2 stage paper negatives?

[m1tch]

Hi all,

I have got into Cyanotypes but I was thinking about how the negative is placed over the cyanotype for the contact print, I was thinking if it were possible to do a 2 stage print meaning that you use 2 photographic processes to produce the final image on the same piece of paper.

My idea would be:

Coat paper with silver based emulsion
Take the photo
Develop the image giving a negative
Recoat the paper with cyanotype solution
Expose under UV
Develop Cyanotype in water and wash away original silver based chemicals

My idea came from how colour images are developed, colour film is just black and white film with added layers and the black and white part of the image is bleached out leaving just the colours.

Would something like the above idea work? It would create a single original image much like tintype which produces a single positive image.

Thoughts?

 

[Joe VanCleave]

You'd want the cyanotype under the silver emulsion for it to act as a mask, rather than on top.

But cyanotype is a positive printing method, meaning dense parts of the negative end up with dense cyan color, hence the need for a positive transparency to print a cyanotype from, rather than a negative.

The bleaching chemicals required to strip a silver emulsion might also strip the iron-based cyanotype emulsion, too.