Flic Film Cyanotype kit - any good?
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Sorry, no experience here on my end with the Flic product specifically, but I expect it'll work OK. Cyanotype chemistry is pretty simple and there's not all that much that can go wrong with it. Some things you may notice, are:
* The chemistry will expire, but it may take many months or even years before this happens. You'll notice it if you mix both liquids and the resulting mix turns blue instead of green, and also if the image always turns blue (no more white highlights) even with little or no exposure. Don't worry about this for now; as said, it'll take a while before this happens and maybe you've used up your chemistry by then!
* If you decide to try other papers and materials to print on, you'll notice that not all materials work equally well. Some will create blotchy prints, or fail to produce clean highlights (blue staining), or the maximum density will be limited. As with other alt. processes, the chemistry of the printing process can interact with the material you apply it on or the chemicals it's been treated with (calcium buffer in the paper, for instance) and this will affect print quality. Again, don't worry - just try some more materials until you find something to your liking.
I find cyanotype to be a relatively slow process, so you'll have to expose liberally. Sunlight works well, but where I live, there's just not enough for it to go round, especially in winter, so I use UV LEDs. Any kind of suitable artificial light source will give you more consistent, repeatable exposures. But sunlight of course works.
Expose your cyanotypes liberally, until the parts of the image that should become the deep shadows turn into a grey metallic color after exposure and before washing the print. Quite a bit of the blue color washes out, so you need to print a lot darker. Also, after washing, your prints may look literally washed out - but the blues will gain in density and richness in the first 24-48hours. This process can be accelerated by adding a tiny bit of hydrogen peroxide to your final wash water - but it's not necessary to do this. Time works perfectly fine, too.
Have fun!
* The chemistry will expire, but it may take many months or even years before this happens. You'll notice it if you mix both liquids and the resulting mix turns blue instead of green, and also if the image always turns blue (no more white highlights) even with little or no exposure. Don't worry about this for now; as said, it'll take a while before this happens and maybe you've used up your chemistry by then!
* If you decide to try other papers and materials to print on, you'll notice that not all materials work equally well. Some will create blotchy prints, or fail to produce clean highlights (blue staining), or the maximum density will be limited. As with other alt. processes, the chemistry of the printing process can interact with the material you apply it on or the chemicals it's been treated with (calcium buffer in the paper, for instance) and this will affect print quality. Again, don't worry - just try some more materials until you find something to your liking.
I find cyanotype to be a relatively slow process, so you'll have to expose liberally. Sunlight works well, but where I live, there's just not enough for it to go round, especially in winter, so I use UV LEDs. Any kind of suitable artificial light source will give you more consistent, repeatable exposures. But sunlight of course works.
Expose your cyanotypes liberally, until the parts of the image that should become the deep shadows turn into a grey metallic color after exposure and before washing the print. Quite a bit of the blue color washes out, so you need to print a lot darker. Also, after washing, your prints may look literally washed out - but the blues will gain in density and richness in the first 24-48hours. This process can be accelerated by adding a tiny bit of hydrogen peroxide to your final wash water - but it's not necessary to do this. Time works perfectly fine, too.
Have fun!
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