4 ms·

How to Make Cyanotypes (2020)

52 points by onychomys 5y ago

j6 5y ago
Website seems to be down, here's a mirror: https://web.archive.org/web/20210116152552/https://parallaxphotographic.coop/how-to-make-cyanotypes/ https://web.archive.org/web/20210116152552/https://parallaxp... https://archive.is/i8xhn https://archive.is/i8xhn
floren 5y ago
You can make "digital negatives" by printing onto transparency sheets, but be aware that laser printers don't seem to do a good enough job for a nice sharp image--it seems that inkjets are your safest bet.
- chromatin 5y ago
  Yes, definitely ink jets on transparency! I have another. Moment at top level on curves and exposure also.
- brudgers 5y ago
  Also good tonality with digital negatives can be counter intuitive because the spectral response of various media is not uniform and printer inks are not necessarily pure colors.
- frostburg 5y ago
  Pictorico OHP film is the best for this. Yellow ink is usually more UV-opaque, so I suggest using that to improve dmax. There are ready-made toning curves to linearize the results, but to obtain reliable results a calibrated workflow is necessity in practice.
- Finnucane 5y ago
  And if you are a weird old guy like me, you can use your 4x5’s.
chromatin 5y ago
Super fun; I used to do this and make gifts for friends and family. If done well, on acid free paper, and kept out of bright sunlight, they can be relatively archival. The linked article shows making cyanotype from outline if flowers, but far more fun IMO is digital negatives. There is a link to this at the bottom of the article, but I’ll share something I found that helps tremendously that wasn’t mentioned AFAICT. When printing your digital negative, in addition to inverting your greyscale /B&W photo, you’ll want to adjust the curve, because the cyanotype will expose nonlinearly. The best way to find the curve given your chemistry, photo, sunlight/latitude, etc. is empirically. So, I recommend in photoshop/GIMP/whatever to generate a series of greyscale bars from #000000 to #FFFFFF, with perhaps a dozen or more steps. Put this alongside your image, then invert, and make a test print. You can then observe the nonlinear development of color and adjust the curve (remember, inverted) to apply to your final image for printing. Probably I can think of more but this is already kind of lengthy on mobile :)
- aaronbrethorst 5y ago
  Freestyle has some more information, and a step wedge test file you can print to help calibrate. https://www.freestylephoto.biz/alternative-process/making-digital-negatives https://www.freestylephoto.biz/alternative-process/making-di...
mattkevan 5y ago
Cyanotypes are so much fun. Had good results printing digital negatives on transparencies. It’s easy to do and watching the picture appear is very rewarding. Here’s some examples: https://www.kevan.tv/art/cyanotypes/ https://www.kevan.tv/art/cyanotypes/
frostburg 5y ago
There is a chemist from the UK that has done extremely impressive work in this field and offers a lot of more technical informations (https://www.mikeware.co.uk/mikeware/downloads.html https://www.mikeware.co.uk/mikeware/downloads.html). A couple of mine, "new cyanotype" sensitizer brush-coated on arches platine paper, digital negatives printed on Pictorico OHP film from scans of analog negatives: https://i.imgur.com/ISWlz81.jpg https://i.imgur.com/ISWlz81.jpg https://i.imgur.com/xYRUrKk.jpg https://i.imgur.com/xYRUrKk.jpg
jedimastert 5y ago
NileRed did a fantastic series on Prussian Blue, the pigment that ends up being created with cyanotypes, and ended on making his own cyanotypes from scratch <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hYqn8CO2P3E https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hYqn8CO2P3E> His entire channel is just fantastic in-depth demonstrations of various interesting chemical lab processes; It highlights of my favorite kinds of internet corner: passionate and in depth niche content
- frostburg 5y ago
  His channel is great, but I wouldn't suggest learning from his episode on cyanotypes; it's interesting to watch but he does a lot of suboptimal things.
abruzzi 5y ago
Just don't store your potassium ferricyanide for cyanotypes, too close to the sulphuric acid you use as a photgraphic bleach. They don't do too well together.
meetups323 5y ago
Worth noting that Potassium Ferricyanide, one of the two active chemicals in this process, is quite toxic and poses significant environmental hazard [1]. I might suggest Anthotype [2] instead, which is just Vodka, Turmeric, and Borax. The resulting print is a lovely red/orange rather than blue, and there's significantly less concern over chemical cleanup & disposal. Also the exposure is long enough that you don't even need a dark room! [1]: https://pubchem.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/compound/Potassium-ferricyanide https://pubchem.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/compound/Potassium-ferricya... [2]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gmQxqE61lOg https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gmQxqE61lOg
black_13 5y ago
Could you do something that looked like a cyanotype?

