Re: the old and the new cyanotype formulae

Loris, Judy, et al,
     Thanks for the feedback.
     Ok, so far, then, is paper specificity, needing diginegs with greater
density range which then grain up, probably in sky areas I would assume?,
trouble mixing the formula initially, expense of chemicals, and toxicity of
chemicals.
     Loris, I do hope you try it soon and compare, because side by side on
Fabriano Artistico, I am using the same density negative. I also
experienced more grain in the classic. I know we are talking two different
grains here, yours due to increasing the DR of the digineg. Ware's formula
produces a less grainy, deeper image.
      I'll have to call TriEss and compare prices on mixing the two formulas
and see how that hangs.
     In my notes on cyano, I have that any paper that prints platinum well
is also good for cyano (altho one alt lister said Crane's Platino did not
print as deep blue as Arches...I am convinced this is due to the absorbency
of the paper)...in fact, I have such a list of suitable papers that I don't
feel that paper specificity is an issue for me. However, I do remember one
I used last year that immediately turned the Ware's green, and thus it was
unsuitable. I have had no staining.
     Fogging, hmmmm....maybe that was what this was: I had an odd
experience where the highlights turned pale lilac, everything else was a
deep blue. Very odd, but with a gum over it disappeared.
Chris

>>Loris said, big snips: What I understand is that > most people complain
about paper sensivity of the new cyanotype..."major" problems like chemical
fogging and extreme staining

and (big snip) the new cyanotype needs negatives with
> greater density range....(cut)...and as I have experienced problems like
> harshness/grainess and banding in highlights with digital negatives of
> high density before, I see this fact as a potential problem (will see it
> when I try). The curve I'm using currently for classic cyanotype
> diginegs doesn't lay much black ink - please note that it's a quadtone
> inkset - so I don't have grainess and such problems. But when I print
> diginegs for van dyke - using Fokos curve for platinum - I often have
> problems in highlights.

Judy mentioned the toxicity of the chemicals is "much more poisonous" in the
new.
Received on Thu May 27 08:43:33 2004