Taking Pictures With... a Potato?! 

Finally a camera i can use for ufo's

The ingestion warning seemed excesive but then I remembered the potatos and I could totally see someone serving these for an anniversary or something.

"make sure you coat the same side you salted" tells me you probably spent some time quite confused why it didnt work xD

I assumed the video would end with a Potato pinhole camera with a potato powered led lamp with a potato film taking a picture of a potato

dyed potato-starch was the basis of the Autochrome process that produced very early color-photographs...they look pretty amazing for being photographed on potato!

It's kind of a stretch, but there's also a type of color photography invented all the way back in 1903 called the Autochrome Lumière that makes use of potato starch. Making the plates is defintely a labor of love, but it's still cool to think you can take color photos with something you made in your garage.

First 9 seconds of this video can be made into an yousuckatcooking short and noone would bat an eye.

Okay, now we need a lemon car

As a biology student, I increasingly struggled with feeling like I had to find the one question or topic that I have a burning passion for, especially once I got into a PhD at an R1. I've come to realize that I'm driven by curiosity for everything and that focusing so narrowly on one topic just isn't right for me. A big part of that realization came from watching this channel. I've always been jealous that you have the ability to delve deeply into any question, regardless of field or discipline, and just pursue it doggedly until you're satisfied, then put it down. I've recently come to terms with the fact that I don't want to be an expert in a single topic, I want to be an expert jack of all trades. The thorough carefulness of your scientific techniques, ability to synthesize and distill knowledge, and excellent storytelling have been an inspiration to me for years

17:09 That's a UV filter (L37) on the end of your camera lens. Your long exposure might go a little quicker without it!

This is my first time hearing about anthotyping. Now I wanna make a super-long-exposure pinhole camera using stuff from the grocery store.

A couple tips for curcumin anthotypes: 1) suspend the dye in gelatin, wet your watercolor paper, and coat the paper with a very thin layer of the suspension. Let dry. This will significantly increase your resolution, since you will have a denser and more even dye layer. 2) Before developing, wet your sensitized paper in ~10% H2O2. Keep it wet during development. This significantly increases the speed by which the UV light will develop the image. Using that method, I can develop an image of about 3x5” using the full frame of a 4,000 lumen DLP projector (really not the best tool for the job given the color wheel) in about 2 hours. Soak in normal water to remove the untreated H2O2 and then treat in a basic solution like you did. 3) Grab a transparent LCD meant for an SLA 3D printer. Use that for your exposures.

Little trick about silver nitrate stains. If you get silver nitrate stain on your skin you can remove it using iodine solution. It reacts with the silver making silver iodide which will be removed by your body faster than the silver metal.

26:01 Looks like about 240p or 360p, and that tracks, as that's typically when the "was this recorded on a potato" comments come out 😂

14:22 Me literally out loud: “Ooooooohhhhhhhh! Dat why blueprints!” 😂😂😂 Quick and shmart, I am!

You can take a photogram with a leaf without applying photosensitive chemicals on it! Just treat the leaf like normal photogram paper, just with a much longer exposure time. The parts of the leaf exposed to the light undergo photosynthesis much more effectively than the covered areas of the leaf, which the illuminated cells store as starch. To develop the photogram, you just soak it in an iodine solution (both tincture & povidone work). The iodine reacts with starch to form a dark color, and an image pops out like magic! The awesome thing about this method is the leaf itself is the photosensitive component! The iodine only brings out the image that was already there, just hidden.

The first few minutes make me feel like I'm on crack

Watch this in 144p for the authentic potato experience.

Maybe try sanding and polishing the freeze dried potato slices? The smooth surface might make the photos come out clearer.