52 points by onychomys 5y ago

j6 5y ago

Website seems to be down, here's a mirror: https://web.archive.org/web/20210116152552/https://parallaxphotographic.coop/how-to-make-cyanotypes/ https://web.archive.org/web/20210116152552/https://parallaxp... https://archive.is/i8xhn https://archive.is/i8xhn

floren 5y ago

You can make "digital negatives" by printing onto transparency sheets, but be aware that laser printers don't seem to do a good enough job for a nice sharp image--it seems that inkjets are your safest bet.

chromatin 5y ago
Yes, definitely ink jets on transparency! I have another. Moment at top level on curves and exposure also.
brudgers 5y ago
Also good tonality with digital negatives can be counter intuitive because the spectral response of various media is not uniform and printer inks are not necessarily pure colors.
frostburg 5y ago
Pictorico OHP film is the best for this. Yellow ink is usually more UV-opaque, so I suggest using that to improve dmax. There are ready-made toning curves to linearize the results, but to obtain reliable results a calibrated workflow is necessity in practice.
Finnucane 5y ago
And if you are a weird old guy like me, you can use your 4x5’s.

chromatin 5y ago

Super fun; I used to do this and make gifts for friends and family. If done well, on acid free paper, and kept out of bright sunlight, they can be relatively archival. The linked article shows making cyanotype from outline if flowers, but far more fun IMO is digital negatives. There is a link to this at the bottom of the article, but I’ll share something I found that helps tremendously that wasn’t mentioned AFAICT. When printing your digital negative, in addition to inverting your greyscale /B&W photo, you’ll want to adjust the curve, because the cyanotype will expose nonlinearly. The best way to find the curve given your chemistry, photo, sunlight/latitude, etc. is empirically. So, I recommend in photoshop/GIMP/whatever to generate a series of greyscale bars from #000000 to #FFFFFF, with perhaps a dozen or more steps. Put this alongside your image, then invert, and make a test print. You can then observe the nonlinear development of color and adjust the curve (remember, inverted) to apply to your final image for printing. Probably I can think of more but this is already kind of lengthy on mobile :)

aaronbrethorst 5y ago
Freestyle has some more information, and a step wedge test file you can print to help calibrate. https://www.freestylephoto.biz/alternative-process/making-digital-negatives https://www.freestylephoto.biz/alternative-process/making-di...

mattkevan 5y ago

Cyanotypes are so much fun. Had good results printing digital negatives on transparencies. It’s easy to do and watching the picture appear is very rewarding. Here’s some examples: https://www.kevan.tv/art/cyanotypes/ https://www.kevan.tv/art/cyanotypes/

frostburg 5y ago

There is a chemist from the UK that has done extremely impressive work in this field and offers a lot of more technical informations (https://www.mikeware.co.uk/mikeware/downloads.html https://www.mikeware.co.uk/mikeware/downloads.html). A couple of mine, "new cyanotype" sensitizer brush-coated on arches platine paper, digital negatives printed on Pictorico OHP film from scans of analog negatives: https://i.imgur.com/ISWlz81.jpg https://i.imgur.com/ISWlz81.jpg https://i.imgur.com/xYRUrKk.jpg https://i.imgur.com/xYRUrKk.jpg

jedimastert 5y ago

NileRed did a fantastic series on Prussian Blue, the pigment that ends up being created with cyanotypes, and ended on making his own cyanotypes from scratch <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hYqn8CO2P3E https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hYqn8CO2P3E> His entire channel is just fantastic in-depth demonstrations of various interesting chemical lab processes; It highlights of my favorite kinds of internet corner: passionate and in depth niche content

frostburg 5y ago
His channel is great, but I wouldn't suggest learning from his episode on cyanotypes; it's interesting to watch but he does a lot of suboptimal things.

abruzzi 5y ago

Just don't store your potassium ferricyanide for cyanotypes, too close to the sulphuric acid you use as a photgraphic bleach. They don't do too well together.

meetups323 5y ago

Worth noting that Potassium Ferricyanide, one of the two active chemicals in this process, is quite toxic and poses significant environmental hazard [1]. I might suggest Anthotype [2] instead, which is just Vodka, Turmeric, and Borax. The resulting print is a lovely red/orange rather than blue, and there's significantly less concern over chemical cleanup & disposal. Also the exposure is long enough that you don't even need a dark room! [1]: https://pubchem.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/compound/Potassium-ferricyanide https://pubchem.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/compound/Potassium-ferricya... [2]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gmQxqE61lOg https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gmQxqE61lOg

black_13 5y ago

Could you do something that looked like a cyanotype?