[alt-photo] Re: The Illusive Black Cyanotype - Any Insight?

[Francesco Fragomeni]

Hi Gordon,

The 3 drops Nitric Acid recipe you've cited is the one I used last night.
This morning I took another look at the prints and found that they changed
to more of a cool grey but still retained a bit of the purple hue (but much
more pleasing in color then the purple cast that they had right when I did
the process). I also noticed that the gallic acid reduces contrast
significantly and flattens out the image very noticeably. I think I may
experiment some more with this to see if Ican improve the results. I think
if you take the reduction in contrast into consideration when making a
negative and consequently the initial cyanotype print then there might be a
way achieve deeper blacks and proper contrast. Some testing will be needed
to figure this out.

I haven't tried the ferrogallic process you mention but I'll look into it
and see if I can get all of the chemistry for it.

I'll continue to experiment with the Nitric Acid recipe and I plan to do
some experiments with the coffee toning recipe I just got to see if that
does what I want without staining the paper base and bringing down the
highlights.

Anyway, thanks for the ideas.

-Francesco

On Mon, Sep 19, 2011 at 9:05 PM, Gordon J. Holtslander <gjh at shaw.ca> wrote:

> Have you tried this:
>
> To convert Cyano to black tones:
> Place print in solution of 3 drops Nitric Acid added to 1 litre water for
> two minutes transfer to bath of 14g Sodium Carbonate + 160cc water - leave
> till image disappears and then reappears with an orange tone transfer print
> to third solution of 14g Gallic Acid + 160cc water - black tones will appear
> wash 30 min.
>
> perhaps the ferrogallic process would work;
> (from Photographic Facts and Formulas 1940)
>
> ferric chloride         50g
> ferric suplphate (basic)        25g
> tartaric acid                   45g
> water                           500 ml
>
> Dissolve and add
>
> gelatin                         25g
> water                           250cc
>
> soak gelatin for 30 minutes and dissolve
>
> Development details are not given though
>
> Gord
>
>
> On 9/19/2011 9:14 PM, Francesco Fragomeni wrote:
>
>>  I received a coffee toning recipe a few minutes ago that I haven't tried
>> before. Examples look pleasing. I'll be trying this soon. Anyone have
>> success with this?
>>
>> -Francesco
>>
>> On Mon, Sep 19, 2011 at 7:32 PM, Francesco Fragomeni
>> <fdfragomeni at gmail.com>wrote:
>>
>> Hi all,
>>>
>>> I've been working for some time to achieve a black cyanotype but to no
>>> avail. I mean true black and grays, not the purples, eggplants, and other
>>> hues that can be achieved rather easily. I am 100% sure that it is
>>> possible
>>> because I have seen examples in private collections. I have also seen a
>>> few
>>> rare examples (unsubstantiated) on the web but I've been unable to
>>> initiate
>>> conversations with anyone who has made one successfully. I've tried most
>>> of
>>> the toning recipes and none of these achieve anything close to what I'm
>>> looking for plus they have a tendency to stain the paper base. Tonight I
>>> tried the nitric acid (nasty stuff so be careful)/ sodium carbonate/
>>> gallic
>>> acid recipe which is purportedly capable of rendering a black cyanotype.
>>> This recipe produced more of a dark grayish purple in the shadows and a
>>> much
>>> more obvious purple cast to the highlights. Now this may be worth
>>> experimenting with again because my tests were based on re-soaking
>>> already
>>> dry prints rather then making fresh ones which could possibly make a
>>> difference (I couldn't make new prints because I'm waiting on a printing
>>> frame to arrive to replace my unusable one). Can anyone here offer any
>>> insight into how to achieve the illusive black cyanotype?? It would be so
>>> unbelievably appreciated. Thank you!
>>>
>>> -Francesco Fragomeni
>>>
>>> ______________________________**_________________
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>>
>>
>
> --
> Gordon J. Holtslander
> gjh at shaw.ca
> ______________________________**_________________
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