4:57 Is that NileRed lmao

House hippos man what a throwback

NileRed: I have to be careful The Thought Emporium: You have to be careful

12:39 "This is called a cyanotype because of the incredible blue color" Wait, are cyanide and cyan the color related etymologically? Apparently they are: Cyanide was given its name from cyan (from Greek kyanos 'dark blue')

Expectation: making a potato camera. The hidend video's title: why blueprints are called blueprints

so you mean, we now can use potatoe as a power source AND take a screenshot of doom? damn, doom roun really on a potatoe

0:20 HOUSE HIPPO MENTIONED

could call it a pho-tato. i shall see myself out

I accidentally spilled a large pot of curry stew all over my kitchen, with painted white cabinet doors. It all turned pale yellow. I was horrified and mortified! Scrubbing and washing did very little. However, a week or so later, the yellow had essentially gone away. Presumably, the yellow pigment was oxidized to something colorless by exposure to air.

It doesn’t matter what this channel uploads: I‘m always absolutely terrified.

Iodine turns starch blue, I thought that’s what you sprayed when the potato turned blue. Might be possible to create a light sensitive mask on the potato, expose it, wash off the unreacted stuff, then spray with diluted iodine to produce an image. Probably won’t be better than the cyanotype, but it’d be a neat experiment I guess.

As you already know, the Glass cuts most of highly chemically reactive short UV range (UV-C, UV-B, Half of UV-A). So use the fused quartz glass(transparent to most of UV-C to A range) instead of normal glass might work way better. BTW, many of plastic sheets cut not only UV-C, UV-B, but also UV-A...

For the potato images, the next step is probably making paper out of potato fibers, then constructing an entire camera and film out of said fibers. Just because it SOUNDS easy probably doesn't mean it is, so I wouldn't mind if there wasn't a follow-up about it

potato starch was actually used for early color photography in the Autochrome Lumière process

BAD APPLE ON A POTATO 🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥

From my own experiments with calotype photography (aka salt print), silver iodide is more sensitive than chloride and you can produce it using drug store iodine tincture, having an excess of nitrate in your plate helps sensitivity. Calotype paper can be developed with caffenol (a homebrew instant coffee-based developer) and the developer can be substituted with plain ammonia solution from the hardware store but I dont recommend this, it is foul. I just used it because stores in my country don't carry thiosulfate for some reason

i like how much you can learn by just deciding to do something quite silly.

0:42 The payoff of Po-Ta-To-Es by Samuel has hit me hard

The history lesson on the naming of "Blueprints" was interesting. I heard about it when I was too young to understand, but you kickstarted those memories right back up.

We got an actual potato camera before GTA 6

I went to photography school 22 years ago. Right at the transition of digital and film. I love that you're discovering all this. You got quite the journey ahead of you. I can't wait to see it

I didn't expect to watch someone make a camera of potatoes, but I will watch it

So as some people said, potatoes are the base of the autochrome process, invented in 1903 by the Lumiere brothers in Lyon (France). It is believed to be the first color photography process. The images are stunning and the resolution is great (I've seen some of them, it's really impressive). I'm not really sure how the process goes in details, but from what I know the starch is dyed with red green and blue pigments. It is then applied on a glass plate and a black and white emulsion (silver nitrate I guess) is applied on top of it. What is interesting though is that the Lumiere brothers realised that the resolution of the images was much better when the starch was crushed on the plate. So they had to invent a machine (the laminator) to industrially crush the starch evenly without breaking the glass. The pressure was something like 7 tons per square centimeter. If I remembrer correctly they won an industrial award only for the laminator. Anyway, I dream to be able to make autochromes prints one day, but from what I saw it's not impossible, but pretty difficult...

I remember back in the early 1990's experimenting with photo sensitive natural solutions etc. I developed simple photograms on banana skin using b/w negatives and a powerful UV light _(better results with a UV-C lamp but it's a dangerous light to have your skin exposed to)_ The results were quite good if you could keep the negative as flat against the banana skin as possible. If done properly, you get a reasonably sharp image. Would have been great to put cartoon characters and/or jokes/riddles onto bananas for the kids packed-lunch or parties etc.

