Hi, Dave:A few more cyanotypes from yesterday. Arches WC with std CC about 3 ml per print, + 3-4 drops 40% citric and 2 drops of 10% tween. Developed in tap water/vinegar (10%) a few washes in mild citric water ( my tap is ~8 so it will bleach if not careful). Exposure was about 4 minutes in the UV unit I have. I like the flower - I need to work on the oceanscape negative a bit. Starting to get the hang of this... While I like the cyanotypes, want to do more Kallitypes but I need to find images that look best in these alt process monochromes.
Dave
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I hope everyone keeps these coming. I'm interested to see things I haven't done.
Here is another cyanotype. No toning on this one. It was done on Legion Somerset from a 35mm neg scan so it is a bit grainy. Cyanotypes can be grainy by themselves of course depending on the paper, but in this case it is the scan. Same process as the last. Acidified paper with sulfamic acid. First "dev" in citric acid, then a couple soaks and hang up to dry. Easy peasy. Looks like my exposure on this one was 3:45 which is a bit long for me, but I was playing around with negs too so that could have accounted for it. I usually go for the thinnest neg that will get me the print. No use standing around all day waiting for the exposure. The Canon Pro 10 that I use needs the density to be dialed back otherwise it just won't expose right.
I have to say UV LED exposure units/digital negs are a godsend. Back in the 90s I made cyanotypes with BLB fluorescents and they just took forever with film. I kept wanting to do alts over the years, even restarting with occasional experiments that quickly fizzled out when my interest did, but it wasn't until I build a UV LED unit that things really took off. Instead of making two prints a day because of 40 minute exposures, I can make literally dozens with the short exposures I typically get. It makes experimenting with different variables so much easier. If I want to try a different idea with a neg I have a new one in a few minutes. After more than 4 years now of doing all this I think I have it down pretty well. Still more to do though. That said some of the prints I made back in the 90s were fantastic. And I had no idea what I was doing. Lol.
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Pony up some pics Ned, whatchawaitingfor?
A few more cyanotypes from yesterday. Arches WC with std CC about 3 ml per print, + 3-4 drops 40% citric and 2 drops of 10% tween. Developed in tap water/vinegar (10%) a few washes in mild citric water ( my tap is ~8 so it will bleach if not careful). Exposure was about 4 minutes in the UV unit I have. I like the flower - I need to work on the oceanscape negative a bit. Starting to get the hang of this... While I like the cyanotypes, want to do more Kallitypes but I need to find images that look best in these alt process monochromes.
Hi, Dave:
Nice! I like them all, but #2 is the favorite. You are really getting some density in there. Is #1 a photgram or made from a negative. I think perhaps the landscape picture would make a good candidate to do the kallitype process - may be able to handle the shadow details a bit better, based on what I have seen of others.
:Niranjan.
Graininess probably does not feel out of place with the subject matter.
I have noticed that all your cyanotypes are more towards cyan than the sky blue tone like @KYsailor's above as well as how mine come out. I wonder why that is. I also use citric first bath, but no pre-acidifaction. Or may be it's just the paper difference.
:Niranjan.
I have noticed the more acid I use the more cyan the image is.
I hope everyone keeps these coming. I'm interested to see things I haven't done.
A beautiful print
A beautiful print - clearly it is IR. Was it done on IR film or an IR modified digital? Appears to be the natural bridge in VA.
Agree. Brings back memories. Went to school close by (Blacksburg.)
:Niranjan.
Funny....We used to say if you want to go to Charlottesville, follow the road with the potholes...I spent three years in law school in Charlottesville, where the local wisdom was that all dirt roads lead to Blacksburg.
I spent three years in law school in Charlottesville, where the local wisdom was that all dirt roads lead to Blacksburg.
Funny....We used to say if you want to go to Charlottesville, follow the road with the potholes...
:Niranjan.
