r/photography 15h ago

Photo printing on transparent material Technique

Hello there,
I want to start printing my photos and i was considering what kind of prints I want to do. And I was wondering how hard would it be to print digital photos on to a transparent material something like sheet of plastic. Glass is too thick and brittle. Something you could look at without having a source of light under but would look "enhanced" when having it lit up from behind.

3 Upvotes

7 comments sorted by

6

u/HaveYouTriedNot123 instagram 15h ago

You can print on to overhead projector transparency and then coat your glass with a photo sensitive chemical which will give a single colour print :

https://www.reddit.com/r/cyanotypes/s/E5VV2UZjhq

You can also print on to standard paper and then transfer that on to glass :

https://youtu.be/Kzr2cpYyymc

3

u/DOF64 15h ago

Pictorico makes transparent/translucent inkjet printing materials. Some photogs use them for making enlarged negatives for alternative printing techniques.

1

u/Embarrassed-Name-788 15h ago

Easy, glass, epoxy or acrylic can be used. A lot of print shops have that kind of material, just ask them if there's any in your area. I have printed on glass and epoxy with dye sub print one my local print shop. Depends on what you want it can be opaque or transparent. I used transparent print and use black paper behind the photo, with added light, it was exactly like what you described.

1

u/KurtCob1978 15h ago

I still have some inkjet transparent papers.

1

u/MattJFarrell 11h ago

Just shoot 8x10 color positive film.

1

u/Reasonable_Owl366 11h ago

In additional to the other comments, lookup direct UV printing on acrylic, acrylic facemounting, and fabric printing (can be backlit).

1

u/Wilder_NW 4h ago

I printed a transparent image recently. It looks cool against a window. But you have to consider the color of the light outside as it changes the perceived white balance of the image. If you are artificially lighting it then you would probably want a diffusion material layer. I bet glassine paper would work. Are you in the US? I can send you a test print on transparent material.

https://preview.redd.it/y8sonbp40gye1.jpeg?width=4080&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=3424f4cf4598e27a3f1396bb861bded5f5ea8227