Impromptu Residency (Day 2)
Jul 4, 2018 / Photography / experiments
In looking at these prints, there’s not enough contrast. The prints look faded. I will have to work on that if I’m going to use this layering process in the future.
Experimenting with Value
I also wanted to see how different concentrations of bleach and water affect the tones of a cyanotype print. For this experiment, I printed out a bunch of tables that show tone values from the lightest (highlights) to the darkest (shadows).
Here’s the result. The original value table is the first one, and then the next table shows the result if 100% bleach was brushed on the print. It was too strong. The bleaching was too fast. For the next one I diluted to 25% bleach - 75% water. It was still too strong. I won’t be able to control the bleaching of the print at this concentration.
I diluted the bleach further. The second row shows the results of a 14% bleach - 86% water concentration. At this level, the bleaching was slower, and therefore I will be able to control the bleaching process better. This looks like a good start.
The third row of prints shows the result of an experiment where I immersed the print in 100% bleach vs my preferred 14%-86% concentration. I was curious if the yellow would come out to be the same. And they did! This is a good finding. There is no difference that I could see between using 100% bleach (which is uncontrollable) vs a diluted version (which is controllable).
In looking at these value tables, it’s interesting to see that cyanotype values that are lighter than the midtones will always turn white. This means that if I want yellow in my prints, I have to make sure that the starting cyanotype value is darker than a midtone.
That’s all I accomplished in day 2. Tomorrow, I will experiment with toning cyanotype prints using baking soda. Stay tuned!
