Free books on alternative photographic processes you can download. Whole books – or parts of books – generously given by authors.
A NON-SILVER MANUAL Cyanotype, Vandyke Brown, Palladium & Gum Bichromate with instructions for making light-resists including pinhole photography
Sarah Van Keuren’s book with lots of ideas for workshops and on a wide range of alternative photographic processes.
Download the entire book free
Or read all of it free online here
The Massive Paper chart – a free basic pdf available
85+ papers tested in the argyrotype, chrysotype, cyanotype, palladium, salted paper and vandyke brown process. The free version includes the basics. The paid version all the details
Download it here
Cyanomicon – History, Science and Art of Cyanotype: photographic printing in Prussian blue
From Mike Ware: “This book engages with the history, aesthetics, practice, conservation, and chemistry of the cyanotype medium. With over 800 references to the original literature and the WWW, I hope it may serve as a useful resource for photohistorians, curators and conservators of photographs, and students of the art-science of siderotype: print-making with iron-based photochemistry. This work includes full practical instructions in the various processes of cyanotype. It also incorporates accounts of some contemporary scholarship on the medium as art, and discusses a number of issues about the practice that are currently being raised with increasing frequency in those alternative process online forums where it receives interest.”
Download the book from Mike Ware’s website
Cyanotype workshop compendium
Free compendium for workshops with children using pre coated papers.
Get the English version free here
Get the Swedish version free here
Cyanotype guide
Free guide to cyanotypes.
Get it free here
The Wet Collodion Plate: 16 Steps To Making The Plates
Will Dunniway – a veteran collodion printer – his widow gives away his book.
Download the book here.
Lingua Franca: A Common Language for Conservators of Photographic Materials
For conservators of photographic material. It contains bilingual definitions of photographic processes, condition issues, treatment options, preventative care and technical studies. It also provides commonly used terms briefly defined and illustrated with photographs, videos and interactive features such as links to collection items, podcasts, videos, blogs and Flickr albums.
Download from iTunes or read as html here.
Gum Bichromate Pigment Printing v.1.03
Norman Breslow’s e-book on Gum Bichromate Pigment Printing with us. Free to download, free to pass on.
Get the book for free (630 kb)
Photography in Canada, 1839–1989 – An Illustrated History
The Art Canada Institute has published this and made it available for free as a download.
An in-depth look at how photography shaped Canada’s identity and creative landscape. It contains sections on early and alternative photographic processes, for example, a daguerreotype by Louis-Jacques-Mandé Daguerre from 1838. The authors take readers through the country’s first studios, geographic expeditions, and photography’s role in documenting history and challenging colonial narratives. The book includes key developments in daguerreotypes, calotypes, and the wet-plate process—techniques that laid the foundation for photography as both an art and a tool for storytelling. Featuring both celebrated and lesser-known photographers, it covers everything from portraiture to photojournalism while examining photography’s influence on race, gender, and urban life.
How to read it:
- Go to the Art Canada Institute website: Then click “Download”
- Or Read it on the web here
Argyronomicon Silver Photographs on Paper: Chemical History of their Invention, Deterioration, and Conservation
From Mike Ware: “This is a compilation of my writings on silver photography published over the last twenty-five years; they divide naturally into four categories:
- the pre-history of the invention, including other materials and motives;
- the development of silver photography on paper, negative and positive;
- the vulnerability and conservation of historic silver paper photographs;
- the photochemistry of Talbot’s salted paper and calotype processes.
Included is an updated version of my 1994 Science Museum publication: ‘Mechanisms of Image Deterioration in Early Photographs’ – long out of print. These four sections, comprising 23 chapters over 273 pages, include 750 references to the original literature.”
Download the book from Mike Ware’s website
Anthotype notes – Document your anthotype process
Notebook contains pre-defined pages with enough room to document 50 anthotypes free for Supporting Members.
Find out how to get the notebook.
Cyanotype notes – Document your cyanotype process
Notebook contains pre-defined pages with enough room to document 50 cyanotype free for Supporting Members.
Find out how to get the notebook.
Romano Bumburumbum picture book – in pinhole
Romano Bumburumbum picture book of pinholes.
