Design Process STAGE 1: Understand the Problem
1. Consider what the goal is for your Cyanotype?
My goal for my cyanotype is to create a negative with contrast that shows up nicely on the cyan paper after washed off. Also to find the perfect exposure time to expose the negative and the paper.
What is a cyanotype and what is unique about them (other than they are blue)?
They use iron compounds to create photos that are blue using a negative and a paper painted with the iron compound. It's an alternate form of photography where you have to guess and determine the exposure thru trial and error.
Design Process STAGE 2: Research and Investigate
Who are John Herschel and Anna Atkins?
John Herschel was the scientist who discovered the process of cyanotypes. Anna Atkins is the lady who brought it into photography, she is known as the first female photographer.
How are you going to create a Cyanotype?
To create a cyanotype you need to have to chemical and paint it onto a piece of paper and let it dry. Then create a negative and arrange it onto the paper and put a piece of plexiglass on top of it to keep each part in place. You are going to expose these to sunlight for a certain amount of time, you have to determine how much time based on the time of day, as well as trial and error. After exposure the print has to be washed with water so it turns blue and gets the chemical off, then dried and ironed out so it is flat.
What do you need to do for this process?
As mentioned above, the process is not as easy as snapping a photo on a camera. It requires multiple steps.
Design Process STAGE 3: Generate Possible Solutions
3. Use your own personal passions as Inspiration
What do you enjoy to photograph?
I enjoy photographing water and plants, more so vacation photos where I see things I don't normally see such as the ocean and palm trees.
Maybe tell a story or record a moment and memory in a well composed image.
Explore cyanotype inspiration from other photographers. Which cyanotypes interest you the most and why?
The cyanotypes that interest me most are the ones with the most detail. The ones with details / contrast have many more different colors of blues and tell a better story.
Design Process STAGE 4: Plan and Develop Best Solution
4. Plan out your printing composition
Plan out a couple of shoots to create some possible images for your own cyanotype negative to be printed
Seeing as I just got back from a cruise, I believe I got some good high contrast photos that will work well in a cyanotype. A cyanotype works best with high contrast photos
Plan how you will paint your light-sensitive chemical onto your paper. This will impact your final composition SIGNIFICANTLY
I will paint the chemicals onto my paper in a vertical pattern as if I was coloring a picture, I want to leave the least amount of white space. Due to the fact that the photo I want to use has a few small details, I want to get all of them printed in blue and not worry about white space on the paper.
Be aware of size restrictions - cropping to non-traditional proportions may cause print to be small (Your digital printed negatives can be a max of 11" x 17"
You should add additional contrast to your image before printing your negative because cyanotypes do not record as much detail in the middle values as a traditional silver gelatin B&W prints.
Design Process STAGE 5: Model and Prototype (Create)
6. Begin production of your design
Digital Negatives must fit your film size (11" x 17") with a resolution of 300ppi
Turn in your final NEGATIVE image to be printed onto FILM by Coulson.
Beware of contrast in your detail or details will likely be lost.
Plan out your painting of the Cyanotype Paper based on your composition design!!!
Paint three sheet of paper with cyanotype chemical
Print 3 versions of your composition (to learn from each exposure)
Dry and Iron (use the heat press) your final three prints flat
Design Process STAGE 6: Test and Evaluate
7. Self-reflect on your final composition
self-reflect and carefully evaluate your successes and difficulties?
What are the prints strength & weaknesses
Do you want or need to give it another try?
Although I don't want or need to give it another try, there were a few brush marks on my best print and I feel like that will count against me. The exposure is perfect however and I couldn't ask for a better balance of color. The strength is definitely the exposure and the fact that there is blue covering everywhere I needed it to. The weakness is that there are a few brush spots where I didn't paint it as well as I could.
Design Process STAGE 7: Produce
8. Turn in your most successful final Cyanotype Print
Include a digital image (photograph your print) of your final print at top your project page
Finalize Project Page with a thorough project reflection
successes
struggles
what you learned
Turn in a self-evaluation form
My strengths in this project was finding the best exposure time and finding a good photo that looks good when turned blue and white. My struggle was definitely painting the paper as I tended to leave brush stroke marks and some parts looked lighter than others. What I learned from this is the process of creating a cyanotype, as well as the history of how they were created.
