Cyanotypes are one of the easiest alt process prints to make. Bought as a kit from just about anywhere, you get two bottles: part “A”
I enjoy printing cyanotypes: simple chemistry, simple reactions, nice deep blues, non-toxic, and the moment you drop it in water is dramatic. It’s very straightforward
Next week, I’ll be teaching a room of 4 and 5 year olds a little bit about film photography. I’ll be giving them disposable cameras to shoot with, and figured I’d build a Camera Obscura to show them what’s going on inside the camera (and why they can’t see the picture as soon as they snap the shutter). I had been thinking about how I could load it up with some sort of film that didn’t require a toxic developer, when a co-worker reminded me about “Sun Print” paper. This stuff is some form of c …[more]
It’s been a busy week here in quarantine-land! Jakob (my son, now a 9th grader) is in a one-week mini-course exploring experimental photography. Since we’re
A year or two ago, I stumbled across a product called “Inkodye”. It’s a light-sensitive fabric dye system, which at the time was marketed in
I love making gum and casein prints. I don’t love that they both rely on dichromate (a form of hexavalent chromium) – a known carcinogen
I really like Kallitypes. They’re a simple process. The final prints can take on the characteristics (both visual and chemical) of palladiotypes and platinotypes. And
Over the last two years of heavy experimentation with bichromate processes (gum arabic or ammonium caseinate on various papers as well as glass), I’ve had
This is the project that took up most of my 2012. And it’s what I wanted to post about repeatedly during the year, but my
Gum over cyanotype on a half sheet of Stonehenge Rising warm white paper.
This print is a direct result of a morning of failures last week. My cyan pigment wouldn’t stay on the paper – a combination of two different problems related to two variables I changed simultaneously. After three poor prints I decided I would forego the cyan for the morning and use cyanotype for the base layer to get me started.
I miscalculated the amount of cyanotype solution I needed (resulting in the …[more]
Acros 100, developed in… coffee.
We’ve had a couple of house guests this week – Johanna (here) and Markus (tomorrow’s post). The two of them have been on a year-long trip around the world and stopped by for a short visit on their way back to Germany. They were also curious about alt-photo processes, and I was more than happy to oblige.
Over their short stay, we made kallitypes and toned cyanotypes. We also developed film in Caffenol-C basically every day: instant coffee, was …[more]
This one takes some explaining; it’s some of what’s been eating up my time for the past few weeks.
This shot started life on HP5+ developed in Xtol. I digitally inverted and enlarged the shot and printed it on Pictorico Ultra Premium OHP before stuffing it in to my vacuum frame (yes, that shot shows me mis-printing a positive I printed first – oops).
Traditionally, Cyanotype has a “part A” (green ferric ammonium citrate) and a “part B” ( …[more]
This is a “New” Cyanotype, from Mike Ware’s modernized Cyanotype formulation. The image may look familiar to long-time viewers; it’s a rework of a previous image, direct-printed on to an 8.5×11 sheet of cyanotype-sensitized paper. Exposure time was around 5 minutes in direct (winter, low-sky) sunlight.
From Andi’s going away brunch this afternoon at Dos Segundos. Jake came along (while Sue was home decorating cupcakes for a birthday party next week), and declared that “andipantz” was a really awesome name. Yup.
Two other pieces of photographic news:
- I bought a cheap +10 77mm diopter and rebuilt the box camera. First results: not stellar; I botched the focus. I’m going to have to come up with a better focusing mechanism now that the …[more]