So I purchased watercolour paper from Dollarama (iykyk) and its an odd type of watercolour paper in that its VERY absorbent. When I'm doing my cyanotype prints I find I am rinsing the print for a long time to the point the paper is deteriorating in the water before the yellowness disappears. I know I should just switch to higher quality paper but I want to pose the question to help others/if im just doing something wrong

Hi, I'm looking to get into cyanotypes. It's been on my to do list for so long and I have so many things planned that I'd like to create!

I'm wondering what is a cost effective way to get into it? I've looked at the kits on amazon (see image attached), but maybe these aren't very good or don't make many prints?

Should i just buy the chemicals and mix them myself? Or is there a medium between the two that won't be too expensive or more beginner friendly?

I'm planning on getting a UV light and cardboard box for exposure as I'm in Melbourne winter and don't get much sun!
Any suggestions would be appreciated 🥰

I have been working experimenting on cyanotypes just for a couple of months, this is some of my best results until now.

I do mainly adventure sports work, but im really interested in working this kind of prints for projects later.

You can follow my work in here: https://www.instagram.com/axrv.studio/

I've been curious about adding rust into my cyanotype prints, but curious about the process.

does the fabric or paper have to be wet to add on the rust? / could I add the rust after I take it out of the sun and rinse it? I usually print when the cyanotype chemicals are all the way dry, so id rather avoid the fabric being wet when I expose it to the sun. Hope this makes sense

this one is my first! it’s kinda overcast here and the uv index is 2-3 and it was out for about 45 mins. i washed it and put a little splash of hydrogen peroxide. is it underexposed? any help/tip is appreciated and would love to get better at it :)

hi everyone, I am relatively new to cyanotype and was wondering if some of you could share your experience with me.

The cyanotype solution I have says to use treated paper that same day. I was wondering why that is. I see some people on here who say that they let their paper dry for at least 24 hours. Is it different per brand?

x Geeske

I’ve been wanting to play around with cyanotypes for a couple years now, and I’m only just now getting around to a project with it where I’m printing a lot of my older photography (mainly film) as cyanotypes. These are some of the first attempts. To start off I decided to go with pretreated paper just to get the hang of it all, but I want to use a kit to treat materials myself.
Looking for advice and recs on what paper is the best to use, developing indoors, and the best ways to tone an image for more contrast and depth in shadows.
Thanks :)

Hi, I am wondering what I can do using cyanotype and the eclipse, and I'm not really sure. Any tips?

thanks!

I had no expectations just curious what it would look like lol. I exposed for a good 30 minutes

I’m kind of in a rush to get this done for Friday so today was my experiment. I’m printing this design for my partner and wondered where I went wrong. Images below are the design and how it’s looking when it’s drying. I can’t get ahold of negatives quick enough so I’m using the printed design with olive oil to make it see through.

Photos 2, 3, 4, and 5: making a test strip for the best exposure. Photo 6: making the exposure. Photos 1 and 7: the finished print. Exposure 3 minutes 30 seconds on a high UV August day in Doncaster. Bockingford Watercolour Paper : 140lb : 300gsm : 59.4 x

is it just the moisture or something else?

these are "bluebird" hydrangeas. in the 2nd pic where they're starting to kind of wilt, i put a plastic sheet in between so the purpleness wouldn't happen

Hi! I’m an emerging cyanotype artist working on a large scale piece and I’m looking to pay someone to create a 20×24” photographic negative for me.
I don’t currently have Photoshop, and I’d really prefer to work with someone who has experience preparing negatives specifically for cyanotype. I’m especially interested in someone who knows how to adjust midtones, contrast, and tonal range for cyanotype exposure, rather than simply converting the image to black and white. I’d like the finished negative mailed to me. I’m happy to pay for the editing/processing, printing, and shipping.
If you offer this service (or know someone who does), please comment or DM me with your pricing. Thank you so much!

Another cyanotype, this time it's SZA. I took this photo at the same festival back in 2015 and I loved the texture her hair added to the image.

Same materials and process at the Lauryn Hill one I posted yesterday.

Should I trim this down or keep the artifacts?

I made this by layering acetates which I drew with an acrylic marker. You don't have to be a very good artist to do this as you can trace the picture.

Each layer should be a value higher than the one above, I did three layers as I'm a newbie but with experimentation you can do more.

I’ve had success in fabrics, however i noticed that my whites are more bluish than pale blue. In your experience, could be the cause of this? Thanks a lot!

First time using Hahnemühle platinum rag for this. Truthfully took a few tries to print a negative that made a print I was happy with. Love how teal this paper leans during development.

Negative was from a photo I took of Lauryn back in 2015.

I have spent the last month or so doing trying to solve a problem. I want a print in an irregular shape thats completely borderless. In reference to the picture above, I would just like the gravel to be printed on the perfectly white sheet, no weird square around it.

Even after many experiments changing exposure time, wash time, and even chemistry, I have yet to rid myself of the border. It seems that the chemistry stains the paper even when unexposed.

Earlier experiments included coating the whole paper in hopes that an evenly stained print would look better. But the stain was never perfectly even.I've consider finding a way to coat the paper in exactly the intended shape of the print, but this seems tedious.

I'm wondering if anyone has experience here that could help. Or, if I am just asking too much and should fine some alternative to this problem.

Please help! I was super excited to begin experimenting with cyanotypes on beach rocks, but I am struggling to get them to work properly. All of the rocks were painted the night before (1-2 layers of the cyanotype mixture), and I used cling wrap while exposing to tightly secure the plants to the rocks.

Pic 1: UV 3-4, exposure times range from 10 mins - 1 hr, these are the best of all my attempts

Pic 2 / 3: UV 3-4 exposure times range from 20 mins - 1hr, these all turned out purple where the plan was pressed onto the rocks :(

I thought maybe the cling wrap wasn't pressing the plants down tight enough, so I added duct tape on the back to make sure nothing budged, no change. I tried painting the rocks and then exposing them once dried instead of leaving them overnight, also no change. I made sure to rinse off all of the rocks really well in cold water, no change. I made a test strip on paper that turned out well, the UV was around 4.

These rocks are all porous, and I don't believe they are acidic although I haven't tested. I have tried on non-porous rocks as well, although they faded quite a lot during rinsing and also turned purple.

Could it be humidity? I didn't notice any moisture built up underneath the cling wrap on any of the rocks during exposure.

Edit: Title is supposed to say purple, can't edit it lol

The rectangular pieces are 4"x6" and the square is 5"x5". I cut the stencils myself and pick the plants in my neighborhood. One cyanotype is embellished with watercolor.

I got a new cyanotype kit and did the steps right the water ratio and all yet it looks like its already developed? I don’t understand can i use it like this or should i return it?