U of S | Mailing List Archive | alt-photo-process-l | Re: Clearing cyanotypes, minimizing bleeding into highlights

Re: Clearing cyanotypes, minimizing bleeding into highlights

Brian,

On Jan 4, 2008, at 10:47 PM, Brian Pawlowski wrote:


So you float - no water change - just in a tray - say nearly

full with water.

Do you then lift paper out, dump (blue) water, and wash in
clear water tray?
What I do, especially if I add acid to the first tray, is to soak the print in it for a few seconds, then float it in a second tray. After that it doesn't matter too much whether you rinse it off with running water or soak it in another tray.

But running water over the print the whole time wouldn't be a
problem, except in some cases it could get rid of some highlight
densities.

I'm worried the running water is "smearing" the Prussian Blue?
Only time the blue would be smeared is when you use too strong acid, when the blue would smear and stick to the back of the paper, and to your pristine white tray.

Do you brush coat or rod coat?
I use a Hake brush used just for cyanotype. Rod would work fine, but there's no need to try saving the amount of cyanotype, plus I prefer the brushed edges over the rod coated edges.

With the right paper, the whole process is very simple and quick. You
definitely don't need to watch movies in order to wait for it to dry!

I still like to watch movies though!
Fine. Except the thought of watching one movie for each coated piece of paper just boggles my mind.

By the way, unless you find that your running water is alkaline, I would leave out the acid prebath. I have a feeling that was the problem.

Sam