Cyanotype Printing

I had fully intended to use Cyanotype printing as a gateway drug to another process, using it solely to get comfortable with brushing emulsions onto paper.  Then as I got farther down the rabbit hole of researching Cyanotypes, I discovered that it's so far, a lot a fun, and can go much farther that what I learned about them way back in 7th grade.  And on top of everything else, they're generally, at least at a basic level, a whole lot of fun to make.  You need just a few things...  The sun - or some other UV light source, some water color paper - or better, a print frame - or a heavy piece of plain glass, and water.  If you're impatient, a little Hydrogen Peroxide goes a long way.  And that's pretty much it. Of course you can take this much, much father, but that's up to the individual.

My first Cyanotype since 7th grade - Holga 120 Pan panoramic camera - Kodak Tri-x 120 film - Hahnemule Platinum Rag paper

Old Port of Milwaukee

The process itself is quite simple.  In a nutshell, you coat the paper using a brush (or coating rod if you're fancy), let it dry, sandwich it with your negative (or you can go without the glass for a natural subject like a plant or something), put it out in the sunlight or in a UV box for (x) amount of time, develop in water (you can add the Hydrogen Peroxide here if you're impatient to see the deep blue come out), wash in more water, and hang to dry.  The full prussian blue color will come out by itself while drying.

The most recent (still a work in progress)

Leonardo 3" 4x5 Pinhole Camera - Kodak TMax 100 4x5" film - Hahnemule Platinum Rag paper

Lake Park Grand Staircase

Outside of these, I've been having some issues with the process.  When I started trying digital negatives, it looked for all the world like I had way too much light.  In reality, I didn't.  The problem was the relatively cheap home office-style printer.  The inks don't block UV light consistently, so exposures were all over the place, and didn't have much dynamic range at all.  That should be taken care of to a great degree when the printer I want comes back into stock somewhere, and I can actually get my hands on one.

A little history:

Invented in 1842 by Sir John Herscheln it simply involved laying an object on a coated paper and exposing it to a light source.  In other words, a cameraless photograph.  The process uses iron salts, UV light, and water.  In today's world, it's usually a two solution kit.  Mix solutions A and B, brush them on the paper, expose, and develop in water.  Simple enough, and very inexpensive compared to a lot of other processes.  You don't really even need a darkroom, just somewhere you can reduce the amount of UV light coming through windows...  The whole process (except for drying the paper - best in a dark place) can be done in normal room light.  And generally safe for kids to experiment with (just make sure they don't let the chemicals get into their eyes or mouth, as I said, I first learned this in 7th grade art class.