Lightbox-Grow lights or Black Lights

[Salmonoid]

I built a light box with a couple of fluorescent tubes. I have grow lights in it right now and it makes a good exposure to my cyanotypes in about an hour. I am wanting to reduce the exposure time, and am wondering if black lights will work better.

Tim

 

[Trevor Crone]

Tim,

It seems you just need a few more tubes. If as you say you have only a 'couple' of tubes then you probably have something like 80watts output?

For Pt/Pd printing I use 9 x 25 watt BLB, black light blue (filtered) which gives me an average exposure of between 3-6 minutes at a distance of 6" from the lamps.

Trevor.

 

[Whiteymorange]

I bought a "facial tanning unit" from that auction site for my polygravure exposures (KM73 plates) My exposures are in the 45 second range at 5 inches. Cheaper by far than building an exposure bod with blacklight bulbs. I set the timer on the unit to a long time and then use a GraLab timer for more precise timing.