The Cyanotype Conspiracy

We are getting closer. Of course, if the clouds would be consistently gone and the UV radiation consistent life would be easier. But it does seem that really coating the paper heavily with a sponge brush works better than using a glass rod. More seems better. We've been guessing at the curve we need to make the neg work, and we seem to have one for this photo. Whether it works for all or most photos has yet to be seen. This curve opens up the shadows just a little makes the highlights not as bright. It and isn't nearly as flat as the ones we've seen offered as "standard" cyanotype curves. Of course, it get's an invert adjustment layer on top so it will be a negative. We'll adjust as we learn more. But as they say in Westeros, "Winter is coming." which means less UV and more clouds.

Cyanotype sorta kinda victory. Who knew the UV Radiation varied so much with time of day? I do now. Of course, how much will it change as the angle of the sun changes? Too many variables, but still, it's a fun project. Maybe someday I'll even have a good photo to show for it. #cyanotype A photo posted by curtis corlew (@cccorlew) on Oct 16, 2015 at 4:48pm PDT

In the beginning there was sun print paper and laser print transparency negatives. And it worked. Well, it kind of worked. It was a miracle.  But of course it wasn't enough. It was just a taste of the possible. A sly inducement to to try mixing chemistry and coating paper. Buying the New Cyanotype Kit and mixing the chemicals was a challenge, and the results were less successful. After near endless failures it seems that perhaps the paper, an expensive etching paper, was to blame.  In 2015 we started over. After more failure we realized that we needed to print our negatives in color ink on the aging Epson 1270 we're using, and not only black ink. Apparently using color blocks UV better.  We also discovered using any old transparency material didn't work. We switched to  Pictorico TPU100 Premium OHP Transparency Film, which costs almost $1.00 a sheet. The book "Easy Digital negatives" proved to not be as easy to implement as the title implied....