To take an analogy, Photoshop is so well designed that it is simple to use
but neither Photoshop nor Polaroid are simple to prepare. Some very clever
people have done it for us. With cyanotype we
tend to prepare the solutions ourselves. In preparation no one could claim
that the old and the new cyanotypes are comparable in simplicity.
As to the final result, if one gets the exposure and the negative right,
the simple version gives a tonal range and a subtlety of gradation that
rival platinum. It is just blue. But a blue, which purely subjectively, I
prefer.
As Mike says there is a need for discussion among those with like minds.
That is what this list has become. That is also what I am trying to achieve
with Hands-On Pictures. On 4,5,6 & 7 April I will be giving my
introduction to the iron processes including cyanotype, kallitype and
platinum/ palladium, while on 23 and 24 May Mike will be covering the new
cyanotype and the argyrotype and on 30 and 31 May will be running a
workshop on his approach to platinum and palladium.
To misquote Microsoft 'if one never reinvents the wheel, there will be no
improvements to the wheel'.
Terry King