Category: Bromoil

The gelatin coating hurdle

15 August, 2021 / Sidewayseye / 3 Comments

How do I make smooth, flat, thin, even and bubble-free gelatin coatings on water-colour paper? Anwering this is crucial if I’m to make good Bromoil, Oil, Carbon Transfer and hand-made silver gelatin emulsion prints …

A visit to Rye, East Sussex

6 August, 2021 / Sidewayseye / 0 Comments

This post is one in a series called ‘behind the scenes’. The series describe how I visualise images and then the difficulties of putting these visualisations into effect as pictures.

Last year, just before the first COVID lock-down in England, I went walking in Sussex with my daughter. One of the towns we visited was Rye in East Sussex. I was curious how it might have changed since my last visit some 45 years ago.

Finessing a Bromoil print

18 July, 2021 / Sidewayseye / 0 Comments

I have been playing with this particular scene using Bromoil to get an understanding of the different looks that I can create …

Bromoil portraiture

1 July, 2021 / Sidewayseye / 0 Comments

Quite a while ago I attempted a Bromoil portrait which ended up heavy-handed. I have now managed a more delicate picture …

Bromoil investigations

20 June, 2021 / Sidewayseye / 4 Comments

A while back I acquired 15 sheets of Finesse bromoil paper. This post looks at how I handled it for Bromoil.

Experiments with Bromoil printing using Foma emulsion

17 January, 2021 / Sidewayseye / 7 Comments

The underlying spirit of this blog is to share my failures in the hope that other photo-cognescenti can avoid some pitfalls. I have spent quite a few hours trying to learn the Bromoil process and I think I am now making a little progress, although there is still some way to go … Here I share my experiments with bromoil printing using Foma emulsion.

Early steps into Bromoil

28 July, 2019 / Sidewayseye / 3 Comments

After my initial foray into Bromoil I decided to switch papers from Slavich Unibrom to Fomabrom Variant 113 to see whether it inked more easily. This post describes how I got on …

Etching, Bromoil and Paper Negatives

19 July, 2019 / Sidewayseye / 0 Comments

At a recent exhibition of Rembrandt’s printmaking techniques I was struck by the similarities between Etching, Bromoil and Paper Negative printing. All show the hand of the artist. All share a certain sensibility.

My first Bromoil experience

14 July, 2019 / Sidewayseye / 2 Comments

Bromoil was made for us neo-pictorialists. The long attention to a single image perhaps stretching to several days; the impressionistic rendering of a scene; the knowledge that what you do is connected to the many pioneers of photography such as Alfonso Louis Poitevan, John Pouncey and G. H. Rawlins to mention only a few; these reasons are sufficient to want to keep this old photographic process alive.

But it’s not easy … Continuing the spirit of this web-site, I share my mistakes.

Preparing for Bromoil

8 June, 2019 / Sidewayseye / 1 Comment

I like to play at both ends of the expressive scale: silver gelatin photography in the straight style at one end and something much more expressive at the other, such as Bromoil.