fandomhigh | Photography Through the Ages; Thursday, Third Period [02/15].

There was a lot going on in the classroom that day, plenty of glass plates and jars of things set up on some worktables up front, and Prompto was sitting on the top of the desk up front, idly tossing a potato between his hands as he waited for the students to come in and get settled.

Yes, a potato. Don't worry. He'll get to it.

....right away, actually.

"Hey, guys," he said, grinning a little and hopping off the desk to hold up said potato importantly. "You may be wondering why in the heck I've got a potato with me right now, but would you believe me if I told you that this potato has more to do with photography than you could have imagined? And I'm not talking about those 'potato quality' images you get when you try taking a picture of a really cool moon or something else from a distance, like a band on a stage or something, but the fact that potato starch was actually an important element in the development of color photography! It's true! I know a lot of people, when they think of old timey photos, think of black and white, and it was easiest to do B&W photos back in the day, but that didn't mean people weren't finding innovative and interesting ways to bring color to life in their photos, all the way back during the turn of the last century here. Right around the time those Kodak cameras we were playing with these last few weeks were coming around, so was a process called Autochrome Lumière, and today, we're going to learn about it and actually try it for ourselves!

"Now, the process involves a positive transparency image on a glass plate, and a few layers of different colored starches and carbon over it. Then, you press them all together with a lot of pressure and force, and then a varnish is applied to it that makes it light sensitive, and, you know, that's what colors are, just light reflecting off things in different ways, and, therefor, you've got yourself a color image! Between all the developing, washing, bleaching, and fixing, though, it's definitely a lot of work, so let's get started and we'll work through it together!"

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With one of your most potato-quality icons.

Rosa Diaz

Stark

Arden Finch

It's all about autochrome, baby! And it is definitely a process, but at least it's not nearly as sensitive and nerve-wracking as the film processing from last week, and there's a little bit of some asides about the cool science behind it as Prompto goes through the steps, as well.

Now it's time to give the process a try for yourself! All of the supplies you need are all ready to go, from Prompto either whipping them up ahead of time or having actually just found stuff for it in the supply closets at the Photo Hut, but there's lots of room for trial and error, because the whole point is to just explore the process and have fun with it!

Who knew potatoes were so versatile? Of course Stark knew they could be cooked in a variety of delicious ways but he'd had no idea they could be useful in things like photography.

He was going to make an attempt! And be thoroughly engaged in learning something new.