What do I use to make negatives for cyanotypes?

Gast · 2003-03-10T18:27:47+00:00

Hallo Kollegen, ich weiß immer diese Alternativprinter... Ok, erstmal, es geht um Eisenblaudruck. Wie Platin auch ein Kontaktkopierverfahren. Da ich nun ni...

Gast

Hello everyone, I’m always hearing about these alternative printers... Right, first off, we’re talking about iron blue printing. Like platinum, it’s a contact printing process. Since I can’t shoot 18x24, 4x5 and 5x7 are a bit too small for some things, and there are sometimes nice subjects on 35mm film, I need to enlarge them. 1. Scan and print onto transparency film. It works, but it’s somehow unsatisfying for such a classic process. 2. Make a positive print (dodging, adjusting gradient, etc.) and make a contact (negative) copy of it. Works perfectly well so far. But on what? Normal paper like Fomaspeed (unlike Kodak, it has no logos on the back) unfortunately only works in theory. In practice, the shadows don’t provide adequate exposure. Just so we’re clear, contact printing from paper to paper works wonderfully; paper on blue-coated paper is the problem. The best option would be standard photographic paper emulsion on a clear backing. Dukarotlight works well; unlike film, it’s robust and can be developed in the existing developer (and then VC too ;-) – is there such a thing? Otherwise, the question is: what have you had good experiences with? Regards Martin

Gast

First off, there are cheap 6x9 cameras, from Clack to Billy, a dime a dozen. So, slightly larger negatives to start with. I’d recommend the following site: http://www.corff.de/Klappkameras Then a bit of brainstorming: - There are products available to make paper (even card-thickness) translucent. I’ve got a bit of that solvent lying about somewhere here. It used to be used for technical drawings. Here, it might be a good idea to separate the ‘negative’ from the target paper so that the solution doesn’t come into contact with the emulsion. - Use paper-thin photographic paper. Mirko has something like that in their range. - You should also be able to expose large-format negative material using the enlarger. You might need to reduce the exposure with an ND filter, but I don’t see any reason why that shouldn’t work. Where do you get your chemicals from? I’m still looking for a cheap source of potassium ferricyanide so I can give it a go. Regards, Roman Regards, Roman

Gast

Hello! I think Maco stocks films that can be handled like paper – have a look on their website <http://www.mahn.net> Roman

Gast

Check out 'Maco Genius Film'!

Gast

OK, Romans, that was exactly the question. I’ve ordered the Genius and Fomaspeed documentation. As it seems no one’s done this yet, I’ll post the results here soon. And on the subject of the Billy Clack. 6x9 is too small for me as a print. (I’ve got a lovely Speed Graphic 23 to sell – a great travel camera – and I’m only selling it because I’ve got several of them). I only want to do the transfer because I can develop the image in the positive, and of course because lugging the 13x18 around is a real pain. As for the question about the blood salt, let’s start a separate thread for that. So far, the little bottle of Fotospeed from monochrome hasn’t run out yet.

Gast

Right, everyone, first result: Maco GF developed in Moersch Warm 1+12 (wasn’t anything else to hand), works reasonably well. Tends to be a bit too hard; let’s see if GPF helps there – with GF, 1+12 should be the maximum for softness. About 1 stop harder than Interpositiv and Cyanprint. But the principle works; the rest is fine-tuning. Getting all 10 zones exactly right is probably asking too much anyway. More findings coming soon. Martin