Printed this yesterday. My scanning skills suck, but you get the idea. This is just my 4th try printing a cyanotype from a digital paper negative ( 1st try was a different negative came out all white... 2nd was low contrast and too dark, 3rd was this image w/ no corrections, this is the 4th try)
My daughter and I went to the Monterey Bay Aquarium a few weeks ago, and I took some digi-snaps with my little pocket Canon Elf 180 with the idea of trying to make some cyanotypes. Printed the negative with an inexpensive HP inkjet onto the the thinnest photo printing paper I could find ( HP "everyday photo paper" is 53lb/200gsm. It has light grey watermarks on the back but they don't show on VDB or Sepia prints, and I can't see them in these cyanos either. ) Printed in the sun for around 2 hours. The image area is a little bigger than 7x9 inches. There are 10 or 15 more digi-snaps that might be interesting to print... I'll improve my skills as I go!
"Traditional" cyanotype formula on Canson marker paper, but I don't worry too much about mixing the formula exactly. The paper was coated with 16 drops of 25% AFC mixed with 18 drops of 10% Pot Ferri.
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Printed this yesterday. My scanning skills suck, but you get the idea. This is just my 4th try printing a cyanotype from a digital paper negative ( 1st try was a different negative came out all white... 2nd was low contrast and too dark, 3rd was this image w/ no corrections, this is the 4th try)
My daughter and I went to the Monterey Bay Aquarium a few weeks ago, and I took some digi-snaps with my little pocket Canon Elf 180 with the idea of trying to make some cyanotypes. Printed the negative with an inexpensive HP inkjet onto the the thinnest photo printing paper I could find ( HP "everyday photo paper" is 53lb/200gsm. It has light grey watermarks on the back but they don't show on VDB or Sepia prints, and I can't see them in these cyanos either. ) Printed in the sun for around 2 hours. The image area is a little bigger than 7x9 inches. There are 10 or 15 more digi-snaps that might be interesting to print... I'll improve my skills as I go!
"Traditional" cyanotype formula on Canson marker paper, but I don't worry too much about mixing the formula exactly. The paper was coated with 16 drops of 25% AFC mixed with 18 drops of 10% Pot Ferri.
View attachment 342758
Totally agree! A bit off-topic, but I got this little pocket camera for $30 at target a couple years ago, and a 64GB sd card at some office store. The "shots remaining" counter has 4 digits and still says "9999" and I've taken over 1200 snapshots. I got it to have something in my pocket to practice composition with. I put lines on the screen that let me match the FOV of my big 7x11" camera if I see something I might want to come back to, but mostly I just use it if I see an interesting composition. Talk about "the best camera is the one you have with you"... I've made some VDBs and Sepia prints from it. I don't have a phone, but if I did it would definitely be the same idea...One of the really cool doors that digital negatives opens is the ability to make amazing prints from phone camera grab shots.This is lovely.
The water was blue in all the photos, so cyanotype seemed like a perfect fit. Also I really like jellyfish too!This is gorgeous! I think the cyanotype treatment is very fitting (and jellyfish are the loveliest of animals!)
When you print the digital picture, do you print it in color or black and white?
Totally agree! A bit off-topic, but I got this little pocket camera for $30 at target a couple years ago, and a 64GB sd card at some office store. The "shots remaining" counter has 4 digits and still says "9999" and I've taken over 1200 snapshots. I got it to have something in my pocket to practice composition with. I put lines on the screen that let me match the FOV of my big 7x11" camera if I see something I might want to come back to, but mostly I just use it if I see an interesting composition. Talk about "the best camera is the one you have with you"... I've made some VDBs and Sepia prints from it. I don't have a phone, but if I did it would definitely be the same idea...
The water was blue in all the photos, so cyanotype seemed like a perfect fit. Also I really like jellyfish too!
About a year and a half ago I spent a lot of time figuring out how to do this for VDB and Sepia prints. After lots of careful testing, I found a green color that worked best with my printer. I used the same color for this, but no testing. Here's what I did:
- convert to black and white, make contrast look nice, then invert and colorize.
- made a print, saw that all the values on the negative below about rgb 60,60,60 were pure white and all the values above about 185,185,185 were darkest blue.
- went back to the negative and made some guesses about how to adjust the curve.
- printed a 2nd negative and then made this print.
The negative looks like this:
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"Traditional" cyanotype formula on Canson marker paper, but I don't worry too much about mixing the formula exactly. The paper was coated with 16 drops of 25% AFC mixed with 18 drops of 10% Pot Ferri.
View attachment 342758
Such variability might not matter but it also might cause failure, frustration and heartache
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