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Cyanotypes

Cyanotype 1

I have found cyanotypes to be a very interesting technique. This time the chemicals are used at the beginning of the process and they develop using only water. They are very similar to photograms in the way the light and objects are used. The cyanotypes need to be exposed to UV light instead of an electrical light source so we took them out into the sun instead of in the darkroom. The cyanotype process was slightly changed by Mike Ware which resulted in the mix we did on this day (Fbbri M., 2010). It starts by mixing the chemicals together and painting the paper with it, preferably a 250 gsm or more paper, and letting it dry. The chemicals consist of 10g Potassium ferricyanide and 25g Ferric ammonium citrate which are in powder form and separately mixed with 100ml distilled water each and then equally blended together. Besides paper there is also the option of choosing other materials like fabrics. Once the paper has dried one can set up the objects or in this case we even used digital negative, onto the paper and place it in the sun. As for the amount of time it should be left out depending on the weather. On a very bright sunny day it should be enough for it to be left out for 15 minutes but in a cloudy day it could be given around 30 to 45 minutes of time in the sun. After the paper has been exposed it rinsed in cold water and the image will start to come out clearer. There is also the option of putting it in bleach to slightly lighten the paper and even improve the image. Based on my research on Cyanotypes, for further experimentations, the process could also be used on coloured paper or use different chemicals like detergents or cooking ingredients (Fbbri M., 2010).

Cyanotype 2
For Cyanotype 1 I used a flowers, leaves and twigs. This was left out in a bright clear day for 20 minutes. 
Cyanotype 2 was left out in a very cloudy day and for around 45 minutes and that was clearly not enough as seen in the image itself. This was one one of the experiments using a digital negative.
As for Cyanotype 3 it was less of a cloudy day and was left out for around 45 minutes as well. I observed it more in the way it was developing so to try to understand how much time it would need. As for this Cyanotype I used 2 digital negatives to create a double exposure effect.

Cyanotype 3

Information Citation: 
Fabbri, M. and Fabbri, G., 2010. Cyanotype - The Classic Process - Alternativephotography.Com. [online] AlternativePhotography.com. Available at: <https://www.alternativephotography.com/cyanotype-classic-process/> [Accessed 23 December 2020].

Fabbri, M.,2010. Cyanotype - A new Look at an Old Technique- Alternativephotography.Com. [online] AlternativePhotography.com. Available at: <https://www.alternativephotography.com/cyanotype-classic-process/> [Accessed 23 December 2020].
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