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AndrewBurns

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These turned out beautifully. Can you say more about how you toned these prints? And I really like your presentation. The (cherry?) wood frames really compliment the color of the toned cyanotypes nicely. Are these under glass with spacers?

Thanks Drew. They're "blue sheet" cyanotype, which is the same as the classic formula except using potassium ferrocyanide rather than ferricyanide. The blue-sheet mix seems to be about three times faster than classic and has a much longer tonal scale but lower dmax. It also mostly forms prussian white when exposed, and so immediately after developing the image is very light but it darkens considerably over a few hours as it dries and oxidises. The reason I'm using this formula is primarily because I'm using a projector and so classic cyanotype would be a several hour exposure.

For toning I make a small amount of very strong instant coffee (about two tablespoons in 150 mL of water) and I brush that onto the surface of the print immediately after developing but before the print has dried and oxidised (I do use paper towel to soak up any excess water on the surface of the paper first). I let it sit like that for about 15 to 30 minutes, wash it, use paper towel to dry the surface slight and repeat one more time.
 

AndrewBurns

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These turned out beautifully. Can you say more about how you toned these prints? And I really like your presentation. The (cherry?) wood frames really compliment the color of the toned cyanotypes nicely. Are these under glass with spacers?

Oh and I just realised I forgot to answer your other questions. The frames are oak stained to a colour called 'Rimu' (a New Zealand native tree). The prints have a light wax coating (Dorland's wax medium) and are framed without any glass. I went for no glass for two reasons, first to keep costs down as I think the audience is going to be fairly price-sensitive, second because I don't know what the lighting is going to be like where these will be displayed and I didn't want to risk any annoying reflections or loss of contrast.

If anybody does buy one they can always have them re-framed with some glass, there's a spacer in the frame already so they could just insert a glass sheet in front and leave everything else as it is.
 

drew tanner

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Oh and I just realised I forgot to answer your other questions. The frames are oak stained to a colour called 'Rimu' (a New Zealand native tree). The prints have a light wax coating (Dorland's wax medium) and are framed without any glass. I went for no glass for two reasons, first to keep costs down as I think the audience is going to be fairly price-sensitive, second because I don't know what the lighting is going to be like where these will be displayed and I didn't want to risk any annoying reflections or loss of contrast.

If anybody does buy one they can always have them re-framed with some glass, there's a spacer in the frame already so they could just insert a glass sheet in front and leave everything else as it is.

Thanks so much for taking the time to share those details. Beautiful work and a really well executed presentation!
 

MurrayMinchin

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Oh and I just realised I forgot to answer your other questions. The frames are oak stained to a colour called 'Rimu' (a New Zealand native tree). The prints have a light wax coating (Dorland's wax medium) and are framed without any glass. I went for no glass for two reasons, first to keep costs down as I think the audience is going to be fairly price-sensitive, second because I don't know what the lighting is going to be like where these will be displayed and I didn't want to risk any annoying reflections or loss of contrast.

If anybody does buy one they can always have them re-framed with some glass, there's a spacer in the frame already so they could just insert a glass sheet in front and leave everything else as it is.
Please come back here with a report on how your 'no glass' experience went. I'm no fan of how any type of glazing puts a barrier between print and viewer.
 

Franswa

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Got 6 of my toned cyanotypes framed for a darkroom/alt-process exhibition next weekend, really pleased how they turned out.












Andrew, these are gorgeous! I can see why you would be pleased with them - 1,2 and 6 are so moody, love them. As others mentioned, your choice of frames works really well with these prints.
 

Franswa

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I went out this past weekend to take some pictures at a local treasure located within the city limits and here is a resulting kitchen kallitype from one of the frames.


54887283410_fd6aee688d_b.jpg
 

KYsailor

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Lovely image, I like the (what appears to my eye) neutral tone, did you tone this with gold or palladium?
 

Franswa

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Beautiful print @Franswa! Did you develop this print in Sodium Acetate? The neutral tone is quite nice.

Lovely image, I like the (what appears to my eye) neutral tone, did you tone this with gold or palladium?

Thank you both! Developed in sodium acetate and toned with platinum(still waiting on palladium). I am personally still torn between the effects of the acetate vs citrate, though each will probably have their place in my workflow.
 

Franswa

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A solitary cypress at the eastern tip of Redbud Isle. A kallitype developed in sodium citrate, with platinum and palladium toning on 8x10 COT 320.

54906804597_ea758d97d5_b.jpg
 

Franswa

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Beautiful! So this is a combination toning?

Thank you, Raghu. Yes, for this print I used 50ml of platinum toner and 70ml of palladium toner, mixed together. I may use less palladium next time, but thought to add more since the image was more on the low key side of things.
 

AndrewBurns

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First attempt at an orotone using pigmented PVA-SbQ photopolymer on a glass plate and backed with gold acrylic paint. I screwed up a few aspects of the process (damaged the emulsion during washing, mixed up the wrong type of acrylic paint and added white to the gold for some reason which ruined the effect) but overall happy with it. I've tried to make another print twice since then and failed to get a similar result which is frustrating.

Orotone plate:



Vs. the original image:

 

CreationBear

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Dmax? Now that is a flex…:wink:

FWIW, for my own tastes I usually find 1:1.25 a little too squat in landscape orientation (hence my love for 5x7) but often crop portrait orientation closer to square, which often seems to accentuate depth in the frame. Take an inch off the top and see if that’s true for you.
 

Franswa

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Dmax? Now that is a flex…:wink:
😎

I do see that now with the top inch of the image not really having any interesting elements to it. I was just talking to someone yesterday about how I really haven't been cropping my images at all since I started shooting large format. I've grown to love the 4x5 aspect ratio nowadays.
 

KYsailor

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That is a really nice Kallitype - beautiful tonality. I really like the neutral toning.

Well... after thinking about it a long time I took the plunge and bought a B&S Pt/Pd kit. Spent a few days linearizing a profile in QTR and ran two test prints - both about 5X7. Both came out fairly good, Dmax could be a bit better - have a tray of water in the bottom of my cabinet where I humidify my paper so the humidity was about 50-55%. Printed on HPR with the Na2 process - having done some Kallitype in the past I found this process much simpler ( but a lot more expensive) .....want to try some gum over Pt/Pd. Watched a couple of Bill Schwab videos ( so sorry to learn of his passing) and it seems fairly straightforward. I have some 5% gold chloride around from toning Kallitypes, I read that adding a drop to the Pt/Pd sensitizer would increase contrast and maybe help Dmax - anyone have any experience with that?

Image_20251120_0001.jpg



Image_20251120_0002.jpg
 
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