Photography Tutorial: Analog Photo Intervention Techniques

Discover how to work your photos creatively using a range of analog techniques and materials, with Danny Bittencourt

Danny Bittencourt (@dannybbittencourt) is a visual poet and educator whose work spans a range of disciplines and styles, from photography and video to book writing.

Her photos have been published in magazines including Vogue and LensCulture and have a wonderful sense of the aesthetic. She also frequently intervenes in her images, which pushes them into the realm of fine art.

In this tutorial, Danny demonstrates how simple materials like coffee, candle wax and rusty water, produce uniquely beautiful results. Find out how in the video.

3 Analog photo intervention techniques

1. Coffee

Print the photo you want to work on, make some coffee and pour it over the image. If you’re looking to achieve a homogeneous stain, make sure the liquid is spread out evenly. When the photo dries, the yellowed effect will make it look old.

2. Candle wax

Allow a few drops of hot wax to fall onto a printed photo. Be careful the flame doesn’t burn anything! Don’t use the first drops, if you wait a little you will have more control over where the wax falls. There are countless ways to use wax (including colored wax), imagination is the only limit!

3. Rusty water

At least a few hours and ideally the night before you’re going to work on your photo, submerge an iron object in a glass of water. If you can’t see any rust coming off it, try waiting a little longer.

The aim is to obtain water tinted with this natural pigment and then apply it to a printed photo using a pipette or any other instrument that allows you to control its application. Once again, it’s time to let your imagination run loose and invent a myriad ways to use this ‘paint’.

Like these tips? Remember you can learn how to create art using photos by combining traditional and experimental techniques in Danny Bittencourt’s online course: Hybrid Photography for Creative Experimentation.

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