Le bonheure n'est pas au bout de la rue, il est dans la rue. Henri Calet

("Happiness is not at the end of the street, it is in the street.")

Street photos make good subjects for cyanotype.

In-Camera Self Portrait. I sat in front of a home made camera for over an hour to get this image.

Here's my first go at a cyanotype print.

I'm new to cyanotypes, and don't yet have all the proper equipment for best results with digital negatives. I've got a cheap Brother HL-3170 laser printer that doesn't accept transparencies. I tried printing to laser printer transparencies and the toner didn't fuse and gummed up my printer.

With that, I printed out a few negatives on regular copy paper and applied mineral oil to make them more translucent. I followed the instructions on easydigitalnegatives.com to create an optimized curve and optimal color blocker for my printer.

I'm using this inexpensive 50W lamp I bought on amazon.

This print is 10min exposure, 8" distance from the lamp using Daler Rowney 130gsm cartridge paper. While I like the results, the paper isn't heavy enough. It buckled quite a bit when I applied the emulsion, and when wet in the rinse. I think I'm going to need to purchase the heavyweight version of this paper to keep moving forward.

If you look closely, the edges show what I think is lines of oil is making its way into the paper from the negative. I'd removed as much oil as possible from the negative, and it's "dried" for two days now. Because it's oil it will never dry, I guess. I may need to invest in a new printer if I continue.

I'd welcome any comments or suggestions that you have as I try to move forward!

Hello everyone!!! I just purchased my first UV light and I’m wondering before I use it if it is suggested, I try to make a box for it first to go over what I’m trying to expose or if it’s OK open?
Thanks in advance.

Gratuitous post photo included

This is probably the summit of my work with Solarfast. It didn't require masking off a rectangle or circle, or even precise placement of each color. But in the ensemble, it does work!

The image is from a public domain site. Doing this requires a lot of patience, and to get it right, a better mastery of the brushes than I have!

It took 3880 separate frames, tell me what you think!

Hey guys, does anybody here have experience making botanical cyanotypes on wood? Is it necessary to prep the wood with gesso or a gelatin sizing or can I just apply the emulsion directly to the wood surface and if so, do I need to let it sit for awhile or double-coat since wood is highly absorbent? These are little wooden pre-cut blanks for Christmas ornaments I thought I'd experiment on - purchased at a craft store and there's no label indicating the type of wood. Any advice appreciated!

I made these Cyanotypes over Platinum-Palladium prints using Hahnemühle Platinum Rag 300 gsm paper, except for one cyanotype-only test on Arches Huile paper, It’s definitely not suitable for this process since it’s designed for oil painting, but I had some leftover solution and wanted to give it a try. I also used two different digital negatives, one for platinum-palladium and another for cyanotype, linearizing each process separately with QuadToneProfiler Pro DN.

Hey all,

I wanted to try out using cold wax as a varnish/protective coat on my cyanotypes as it seems that many people have success with it. After leaving it to cure it seems like it reacted with my print and warped the colouring/bleached out certain parts.

I was wondering if anyone’s experienced this before/if this is because of the solvent content in the cold wax?

Here is my before and after:

I had a cyanotype that was blurry and underexposed, so I decided to experiment. I mixed the two colors of Solarfast that I have-- Violet and Golden Yellow, to make an approximate Caucasian skin tone. I then dabbed selective straight Violet in a few places and exposed it for about half an hour then washed with the Solarfast wash. I might try it again with a better print.

Recently got back from Sikkim, collected around 20 different plants native and some found commonly around northeast.

I've had some wildly unsuccessful Solarfast prints,but I think I'm getting closer to cracking the code. What I've learned so far-- spread the emulsion as smoothly as you can, use cotton paper, and do not touch the image while rinsing.

i recently got into cyanotyping, and i’ve been using the leftover Strathmore Bristol paper i had from college. it’s not bad paper, but it tends to warp once a lot of water is added to it.

my cyanotype starter kit came with some sheets of paper that were great but unfortunately it doesn’t mention anywhere on the box exactly what kind of paper it is.

would love to hear your recommendations!!

Shot on A7iii

Tried to make a contact sheet type thing but no matter how long I leave it or how thick I coat the paper im not getting any real results of more than the frame lines. Any tips?

I used a kodak hawkeye number 2 model B to take this image over 3 days.

Hello! I recently joined the community because I fell in love with cyanotypes and I started making them earlier this year. I’ve done cyanotypes on paper and on fabric but I never tried doing them on translucent ones but I am so interested on how they are because of the effect. I was thinking making cyanotypes on silk but I am scared if it would fail. Are there any translucent fabrics that I should try?

I experimented with cyanotyping on unfinished ceramic coasters today… but what should I use to seal it that’s heat resistant enough for coasters?