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Cyanotype, Salted Paper and Ziatype

Having so much fun renewing my love for the old ways of photograph making and developing.

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"First Chair"

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Duet

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Morning Mist​
 

Asher Kelman

OPF Owner/Editor-in-Chief
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Chris,

This is superb, ephemeral, beautiful, hauntingly personal and to be treasured.

In a word awesome.

Tell me what choices in color and grain you have?

….aha!! I have been doing some brushing up on my reading and now I know a lot more: what paper did you use?

Asher
 
Not so much a choice in grain other than the choice of papers. With cyanotype, there are virtually no papers or materials you can't use. This image was printed on a Bergger Cots 320 though I generally prefer Arches Platine or when I am feeling a bit froggy, Hahnemuhle Platinum Rag. Colors...again, almost unlimited. I did an aggressive bleach on this one using 1/2 teaspoon borax to 1000 ml H2O but only for about 15 seconds, rinsed then put it in an old Blue Toner bath for 12 minutes to deepen the blues. I could have used a green tea toner, no bleaching to get a nicely toned B&W, or bleached and gotten a dark, mauve-ish red tint.

As to the duet, this is a Salted Paper Print, selenium toned and the last, a Ziatype which is akin to a Platinum Print only much less expensive. I taught most of these processes with my high school students and the chemistry teachers always said I taught more chemistry than they did. As a result, taking my class was a prerequisite to taking advanced chemistry.

Silver gelatin...oh my, I haven't done one of those in quite some time...hmmmm

Try this group if you want to learn more about the alternative processes https://www.facebook.com/groups/AlternativePhotographicProcesses/
 

Asher Kelman

OPF Owner/Editor-in-Chief
Thanks!

I am so impressed and think I may carefully enter the world of cyanotypes to get those fabulous deep blues you have shared!

Where do you have enough room to hand up large wet treated sheets to dry?

I would have to use my garage!!

Asher
 
I built a shed and have turned it into my darkroom and have strung a line about 10 feet long down one side. Clothes pins do wonders. While you can buy most papers in very large sizes, I tend to stay smaller in the 13x19 size as that is as large as my printer will print my Pictorico OHC negatives. However, that said, there are many approaches to the cyanotype process and using botanicals is one.
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