A Single Lumen Exposure from Alan Withington

And it's a beauty! It was created with Alan's focusing 5x5 homemade camera, but I should let Alan explain:

"I just wanted to share a new lumen with you done in my latest self made (from junk) camera. It is a photo of 'The Dog Walker' sculpture on the highest point of a country park created on colliery spoil. It came out better than the ones I took with wet lumens in my 3x3 camera but I don't understand why.

This is a 5"x 5" lumen on ancient Kodabrome paper used dry and about 90 mins. exposure. I found that when the paper was wetted it wrinkled too much so I was forced to use it dry. I was amazed at the colours which have not been changed after inversion, just contrast being raised.

I’ve attached a photo of the junk camera, it has a self made ground glass focusing screen... I found out how to make one from Youtube and it was really easy.

I guess it just shows how Lumens don't follow rules.

I'm not sure if I went back in the same light and did everything the same I'd get the same result

The paper came in a large batch stored somewhere musty and damp so I'm not sure if that has had an effect?"

Thanks again Alan! I'm always happy to post your amazing work!

Update: Because there have been some inquiries about how Alan built his camera and the resources he uses, Alan just sent this information and links:

The link is to make the ground glass on https://youtu.be/hxC48_sd6BM

For the camera build I could not find a video but my starting point was to watch 'Making a cardboard camera obscura'. That meant I could experiment with lumens and various lenses in a camera that I would not be worried about if it went wrong. I then transferred the ideas into a wooden version but had the ground glass in a fixed position once I found infinity focus.

The simplest video is this one by Mr Howe.

https://youtu.be/TL3aDZOQoUE

Joe Van Cleave's videos are also very good. I'll try and do some more photos of my wooden camera showing the construction inside and send them to you.