contrast ranges

Ray Heath · Mar 17, 2007

in simple terms of low/medium/high, can someone explain what level of contrast is required for van dyke and cyanotype printing

thnx
Ray

sanking · Mar 17, 2007

Ray Heath said:
in simple terms of low/medium/high, can someone explain what level of contrast is required for van dyke and cyanotype printing

thnx
Ray

cyanotpe -- medium contrast, or negative with a DR of about 1.5

vandyke -- very high, negative with a DR of about 2.2.

Sandy King

Ray Heath · Mar 21, 2007

thnx Sandy, concise and to the point as requested

a further question, it seems to me that alternative prints often have poor tonality, PD/PTs usually look flat, cyanotypes usually look too harsh

so, is the poor tonality because the wrong type of negative is used, or are the results just how it is for alternative printing methods?

DrPablo · Mar 21, 2007

Ray, I don't have much experience with this, but in my cyanotyping I invariably get better results with high contrast negatives as long as the contrast isn't extreme. For the extreme contrast negatives, I have been getting good results by grossly overexposing the cyanotype, then either bleaching it with a dunk in a weak alkali (I use household ammonia in water), or brushing the weak alkali over the areas that are too dark using a watercolor brush.

Jim Noel · Mar 21, 2007

If the of the negative does not match the process, and some kind of contrast alteration is not used, the print will be either too flat or too contrasty. Bleaching back works, but a proper negative works better and more consistently.

Vaughn · Mar 21, 2007

Ray Heath said:
thnx Sandy, concise and to the point as requested

a further question, it seems to me that alternative prints often have poor tonality, PD/PTs usually look flat, cyanotypes usually look too harsh

so, is the poor tonality because the wrong type of negative is used, or are the results just how it is for alternative printing methods?

Silver prints poorly made also can be of poor tonality, flat or harsh. Try to find some alt prints made by those who know what they are doing (the real thing -- not on a computer screen or in a book). Because alt printing has so many variables left up to the artist (as opposed to the relatively straight-forward off-the-shelf silver gelatin process) it takes one a while to control all the variables to produce good work.

Many experienced silver printers dabble in alt printing, then get turned off by their sub-standard results...forgetting that their first negatives and silver prints were probably not all that hot either.

Perhaps someone in NSW can point you in a direction of where to find some quality alt prints to see.

Vaughn

Lukas Werth · Mar 23, 2007

Ray Heath said:
a further question, it seems to me that alternative prints often have poor tonality, PD/PTs usually look flat, cyanotypes usually look too harsh

so, is the poor tonality because the wrong type of negative is used, or are the results just how it is for alternative printing methods?

Platinum prints neither have the same dmax, nor are their whites so bright as in gelsilver. So if you don't get right, they look flat (as do, in my opinion, quite some historical pt prints, as I recall from a visit in the national portrait gallery in London). However, they excell in the range of tones in between, they are, as other siderotypes (metal salt prints), also cyanotypes, able to produce prints prints from which the light seems to emanate, with what many people associate with the quality of a drawing, soft and beautiful.

In my view, the contrasty qualities of traditional silverprints many people look for are the result that historically viewers got used to their reduced tonalities.

Loris Medici · Mar 23, 2007

Cyanotype with high contrast negatives

You may try to develop in weak acetic or citric acid. Even put 40% citric acid in the coating solution (start with 1 drop 40% citric acid per 10 drops of coating solution) to get a low contrast emulsion with Cyanotypes. The DR required for my New Cyanotypes is log 2.4 which is on par with Vandyke, Albumen or Salt Prints...

Regards,
Loris.

DrPablo said:
Ray, I don't have much experience with this, but in my cyanotyping I invariably get better results with high contrast negatives as long as the contrast isn't extreme. For the extreme contrast negatives, I have been getting good results by grossly overexposing the cyanotype, then either bleaching it with a dunk in a weak alkali (I use household ammonia in water), or brushing the weak alkali over the areas that are too dark using a watercolor brush.

contrast ranges

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