None of this is my field of expertise, But I was thinking about the potato as film aspect. Perhaps if you were to take your sliced potato and cover it with smooth mashed potato it might actually work better, as a smoothe mashed potato shouldn't have as many pits in it when a thin layer is applied. Smooth mashed potatoes do end up with extra salt, butter, and milk added to it after it's peeled and boiled, then mashed till all clumps are removed. Either way, it makes for a nice side dish especially if you add a bit of cheese or gravy... Ooops, film. ;)

"What is the resolution of a Potato?" That's a brand new sentence right there. Never said before 😂

Every potato hides a secret photo, share yours and be stronger for it.

Next video: Genetically modifying sunlight to charge my phone wirelessly

Commented and thumbs'ed up for the "all dressed chip" joke at 23:30. Amazing. 10/10 setup.

10:30 If I needed to take a picture of some perfectly golden charred potato slices for a menu, this process looks amazing, just as a subject rather than a medium

The quality of the pin hole will make all the difference in image quality and exposure. In my early teens, I used the a flat peice of aluminum pie plate and placed a small dimple in the surface. Flip over and lightly sand with 1200 grit emery paper to remove the dimple to the desired pin hole size. This should be the side facing the photo sensitive medium. Attach the pin hole piece to the desired light tight apparatus (hollowed out potatoe). I preferred using oatmeal cartons as the camera body, which works outdoors since it was light tight. With the clear lids of today, place aluminum foil over the opening and hold in place with the lid.

"Potato obscura" rather than "camera obscura."

I discovered pin hole cameras as a small child long before ever hearing of them. Sitting in the back of an old box truck, you can usually find a few pin holes in the walls. Holding up a blank sheet of paper in front of one will reveal a perfect image of whatever's outside in that direction. If it's real dark (box trucks are usually nearly pitch dark inside with the doors closed), exposure is not really an issue. If it's daylight outside the image will be perfectly clear and highly visible. Even at night, if there's moonlight, or it's in an area with artificial lighting, the image is still quite good. As a child I'd use the box truck pin holes as drawing references, like using a projector to trace an image. Years later I saw in a book, and picture of how painters in the past would sit in a dark tent, with a pin hole projecting their subject onto their canvas. Pin holes are awesome.

you could have tried using silver iodide instead of silver chloride on the potato and sort of get a double developinbg effect from the silver forming and the starch reacting with the iodine :D

I first learned about blueprints, the camera obscura effect, and pinhole cameras when i took black and white film photography in high school. Our teacher tought us a summarized history of photography throughout the year for first year / beginner photography. I remember falling in love with the works by Ansel Adams which she would highlight when talking about different styles of exposure and composition. I really miss her class.

Hear me out, cook the potato slices instead of dehydrating them, it might help with the problem of over absorbing the chemicals

Oh the House Hippo, a nice bit of nostalgia made me smile. Thank you.

Man, this is real content.

Actually super thrilled about the tube rack. I'm going to use this to organize sewing supplies, this is perfect for small embellishments.

This man's content is just really really amazing and underrated

You got my hopes up on that pin hole vs lens tease. I thought with all the RU-vid videos of making various things like veggies and wood transparent, you had worked out a potato lens. De-brining the potato (ironic, as the potato is usually a debriner) and using a wire rack in that process, a long with a bottom draining pan, you were going to pull the whole thing together. Either way, it's better than the Packard Bell PC Buddy or whatever it was called in, like, 1996.

A time machine powered by potatoes reminds me of "the long earth" by terry pratchet and steven baxter, an eccetrinc inventor made a device that allows you to "step" "east" or "west" through universes, and its second version, that he released to the public as plans, on the internet, FOR FREE, was powered by a potato, because somehow, potatoes, or at least potatoe like things, exist in every universe that has an earth. (Yes, some dont have an earth, making traveling the "long earth" dangerous in more ways than one, so eventually they made airtight airships that could "step" in order to make travel safer, and faster.)

“If there is anything that embodies the Artist that has come into discussion; be it love of innovation, creativity, spontaneity, creation entirely out of one’s self, etc. It is the potato.” -Friedrich Huebach talking about his friend and patient Sigmar Polke, (creator of the Apparatus whereby one Potato Orbits Another/Kartoffelmachinen)

15:11 is that potato Feynman?

