Cyanotype Clarification

[grain]

Hello again folks,

I'm hoping to amuse myself with a P.F. caynotype kit. However I'm not posessed of a large format camera

anymore since it was liberated by L.A.L.M. (the Latino Army of Lowell Ma.) last March.

 

*976983= Crown Graphic Body 8927067=lens, in case you come into ownership of it.

 

So without a large negative to contact with, my question is can the sensitized paper be exposed in an

enlarger or is it just too impractically slow? I've got some really nice cotton typing paper, and watercolor

paper also. I'm thinking of floating the stuff on rather than brushing.

 

I'm using an Omega D-2 or B-22.

 

thanks, A.

[rnt]

If you have an inkjet printer you can create 'digital negatives' using transparency film. These can be used for contact prints. Google around for info...

[rnt]

Oops... Ambiguity alert. I meant -inkjet- transparency film..:-)

[frank.schifano]

I'm sorry for your loss. I have a Crown Graphic and it's a fun piece of kit. Anyway, I've been experimenting with cyanotype lately, and want to make some from some small negatives. Unfortunately, cyanotype need UV light for exposure, and tungsten lamps like in your enlargers don't make anywhere near enough, if any. Your best bet is to make enlarged negatives, then contact print these. There are some lith films and, I've recently learned, print films from EFKE that can be used for this. Both are sold by Freestyle. See this link for something I posted on the subject a little while back. http://www.photo.net/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg?msg_id=00Mf7r

[beepy]

The sun is an excellent source of UV light.

[chris_waller]

There is nowhere near enough actinic light from an enlarger to expose a cyanotype. In the absence of sun you need either a proper UV box or a sunray tanning lamp.

[marc_leest1]

You can make an interpositive/large negative using ortho film and use the resulting large negative for cyano's.

 

-M-

[grain]

large neg it is then. I know about that great Efke stuff and will pursue freestyle, or maybe

pull a Fox Talbot and contact from paper. Thanks folks, A.

[luke_ballard]

The advice about using transparancy paper to make negatives is great advice, I used many of my actual works and printed them out on that paper, just a bit of advice, use your highest ink setting, so the coat is really thick!

 

Anyway, sunlight is the greatest! Just use a piece of glass to cover the neagative and hold it flat and lay it in the sun, and when it gets to be about a charcoal color, your done.

 

Also, if you want to get the blue really bright and pretty, take a cap full of Hydrogen Poroxide and mix it with a bucket of water and place your washed product in there and it will turn bright blue in seconds! If it ever starts fading, just put it in a dark closet for a few days and it will come back..kinda weird, but it works. Learned all of this in Alternative Processes class at university, 28 students and in 8 weeks we went through 5 grand in Cyanotype soulution..we all loved the stuff! But the university was kinda pissed..lol!

 

Good luck!

 

Luke