So, Cyanotypes are fun, and there's a whole lot more I want to try with them. But the real reason I started with them was to move on to...
Platinum/Palladium
That's been the focus for a very long time. At least since the early/middle 1980's when I was first truly exposed to Platinum/Palladium prints. Originally, I didn't really like them. I always thought they were too flat and muddy. What I didn't see was the incredible dynamic range they had. That vision came a bit later after seeing some in person I think it was at ICP in New York. I remember being somewhat floored by what I was looking at, and decided then and there that someday I wanted to try the process. And as I've gotten older, there has been a growing desire to help save history. I was teaching one day, and realized, that in this day and age of cellphone pictures (as good as they can be) that more than likely none of the kids, and probably none of their parents even knew something like this existed. It's amazing to me how many people say, when I'm out with a film camera, "they still make film?" or even "what's film, is that like a movie or something?"
The Platinum process, was first created in the early 1800's, but not made viable and patented until 1873 I believe. At one time, you could buy pre-coated paper for the process, but now it's a hand coated process. You mix the Platinum/Palldium according to the desired end result, then apply it to (essentially) water color paper with a brush or a coating rod. When dry, you contact print it - placing the negative and the paper in contact, and expose it to UV light. From there it's a relatively simple developing process, and you have a print that will litterally outlast the paper it's printed on. The only real drawback, is that as it is a contact printing process, your negative has to be the size of the finished print you desire. Fortunately, scanning is relatively easy, and modern ink jet printers can output a negative in just about any size you could want.
My first Platinum.Palladium print.
Two attempts and this is what I ended up with. You can see the mixture of chemicals, and the time I used written on the paper. Left to right - Date - Platinum Sollution #3 - Ferric Oxalate Solution #1 - 5% Sodium Platinum Solution Na2 - and a 5 minute exposure.
As I'm just starting out learning this process, I've been keeping it simple and playing around with old 4x5 negatives. At some point I'll move up in size with a goal of shooting negatives on my 8x10 camera, and printing at that size. Bigger would be cool, but I'm not exactly a billionaire. So here are some other examples so far, and a few comparisons can be made between the Pt/Pd prints and the Cyanotypes if you wish to look back and forth.
More to come...