Re: Troubleshooting cyanotypes

Thanks everyone for your advice. I guess I am underexposing. The funny
thing is that I was getting good results after about 5 mins exposure
in bright sun. I went up to about 10-15 minutes in indirect sun and 30
min under my compact blacklight (which gives good VDBs in about 10
minutes) but obviously it's not enough.

I'll try again with much longer exposures and see how that goes.

I posted the successful photogram on my photoblog at
http://www.photosensitive.ca/index.php/image/sun-print/ for anyone who
wants to have a look.

Jordan

Jordan Wosnick wrote:
>
> Hi everyone,
>
> This weekend I made my first cyanotypes. I used the formula attributed
> to Patricia Dreher (http://www.bostick-sullivan.com/c_cyano.htm --
> scroll down to "other variations") The first few that I made came out
> beautifully -- one photogram and one from an inkjet negative on
> Pictorico OHP.
>
> After that, though, I starting having problems. The exposed cyanotype,
> before development, looked great -- nice contrast, etc. But on clearing,
> almost all of the image density bled away into the wash water, leaving
> practically nothing.
>
> Does anyone know the possible causes of this or potential remedies? The
> only thing I noticed was that the exposures made in direct sun fared
> better (even though I compensated with much longer exposure times when I
> printed in indirect sun or under a compact spiral blacklight).
>
> The paper used was Fabriano Artistico (mixed results) and Arches Platine
> (uniformly bad). I coated with about 2 ml of freshly-mixed sensitizer
> per 8x10" sheet and allowed the coated paper to air-dry in the dark for
> 30-60 mins before printing.
>
> Thanks for your advice
>
> Jordan
>

-- 
Jordan Wosnick
jwosnick@fastmail.fm