Continuing with me adventures into the history of photography and photographic processes, I thought I would have a go at Cyanotype printing.
Cyanotype like salt printing is a contact print process, but unlike salt printing is a one step process to sensitise the paper, so in theory should be quite easy right?
For this try I looked around and thought the Jaquard Cyanotype Kit would probably be the best first go as it had all I needed (bar the paper) at a reasonable price.
It didn't turn out to be as easy as I first thought it would be and I got mixed results, just like when I tried salt printing for the first time.
First, the mixture of the kit didn't give me the results I was expecting and was too dark mixing 50/50 as the kit suggests, so I diluted the mix and got slightly better results.
Second, the paper seemed loose the image in the washing stage, even good quality water colour paper. So I think I need to find some really good seized paper in order for the image to stick and not wash off.
You can buy pre sensitised paper like Sunography which may yield better results, but I wanted more of the true experience and the more artist look of rough painted edges.
It is fun trying all these old photographic processes, it make the history of photography more real and I actually feel part of the image as I have had to make the image from start to finish.
