# Alternative process

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{{Short description|Non-traditional or non-commercial photographic printing process}}
{{Alternative photography}}
{{more citations needed|date= August 2023}}
In photography, an '''alternative process''' is any chemical process that is considered primarily historical.<ref>{{Cite web |title=ARTZ 388.01: Alternative Process Photography |url=https://scholarworks.umt.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=2687&context=syllabi |website=scholarworks.umt.edu}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Alternative Process Photography: Beyond Digital and Film |url=https://digitalcommons.uri.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1549&context=srhonorsprog |website=digitalcommons.uri.edu}}</ref> Because of how dominant the [silver gelatin process](/source/silver_gelatin_process) has become,<ref>{{Cite web |title=An Introduction to Photographic Processes |url=https://www.nypl.org/collections/nypl-recommendations/guides/photographic-processes |access-date=2023-08-17 |website=The New York Public Library}}</ref> an "alternative" process is understood to be almost any workflow that deviates from [silver gelatin film](/source/Photographic_film) being printed on [silver gelatin photo paper](/source/Photographic_paper). Examples include processes still based on silver salts—like [collodion process](/source/collodion_process)es or [salt print](/source/salt_print)s—as well as completely alien chemistries based on iron salts—like the [cyanotype](/source/cyanotype) or [platinum print](/source/platinum_print)—or dichromate salts—[gum](/source/Gum_printing) and [carbon printing](/source/Carbon_print).

Silver gelatin is preferred in large part for its relatively high [sensitivity to light](/source/Photosensitivity). Although some alternative processes like the [Daguerreotype](/source/Daguerreotype) or the [calotype](/source/calotype) require just a little more lighting, or a longer [exposure](/source/Exposure_(photography)) to form an image, many other processes are unable to form images quickly enough with visible light to be useful for photography, and are instead used as printing processes. These processes may require either a silver gelatin [negative](/source/Negative_(photography)) or a "[digital negative](/source/Digital_negative_(transparency))" (a transparency printed on a digital printer) to be used to make [contact print](/source/contact_print)s from.

==Examples==
*{{anl|Anthotype}}
*{{anl|Caffenol}}
*{{anl|Chrysotype}}
*{{anl|Daguerreotype}}
*[Gum bichromate](/source/Gum_bichromate) and other Pigmented Dichromated Colloids which are used to directly generate a photographic print
*[Platinum Process](/source/Platinum_print) and [Palladium Process](/source/Palladium_Process)
*[Carbon print](/source/Carbon_print) and various similar processes which use a non-sensitive intermediate layer to generate a photographic image
*[Van Dyke Brown](/source/Van_Dyke_brown_(printing)), [Cyanotype](/source/Cyanotype) and various other iron-based processes
*[Wet and Dry Plate processes](/source/Collodion_Process) based in silver using a hand coated emulsion on a tin or aluminum (tintype) or glass (ambrotype) base 
*[Resinotype](/source/Resinotype) and several similar processes which rely upon unexposed dichromated colloids to accept an insoluble pigment
*[Inkodye](/source/Lumi_(company)), a light-oxidized [vat dye](/source/vat_dye).
*Oil pigment processes, such as [bromoil process](/source/Oil_Print_Process)
*Other processes which use silver halide but in various different ways other than the typical silver-gelatin formula, such as [Salt Print](/source/Salt_print)
*Any number of processes which use more exotic materials, such as [uranium chloride](/source/Uranyl_chloride), [gold chloride](/source/gold(I%2CIII)_chloride), and any number of other salts to directly or indirectly generate a photographic print
*Non [standard](/source/Digital_printing) digital manipulation or printing.

==See also==
*[Photographic processes](/source/Photographic_processes)
*[Lo-fi photography](/source/Lo-fi_photography)

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==External links==
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20150402132544/http://geotog.com/alternative-process-photography/ Alternative Process Photography on Geotog.com]

Category:Photographic processes
Category:Alternative photographic processes

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