Re: Blue-Black Cyanotype & Luster

Hello Charles,

thank you for the feedback!

The cyanotypes tannic acid toned that way have to be dried without having contact to any alkali. E.g. if they lie on a buffered paper the cool tone gets warmer where the wet print is in contact with that paper. That´s basically the principle how the other lines of test prints were made -- the finished cool toned prints were put in a weak alkaline solution (like 0,5 % sodium carbonate) often only for some seconds. The blue regained by the acetic acid bath disapears and the tannic acids brown is enhanced. Then the excessive alkali is removed by a good wash in neutral ph tap water. This kind of color adjustment works only with the tannic acid toned cyanotypes. With gallic acid toned prints there is virtually only a substantial image loss and staining.

I hope this doesn´t sound too complicated. I´m working with a procedure that involves a preview step of the final print in Photoshop before printing a digital negative. That´s why I need a good repeatability and till now this kind of toning looks very promising.

Cheers
  Kai Hamann

---------- ryberg schrieb: ----------------------------------

Thanks Kia! I've only done one quick test print but this is the only toning
formula that has ever worked for me on cyanotypes. The rest have either
stained or reduced the tonal range--often both.
Charles Portland
Received on Tue Oct 4 15:07:56 2005