CREEPY Self Portrait

Make self portraits using B&W photography printing process and chemicals, Then enhance to create decorations to add to the Halloween festivities!

Step 1: Supplies

*B&W photographic chemicals (I like Silvergrain , they are eco-friendly) Developer, stop and fix, and develop. trays
*Photographic paper, You can get inexpensive paper on e-bay, it can be outdated. RC paper is the best, it dries nice and flat.
Aquaphor (or vaseline)
hair protector, bath cap or a t-shirt pulled over your hair

Then you will need art supplies of your choice to turn your photos into decorations

Comments

[yellowcatt]

Great instructable.
I have some out of date photo paper that I found when clearing the loft I may give it a try.

[poofrabbit]

Congratulations on being a finalist in the Halloween contest!!! Can’t wait to see if you win! Good luck! (And as always Susan, simply awesome!)

[Susan Cirigliano]

Woooo Hooooo so excited Thanks!!!

[Barbara Stromberg]

Creepy is the word!!!! I have a few candidates for this fun Halloweeny self portrait.....but I can't find the Halloween Coloring Book!!!

[klkubacki]

This is AWESOME! I really want to try this with my photo students. One question:
When you press the photo paper to your face, do you do this in the darkroom, and then expose the paper to white light, or are you in the white light the whole time?

[Susan Cirigliano]

No darkroom necessary..... That's the beauty of it, you can also use old exposed paper ( as long as it isn't too gray)
Have fun, your kids are going to love it , but remember don't use too much Vaseline. If you do it blocks out too much information in your image

[Babyshoes]

These are awesome! I find the baby one creepiest, with the contrast of cutesy bright colours and the wierd face portrait. So creative! How did you come up with the idea for this technique?

[Susan Cirigliano]

I'm glad you like it...I used to do quite a bit of B&W photography. Once, while working in the darkroom I started to notice that I was printing fingerprints on my photographs because of the hand lotion I was wearing. I got the idea to put lotion on my face and try to print it. Finally through trial and error I realized vaseline worked great. But not too much. If you use too much it blocks out too much information like lashes wrinkles etc.....
Yes the baby is a bit creepy. I once did this as a project with my 5th grade, They were studying Egypt, We printed their faces and they used them in a Sarcophagus design.

[tireswing]

So creative! I really like that you've got a Jabba the Hut visage on "paper" but are quite the opposite in real life. The ghost in step 24 really rocks. It kind of has a hip hop feel. Sweet.
Thanks for the show,
Sean

[jessyratfink]

So neat - love all the creations at the end. :D