How to make a sungram.

Sungrams follow the same concept as a photogram apart from using an enlarger as a light source you use the sunlight. Leaves, flowers and nature look very effective as a sungram as the different acids and alkalis that are contained in leaves can create different effects on the photographic paper, sometimes even different colours depending on which photographic paper you use.

Sungram is created by placing leaves, flowers or any objects on to a piece of photographic paper, following the same concept as a photogram which means you do this in the darkroom as the paper can not be exposed to light until you are ready. To keep your leaves and flowers in place it is ideal to use sheets of glass, preferably you should use a sheet of glass underneath your photographic paper, then place your objects on to the paper then use another sheet of glass. this keeps your leaves flat and in place. We then had to wrap our sungrams in black paper to stop the paper from being exposed to light. Then once we had reached the place in which our sungram was in full sunlight we then unwrapped the black paper and left our photographic paper to develop. The ideal time to expose your paper to the sunlight is about 5/6 minutes as this guarantees your sungram will work. But you musn’t leave it for longer than 10 minutes as this can mean that your sungram may be ruined as the paper has been exposed to too much light which means your sungram will just fade away. After you have exposed your sungram for around five minutes you then need to seal it, you do this by placing it in the fix. You leave it in the fix for three minutes the same as when you fix a photogram. You then need to wash it in the water and dry it as normal.

Depending on personal preference you might like the effect that sungrams create or you might prefer using the same objects but creating a photogram instead, using an enlarger as your light source.