Re: Cyanotype Blues

About this list Date view Thread view Subject view Author view

From: Don Bryant (dsbryant@mindspring.com)
Date: 12/29/02-08:32:52 PM Z


Scott,

> Is the Ware formula that much more sensitive to the type of paper used
>than traditional formulas?

I've not found Ware's formula to be that particular about paper but I
haven't used the ones you have mentioned. For the record I've used it with
Arches platinotype, Crane's Natural White Wove, Fabriano Satinata and
Bienfang 360 with success. I do remember that Fabriano Uno didn't seem to to
work well. I have a sample of Buxton on ice, perhaps someday I'll test it
against another paper.

All things considered I prefer the traditional cyanotype version better as
the Ware formula seems to compress highlights and has less over all
gradation for me.

> As a side note: I was using both spectral density (orange) and black &
white negatives created on an Epson 1280 using Dan Burkholder's methods. I
did notice that even though I lied to the printer (told it I was using photo
paper) when I used clear transparency film, the negatives came out very,
very thin.

Coincidentally, I had similar results using the physical density method and
the indexed color method outlined by D. Burkholder using Pictorico OHTF and
printing with a Epson C80. The colorized method gave a much denser negative
though. I just started making inkjet negatives two days ago and haven't had
a chance to print any yet. I'm also going to try making a negative with
quadtone inks foe comparison.

> I noticed that when I changed from gray-scale to indexed color that the
image lightened dramatically.

I noticed that too.

> The image also lightened quite a bit when I applied the cyanotype curve
and when I colorized the image to give it the orange color. Having a short
attention span to working digitally, I created a gray-scale image, inverted
it, boosted the contrast, increased the density and printed it on the trans
film. In short I got a much better cyan print (barring the above problems)
than I did using Dan's methods. Anybody have any idea what was going on?

FWIW, I used the instructions Dan has given in chapter 12 of his second bood
starting on page 130 - "How to Colorize a Grayscale Image". This method gave
the greatest density but not until I remembered to set the mode to color as
listed in step 6.

Don Bryant


About this list Date view Thread view Subject view Author view

This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.5 : 01/31/03-09:31:26 AM Z CST