cyanotype – Page 5 – Estreme.org

Carbonate potassium and cyanotype

I have found a formula using carbonate potassium on a FB group which gave very nice results. It is a process that I still have to apply. In the mean time I wanted to understand the effect of this compound. One of the effect is bleaching. So I used a very diluted solution in order to brighten a bit a print which was exposed for too long. The first one is exposed for 5 minutes and not modified. The second one is exposed for 6 minutes and then went into the Carbonate potassium bath. There is a bit of contrast loss, but clearly we can get back some details in the shadows. I don’t have the overexposed print for comparison though.

Experiencing with Toning

Playing with coffee toning. This is one of my favorite black rendering toner for cyanotype. Here we can see the difference between the standard print, and the toned one. I have experienced few years ago with bleaching first, and will probably get there again. I have seen some formulas using carbonate potassium.

Testing a new paper

I got some Hahnemühle Sumi E paper some time ago. This is quite interesting to make cyanotype with it. The paper absorb a lot of the solution and is acid free, so this is probably not the best for that. Nevertheless, I got some good result with the first try. I dipped it in coffee for toning, and it basically take ages to get some taint. I will try to bleach it first and see what happen.

Cyanotype…

Some new Cyanotypes. Definitely a process I like for anything plant related. Here the contrast between the high res of the contact print of a 4×5 negative and simply putting some plant on the paper and expose is catching the eyes. I especially like the way those plants seems moving.

Cyanotypes with new exposure unit

Here are a couple of cyanotypes photograms made with the new exposure Unit. Oxygen peroxyde is used to add contrast after the wash.