From: Shannon Stoney (sstoney@pdq.net)
Date: 04/03/03-06:28:08 PM Z
>My teacher cancelled class today, so unfortunately I couldn't ask
>her this question.
>
>I looked at some of the cyanotypes my fellow students have produced.
>Without exception, the images look very flat. I almost want to say
>that they resemble something more like a batik or fabric print.
>There doesn't seem to be a full representation of tones in the
>images.
>
>I was scurrying about on the internet today, just looking for any
>relevant cyanotype info that will help me out this weekend. I came
>across some galleries that showed cyanotypes. I was shocked to see
>that they look like... well, photographs, except in blue. This is
>what I saw:
>http://www.ephotozine.com/techniques/viewtechnique.cfm?recid=155
>(some scrolling is required).
>
>The work I saw earlier today looked *nothing* like this. Any
>opinions on what would give the results I described? And what do I
>need to produce something that does have a variety of tones?
What format are you shooting? Maybe you mentioned this before, but I
am not sure.
I processed my normal 4x5 tri x negatives for about eight minutes in
D-76 one to one, for cyanotype. I shot them at 320, for normal
subject brightness ranges. I was using the traditional, rather than
the Mike Ware, formula. I was using a combiplan tank. I got pretty
good results right off the bat, although weird things do happen from
time to time, depending on the water, it seems.
Also, I use the zone system and expose for the shadows and develop
for the highlights. If you haven't learned that stuff yet, get The
Practical Zone System book. This book helped me a lot to learn to
shoot a negative of the right contrast for a given process.
The other thing that helped me make cyanotypes with a full range of
tones was: the stouffer step tablet. Do a paper test with the step
tablet on your sensitized paper, and experiment until you get a
result where step one and maybe two merges with the background, but
on step three you can read the numeral 3, barely. Then note the
step that the highlights fall into. The lightest step that is not
white is the density you're going for in the highlights. For me it's
about 1.6. See if your school has a densitometer; then experiment
with development times until you get a time that gives you a density
of 1.6 in the highlights. ( I use the step tablet too to judge
exposure, while it's happening. I expose until the steps below the
sixth step have reversed. That is, they start to turn light again,
and the six is dark, but the seven, eight, etc are lighter than the
six.)
If you don't have access to a densitometer, just use the subjective
judgment test in the Practical Zone System book. It takes some time
to do the test, but it saves a lot of time and film in the long run.
--shannon
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