Get the book for free
Platinomicon – A Technical History of Photographic Printing in Platinum and Palladium
From Mike Ware: “This account of the underlying chemistry and historical practice of the platinum and palladium printing processes has been compiled on the basis of my 36 years experience with the medium. Its writing was initiated in 2010 by my appointment as a scientific consultant to the National Gallery of Art in Washington DC. Over the ensuing six years, the NGA became the hub of a wide-ranging, inter-institutional research collaboration by curators, conservators, photographers and scientists, that culminated in an International Symposium in 2014, the proceedings of which – greatly extended – were published in 2017 as Platinum and Palladium Photographs: Technical History, Connoisseurship, and Preservation, with 46 contributors, edited by Constance McCabe, under the aegis of the Photographic Materials Group of the American Institute for Conservation of Historic and Artistic Works.”
Download the book from Mike Ware’s website
The Hand Magazine
The Hand Magazine features images from around the world. The Hand is dedicated to the support and exhibition of hand-made artworks using mechanical or reproduction-based processes. The Hand magazine website. Read issues free here:
Turboélice
Turboélice – a Brazilian magazine – periodically presents research results on alternative and experimental photography from its team members, co-editors, and guest photographers.
- Read all the magazine for free here: turboelicefotoexperimental.com.br
Obscura Craft Magazine
Obscura Craft Magazine is dedicated to analogue and alternative photographic processes. Created by a small independent team, it fills a unique niche for artists and enthusiasts seeking a focused space for these practices. See their website.
8 bit step wedge
To go with the digital negative system in Christina Z. Anderson’s book Gum Printing and Other AMAZING Contact Printing Processes.
Download a 8 bit step wedge free (Photoshop format).
Diffusion magazine – unconventional photography, volume 1, 2009
Diffusion magazine – unconventional photography. Download all of the first issue.
Get issue I for free
Diffusion magazine – unconventional photography, volume II, 2010
Diffusion magazine – unconventional photography. Download articles:
Read the article “The world of plate photography” for free
Read the article “Adventures with multi-pinhole cameras” for free
The World Journal of Post-Factory Photography issue 1
The first issue of Judy Seigel’s brilliant series of journals.
Get Issue 1 for free
Alternative Photography Processes – A worker’s guide
The chapter on cyanotypes is available here.
Get the cyanotype chapter for free
Blueprint to cyanotpes – Exploring a historical alternantive photographic process
An extract from the beginners book Blueprint to cyanotpes – Exploring a historical alternantive photographic process of the first section of the book.
Get the first 22 pages for free
The Carbon print
Learn the carbon and carbro print process.
Chapter: Carbon print – getting started
Chapter: Carbon print – process overview
Chapter: Carbon print – A Brief History of Carbon Printing
From pinhole to print – Inspiration, instructions and insights
Download a chapter from From pinhole to print – Inspiration, instructions and insights the beginner’s book on making pinholes.
Get the chapter “Make a pinhole camera from a can” for free
The Pinhole Camera – A practical How-To Book for Making Pinhole Cameras and Images
Download a section from the encyclopeida of pinholing.
Get 35 pages for free
The Pocket Paper Engineer, Volume I: Basic Forms: How to Make Pop-Ups Step-by-Step
Download a chapter on how to make pop-up cards.
Get a section for free
The Pocket Paper Engineer, volume 2
Download a chapter on how to make pop-up cards.
Get a section for free
World Anthotype Day
World Cyanotype Day
Thank you!
You’re welcome!
Thank you so much.
Long life to you and your projects
You’re welcome!
You’re welcome!
thank you very much. I go to test.
Many thanks!!! Amazing offer in an Argentine Black Friday Day. Love to repurpose!!!
Yes. Enjoy!
Thank you very much! A lot to read now..
Pleasure! Enjoy the read!
Thank you. My books are in storage at the moment so I cannot get to them so this is an extra special treat!
Pleasure!
a great thank for this treasure of informations about alternative proceeding of photography.
Thank You So much ,i think ist a great way of sharing Knowlage and intising people to buy a book obce they have read the first few pages and know what they getting ,
Well done ,i live on a farm 30 miles from a tiny town in South Africa and cant have anything sent here as there is no address so i relay on free information.
Thanks again and keep up the good work ,
Cyanomicon version 2 is out as well as a platinum opus – both by Mike Ware – available here – http://www.mikeware.co.uk/mikeware/downloads.html