative useless after each exposure - unless it can be washed off without any permanent damage.

[Nigel]

Inkodye : it's worth buying for the name alone.

I was just looking here : http://inkodye.com/blogs/projects/3788082-photo-printed-silk-ribbon

I guess you could try with some sort of sacrificial material between the negative and the 'Inkodye', maybe acetate or something similar.

[Heather]

it's witchcraft! it's cyanotype without the cyano! 

[Francois]

Well, they don't say it's a wet process... so it should work with an intermediate drying step which should prevent the negatives from getting too cruddy. Though they say to put the base and ink together and not the emulsion side...

When you read the comments, one of the Inkodye people suggests to put some Saran Wrap between the negative and the inked fabric. That's the safest thing to do.

What fascinates me is that what fixes the dye is actually the washing step which physically removes the product from certain spots... not unlike cyanotypes and many other alt. processes.

Somehow, the product feels a bit like "back to the future"...

[LT]

I'm sure I read on the How To section that the inks must be exposed whilst wet. I imagine the prints are going to be quite flat in most colours, but the black might be interesting on a bright white paper.  Also, I wonder what the scope is for tri-colour printing?  You'd need some kind of registration method, but I reckon some nice auto-crome type effects could be possible?

[Paul Mitchell]

Interesting!... I suppose you could always apply the dye and let it dry in a dark cupboard and then expose it?...

[Mojave]

Looks like fun and reminds me of the gum bichromates process, which is probably better because you dont have to worry about messing up your negatives. The emulsion has to be dry when you expose it or it will all wash off the paper in the developing process. 

[Francois]

 Also, I wonder what the scope is for tri-colour printing?  You'd need some kind of registration method, but I reckon some nice auto-crome type effects could be possible?

I too was thinking about tri-color printing. I don't know if it would be possible to do a Fresson Print look alike with this stuff...

Somehow, it also makes me think about Dye Transfer Prints...

[Heather]

Watching the videos, it seemed like it doesn't need to be wet. In fact the two projects I watched had you dab off any excess dye so it wasn't sopping wet (both on very porous materials, fabric and wood).

edit: ah yeah it does say "wet" but most projects seem to be more like damp. and on a discussion on the site, they point out you could put a transparency between the film and wet-stuff.

[moominsean]

Does look interesting. Wonder what the life expectancy is for a print? Be fun to mess about with for sure.

[jojonas~]

groovy!
hm... you could always print on overhead paper/tranperency sheets and then light it up. a friend did a similar process for making prints with etching metal.

[Jack Johnson]

groovy!
hm... you could always print on overhead paper/tranperency sheets and then light it up. a friend did a similar process for making prints with etching metal.

I've seen that done for cyanotypes, too: shot small or digital, photoshopped for better tonal ranges for the process, then printed to negative on transparency at 8x10 for a nice, big contact print.

There's a good article in View Camera about printing custom masks for dodging/burning that way, too.