From: Christina Z. Anderson (zphoto@montana.net)
Date: 04/03/03-07:41:48 AM Z
This is wonderful info, Suzanne. Thank you.
I have been reeling all day with the effects of a possible virus as
near as I can tell called "boo" that apparently (I think it was on my
computer) attached a random email address in my file to a random email or
two and sent them out, so if ANYONE gets an email from me that has nothing
to do with the price of eggs, I apologize. The "boo" address was in my
address book, but was not detected by a virus scan. It is now deleted, hard
drive scanned twice, and live update downloaded. Symantec does have a patch
for it in their live update as of today. (PS if anyone did receive email
from me I didn't send to them, tell me offlist).
Anyway, how fascinating to do the fixing as a way of sort of "split
toning" the VDB/cyano. That's a must try! This is exactly the kind of info
I needed. I have argyro mixed up, so maybe I'll try it with that, too...but
argyro is not as bleaching in the fix, I find. I kept expecting it to
lighten quite a bit and it didn't.
Chris
----- Original Message -----
From: <bi3@georgetown.edu>
To: <alt-photo-process-l@sask.usask.ca>
Sent: Wednesday, April 02, 2003 1:53 PM
Subject: Re: Combotypes
> Chris--
>
> In response to your inquiry about "combotypes," this is something that I
> do quite often (various combinations). Often I print one process with
> the negative and the other with the positive.
>
> * gum over cyanotype: A lot of my "gum" prints start with a first
> printing in cyanotype. I never noticed any bleaching of the cyanotype
> by the gum.
>
> * gum over Van Dyke: This is another combination I like to use. Here I
> think the gum changes the character of the Van Dyke (not a bleaching,
> just something different).
>
> * Van Dyke over Cyanotype: My prints in the latest traveling portfolio
> used this combination. What follows is the information that I enclosed
> with those prints (probably longer than you wanted).
>
> From time to time on the list there has been discussion of printing Van
> Dyke over cyanotype. I've tried this in the past with little success
> (except for one print which I could never duplicate). In my original
> attempts, I was trying to print one negative in cyanotype and a
> different one in Van Dyke, making a "double exposure," one image in blue
> and the other in brown. For the examples in this portfolio, I tried a
> different approach.
>
> These prints all have a first coat of cyanotype, which was exposed and
> developed. After drying, they were recoated with Van Dyke emulsion and
> exposed under the same negative. They were then given a 2-minute water
> rinse and put into the fixer ( 2.5% sodium thiosulfate). After a final
> wash, they were hung to dry.
>
> The first exposure produced a typical blue cyanotype print. Upon
> recoating with the Van Dyke emulsion, the print fades, sometimes looking
> worse than other times. After the exposure with Van Dyke, you have a
> brown print (nothing of the blue print shows). The magic begins in the
> fixer. The brown fades, revealing the blue underneath. If left in long
> enough, all the brown disappears and you are back to a blue print.
> Pulling it out part way and washing gives you a print with both blue and
> brown. As with toning, you need to get the print out before it reaches
> the state you want, since the action continues in the wash.
>
> Rereading some posts from last year, I saw that garimo wrote that he
> used the Van Dyke solution diluted 1:1 with water. Joachim wrote that
> he used "extremely feeble concentrations of cyanotype." Keith Gerling
> noted that "the most successful of my test images were with diluted
> emulsion." These comments led me to try some prints with diluted
> emulsion. As expected, the diluted cyanotype produced a lighter blue
> print. The diluted Van Dyke gave good results in my first tests but
> couldn't be duplicated.
>
> Some of the negatives I was using for this experiment were ones I had
> earlier printed as toned cyanotypes, so for comparison, I am including a
> toned cyanotype. I also tried toning a cyan/Van Dyke print. This
> lightens and softens the blues, but doesn't seem to change them to the
> brownish tone you get with a regular toned cyanotype.
>
> I thought I was getting interesting results with the first batch of
> prints I made. I was surprised to find that the darkest areas bleached
> back first. (In the enclosed prints, this meant that the sky reverted
> to blue, which was what I wanted for this image.) When the submission
> deadline was extended, I decided to make some more prints, so I would
> have some to keep. However, in these the lights bleached out first.
> (Another difference that I noted was that in the first series, after
> fixing the Van Dyke, the blues had a decided green cast, which, however,
> was lost after drying. This was not evident in the second series.)
> What had changed? I had mixed new cyanotype for the first prints; that
> was now a few weeks old, but the base cyanotype image looked normal.
> For the second series, I mixed new Van Dyke emulsion; what I had used
> before was about 7 months old and was mostly sludge. This is perhaps
> what caused the difference. However, I think it is safe to say that
> this combination of processes is one where controlled results should not
> be expected. Just enjoy the surprises.
>
> All prints are on Rives lightweight paper. Exposure was in full sun: 8
> minutes for the cyanotype and 6-8 minutes for the Van Dyke. The
> emulsions for both are the "traditional" formulas as in "Keepers." The
> time in the fixer varied from 3 to 12 minutes.
>
> 1. cyan full strength Van Dyke full strength 1st series
> 2. cyan 1:1 Van Dyke full strength 1st series
> 3. cyan full strength Van Dyke 1:1 1st series
> 4. cyan full strength Van Dyke full strength 2nd series
> 5. cyan full strength (toned with tannic acid/sodium carbonate)
>
> image: Joshua Tree National Monument
> negative (actually positive): enlarged from 35mm onto Arista lith film
>
> Suzanne Izzo
>
>
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