Trouble with Cyanotypes

So I tried making a cyanotype today for the first time and got pretty poor results so I'm trying to figure out what I'm doing wrong.

The recipe I used to mix the chemicals came from "The Book of Alternative Photographic Processes" by Christopher James. The recipe is as follows:

Cyanotype Stock A
200g ferric ammonium citrate
1000ml distilled water

Cyanotype Stock B
80g potassium ferricyanide
1000ml distilled water

I let the two solutions sit for 24 hours then mixed them, then coated a sheet of watercolor paper with a paint brush, creating three coats of the solution.

Then I lay a leaf over the watercolor paper and exposed it on a UV light table for 25 minutes.

When I went to rise the paper the image simply washed away in the water. I used distilled water to rinse the paper and it totally disappeared. I've attached some images of how the process looked. Any ideas where I'm going wrong here?

I haven't made a lot of cyanotypes but I have used the traditional formula and coated my own paper. My unexposed paper is light green. Some types of paper just don't work very well. Everyone seems to have a favourite. In my case I think I was just lucky. My first choice worked.

Here a few photos of my process. I have only ever used sunlight for exposure. The example below was coated on to Daler Rowney Langton 300gsm hot pressed watercolour cartridge paper with a little tween added to the coating mixture. Coating was done in a tray using a paintbrush but really saturating the coated surface and allowing it to drip off. Only one coat applied. Washing was in a tray under subdued light using gently running tap water.

Paper hanging to dry under safelight in darkroom



Paper being exposed outside



Washed print

10mwboyle said:

So I tried making a cyanotype today for the first time and got pretty poor results so I'm trying to figure out what I'm doing wrong.

The recipe I used to mix the chemicals came from "The Book of Alternative Photographic Processes" by Christopher James. The recipe is as follows:

Cyanotype Stock A
200g ferric ammonium citrate
1000ml distilled water

Cyanotype Stock B
80g potassium ferricyanide
1000ml distilled water

I let the two solutions sit for 24 hours then mixed them, then coated a sheet of watercolor paper with a paint brush, creating three coats of the solution.

Then I lay a leaf over the watercolor paper and exposed it on a UV light table for 25 minutes.

When I went to rise the paper the image simply washed away in the water. I used distilled water to rinse the paper and it totally disappeared. I've attached some images of how the process looked. Any ideas where I'm going wrong here?

Click to expand...

i've been having trouble too different recipe different problem LOL
your troubles might be because you aren't exposing it long enough ... the paper should be
confederate grey ( or is it blue ) when you rinse it ... as svenedin mentioned your paper
might be buffered. sometimes watercolor and other papers have sodium carbonate and other
good-stuff in there to offset the acidification process you might have to poke around to
see what papers work best... i sometimes use the cheapest paper i can find .. coffee filters, envelopes i have lying around
( who mails letters anymore anyways ! ) newsprint, and this borden & reily stuff called "velum" and "butcher paper"
that you can find either online or through wallys or any big department type store that sells arts/crafts supply. the closest to the
stack i have is sold by a company called alex art supply or something like that ...
my problem is probably humidity im not using a uv bank but the sun and the paper turns blue before i can wash it LOL

have fun!
john

I can tell by the look of the coated and unexposed paper that that paper isn't absorbing the chemicals well. It's very blotchy. It could be that you're trying to apply too much emulsion to it. In any case, I'd use fewer coats of emulsion (I usually use one, rarely two, never three or more).

I'd also try a different paper. I find matte inkjet presentation paper works really well, and is usually cheap and easy to come by. They have a microporous coating that does an amazing job of soaking in just the right amount of emulsion, and are able to produce higher detail than any other paper I've tried. The down side is they tend to be pretty thin, so they're fragile to work with, and can't often be used for things like toned cyanotypes or gum over cyanotype. Strathmore 400 series Mixed Media paper also works pretty well, is a good bit thicker and more durable, and doesn't require any prep work like sizing or acidifying. The problem with watercolor paper is it often needs some prep work to get great results from it, though most shouldn't wash completely off the page.

I'd also try longer exposures if you want to try that paper again. And make sure it's completely dry before trying to expose it. If the emulsion is still wet when you expose it, it'll just wash off. With my UV lights, I can expose a cyanotype in about 3 minutes. But I tried it once with a black light, and even 2 hours wasn't long enough. You're UV light table may not be putting out enough UV light in the right band of the spectrum. You might try using the sun first. With the sun, depending on the weather, time of day, and season, I can usually get a cyanotype exposed in around 3-15 minutes where I live during the middle of a clear day.

The unexposed paper should have a light yellow greenish colour, blue or green indicates chemical fogging. Just to be sure: The ferricyanide was a red powder and the iron(III) citrate was greenish?. I am asking since I have never seen a coated paper with such a brownish colour. As the others said starting with the sun is a good idea, since it allows you to monitor the process and therefore check if the sensitizer works.
-martin-

a) Try different papers, some papers do not work so good.
b) Add some citric acid to your wash water.
c) Add a few drops of Tween 20 (diluted with water to 50%) or other detergent (e.g. Photo-Flo)* to your "emulsion", to ensure that the liquid subsides in the paper.
d) Additionally after coating, let the paper rest horizontally for a few (5 min) minutes in the "wet state", then I use a heat gun (120°C) to blow it dry; Distance 20 to 25 cm and no over heating of the paper, through moving the heat gun.

*= even dish washing liquid can work...but you have to try it....

Alternatively I made an "new" recipe, because at some workshops I had the same problems....see (in English):
http://illumina-chemie.de/chemigrams-and-co-t4590-s15.html#72786
which worked very fine with only one disadvantage: At the coating, the mixture gets a little slabby on the paper, so for my stock solutions (1000 ml) I reduced the amount of gelatin to 4% see (in German) http://illumina-chemie.de/chemigrams-and-co-t4590-s15.html#72823

Variants which have worked, because I tried it:

1. Replacement of the glutaraldehyde through formaldehyde with concentrations of 0.2% in Stock A. I do not know if this amount is enough for hardening the gelatin, but it´s enough as preservative for the solution and according to the EU cosmetic direktive "ANNEX V LIST OF PRESERVATIVES ALLOWED IN COSMETIC PRODUCTS" it is here allowed.
2. Omitting the hardening agents completely and make the wash in really cold water. Disadvantage, the layer is sensitive to water flow and touching when wet.....

Variant which will work eventually (Not tried):
Size your paper with 3% gelatin solution, even with out hardener...after drying apply your emulsion...

Bj68

The recipe of Christopher James is fine.That not the problem. The biggest problem is your three coat. The 2e and 3e coating are not connected with the paper, they just lay loose on top, so they wash away.
Another thing to try is not to develop in plain water from tap. Tap water in my region is slightly alkalic (pH8), That not fine for cyanotype. Just ad a little acid (0,5 %). Any acid 'll work, but acids also different a bit in results. I get best result with hydrochloric acid or citric acid.
And as alway said, try different papers ! Any-one has it's favourites. Most aquarel paper are working, I like the hot pressed versions (like Dutch 'Terschelling' from Schut)

White vinegar is a good, cheap, safe, and easy to find acid. My tap water is slightly acidic, so I don’t usually acidity my water. Plus using acid in the wash tends to boost the contrast, and I’m usually trying to lessen the contrast. But you could try that to see if it works before investing in another type of acid. You may already have some.