Instead of a potato pin cam, you could make a potato lens by collecting potato starch with water and let it dry in a round cup, the result will be opaque. But when cooked, it will get translucent.

clickbait title. you didn't make a potatocam, you made potato paper. poper... patato... papato... potater! POTATER! :D

The gradual build up from a potato camera joke to actual photochemistry is genuinely impressive

5:25 "absolutely do not ingest anything we're gonna be working with today" so..... i can't eat the potato camera?

I heard a theory that the shroud of Turin is a photograph made by Leonardo in a camera obscura, basically a pinhole camera that you can get into. He made a statue and exposed it onto linen soaked in a silver solution

Hey man how's the neurons going?

Every time I saw Mr. Potatohead on a slice of potato I couldn't help chuckling hard

Really nice video, but your definition of focal length at 3:32 is way of. You are talking about depth of field not focal length. One mistake for a 30 min video is pretty though! Keep them coming!

Using the principles of the early part of the potato camera, you can describe how eyes work and evolved.

hey there! i actually do a lot of these alternative processes. You can get drastically better results in your salted prints by adding in some potassium dichromate 2% solution. i hope you give a try because im sure you'll like the results a lot more

The etymology of "blueprint" is not something I anticipated. What a welcome surprise.

this fucking guy is always up to something. can't wait to see what he gets up to next

Boil 'em, mash 'em, stick 'em in a stew. Boil 'em, mash 'em, stick 'em in a stew. Boil 'em, mash 'em, stick 'em in a stew. Also Niko from Corridor Digital made a camera out of a potato awhile back.

Eventually this guy is gonna make a rock think

That commercial brought back so much as a Canadian child growing up up lmao

1:12 Obvious AI slop.

I would be totally interested in seeing an ambrotype made. I feel the chemistry would be perfect for this channel

Potato AI when?

Could use the potato plant itself, use the fiber to make the photo paper, a thicker paper can also be be used to make the camera.

the average android camera

here’s a seemingly complicated ochem project: if you ever manage to reverse engineer the developers used for Kodachrome, that would be very cool. tons of people have this film lying around and have to develop it as black and white because the chemicals for color are no longer made. The dye couplers and their chemical formulae are out there (I have them in a text file somewhere) so the main problem would be actually figuring out how to synthesize them

I WAS NOT EXPECTING THE HOUSE HIPPO APPERANCE BUT OMGGGG, as a fellow Canadian, the house hippo is a part of my soullll

I'd love to see an actual video taken with a potato. Could do it stop motion style and have like 10 FPS for maybe 3-5 seconds, then put it together in editing.

This whole video is cool, but I definitely liked immediately at the house hippo commercial. Best Concerned children's advertisers commercial

it's exam season and instead of studying i'm now once again hyperfocusing on old timey photographic methods. amazing.

The "blueprint" etymology bit killed me... awesome!

I handle technical drawings at work all the time, and they're still sometimes called blueprints

Seeing potato and blue image I was expecting that it was some starch / Iodine process. Maybe some future video?

I can't believe you did not take a photo of a potato, with a potato, with potato film.

This looks like a lot of fun, thanks for sharing!

upon seeing the blue image in the thumbnail i immediately thought of iodine seeing as how iodine and potato starch react so i was surprised that wasnt in the video

I love how many of your and Nile's projects seem to come from questions that you'd ask a buddy at 3AM, like can I take a photo with a literal potato or turn gloves into grape soda, and then spend weeks or months making it a reality. 18:50 r/brand new sentence

More science supplies as merch is super exciting!

I thought Potato was used derisively because it can function as a very low power battery (eg potato clock). As in, "Your PC is running on a potato"

at first I thought it was a late april fool's joke, but then I realized that even if it was an april fool's joke they would totally do it for real

The classic Potato Camera Paradox: You can either use it as a camera or as a developing paper/film but not as both at the same time

I didn't realise how much I want to see you making custom, high quality film stock until today