Re: Cyanotypes

Bob -

If you can process paper you can process sheet film, at least orthochomatic sheet film. As a matter of fact, you can even use Dektol to process it (there are better choices, but it is good at a starting point) - look to use it in a 1:10 to 1:15 range.

Personally, shooting and hoping is not often going to get you the results you are hoping for - it will give you surprises, which work out about 1 times in 10. I think that you will find it essential to do some testing so that you can gain control and consistency over the process, otherwise you will be spinning your wheels.

As far as contrast is concerned, you will want to do exactly the opposite - go for a very contrasty negative, so that if it prints on grade 0 paper then it will be in the range that cyanotype (and most other alternative processes) want to see. The image "Jimmy" (http://mywebpages.comcast.net/hmpi/Pinhole/Images/PinholeImages.htm) was done as a pinhole using orthchromatic film printed via the Van Dyke process.

Cheers -

george

-----
http://www.GLSmyth.com
http://DRiPInvesting.org

 --- On Fri 01/07, Bob < bob@bobarnott.com > wrote:
From: Bob [mailto: bob@bobarnott.com]
To: pinhole-discussion@spitbite.org
Date: Fri, 07 Jan 2005 10:16:14 +0000
Subject: Re: [pinhole-discussion] Cyanotypes

George L Smyth wrote:<br>> Bob -<br>> <br>> I have done it, but gave up in favor of using halftone film, which is <br>> as inexpensive as paper and (IMO) works much better. The exposure <br>> time will be considerably longer, which is something I did not want <br>> to deal with since I use a UV unit that I built (which is slower than <br>> the sun, though consistent). There are ways of stripping the back of <br>> the paper to compensate for this, but again, I found that ortho simply<br>> made things a whole lot easier.<br><br>I've heard about this pealing of the paper and also waxing and other<br>methods; always seemed like a fudge to me. I'll have to have a look<br>around and see if I can get hold of this ortho film stuff, although<br>I would be a bit worried about processing it and I've never processed<br>sheet film before.<br><br>> The density will need to be akin to what you would be using if you <br>> were shooting for a grade 0 paper.<br><br>So that would be a short contrast range rather than a high
range...? Is<br>there anything you did to achieve that...? I'm not that up on shooting<br>for a particular density, I just point, shoot and hope for the best<br>normally.<br><br>Cheers,<br><br>-- <br>Bob http://www.bobarnott.com/<br>

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Received on Fri Jan 7 13:41:26 2005