[HN Gopher] How to Make Cyanotypes
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       How to Make Cyanotypes
        
       Author : onychomys
       Score  : 16 points
       Date   : 2021-07-26 20:51 UTC (2 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (parallaxphotographic.coop)
 (TXT) w3m dump (parallaxphotographic.coop)
        
       | floren wrote:
       | You can make "digital negatives" by printing onto transparency
       | sheets, but be aware that laser printers don't seem to do a good
       | enough job for a nice sharp image--it seems that inkjets are your
       | safest bet.
        
         | chromatin wrote:
         | Yes, definitely ink jets on transparency! I have another.
         | Moment at top level on curves and exposure also.
        
       | chromatin wrote:
       | Super fun; I used to do this and make gifts for friends and
       | family. If done well, on acid free paper, and kept out of bright
       | sunlight, they can be relatively archival.
       | 
       | The linked article shows making cyanotype from outline if
       | flowers, but far more fun IMO is digital negatives. There is a
       | link to this at the bottom of the article, but I'll share
       | something I found that helps tremendously that wasn't mentioned
       | AFAICT.
       | 
       | When printing your digital negative, in addition to inverting
       | your greyscale /B&W photo, you'll want to adjust the curve,
       | because the cyanotype will expose nonlinearly.
       | 
       | The best way to find the curve given your chemistry, photo,
       | sunlight/latitude, etc. is empirically.
       | 
       | So, I recommend in photoshop/GIMP/whatever to generate a series
       | of greyscale bars from #000000 to #FFFFFF, with perhaps a dozen
       | or more steps. Put this alongside your image, then invert, and
       | make a test print. You can then observe the nonlinear development
       | of color and adjust the curve (remember, inverted) to apply to
       | your final image for printing.
       | 
       | Probably I can think of more but this is already kind of lengthy
       | on mobile :)
        
       | j6 wrote:
       | Website seems to be down, here's a mirror:
       | https://web.archive.org/web/20210116152552/https://parallaxp...
       | 
       | https://archive.is/i8xhn
        
       | mattkevan wrote:
       | Cyanotypes are so much fun. Had good results printing digital
       | negatives on transparencies. It's easy to do and watching the
       | picture appear is very rewarding. Here's some examples:
       | https://www.kevan.tv/art/cyanotypes/
        
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       (page generated 2021-07-26 23:00 UTC)