8x10 Cyanotype Printing - Large Format Friday

Today I'm back in the darkroom tackling an all-time classic of photography, the cyanotype process. Often one of the first alternative photographic processes people try, this is a fantastic UV printing experience for beginners. There's also plenty of variables and nuance for the seasoned veterans of the darkroom to fiddle around with to achieve the final print.
The formula I'm using is based on the "old" cyanotype process:
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#largeformat #filmphotography #darkroom
00:00 Intro
00:38 Alt Pro Recap
02:10 Cyanotype Kit
04:52 Watercolor Paper
06:10 Hand Coating
09:46 Negatives Used
10:39 1st Exposure
11:44 Rinsing Baths
13:11 Developing 1st Print
16:17 2nd Print

[@richardwilliamsiv3778]

I really enjoy Matt’s videos. He breaks everything down into digestible pieces while staying inspirational. Thank you for the great educational content.

[@MatMarrash]

Richard thank you so much for the comment, glad you're finding the series useful! :)

[@thomashobbs]

You can pre-expose the coated paper without any negative on it, for like 10 or 20 seconds and that will bring down the highlights without affecting the shadows very much. This can be useful for a very contrasty negative, to keep the highlights from becoming to pure white.

[@VC_27]

Bloody brilliant!

[@heryro]

great prints! and what an improvement!

[@michaelbailey1578]

Thanks Mat, those were nice prints.

[@rhett1734]

Looks amazing :)

[@MrDemonious]

This is interesting to watch, the first time seeing a print on a watercolor paper. Great stuff!

[@node547]

Very, very nice!

[@MatMarrash]

Thank you very much!

[@MichaelWellman1955]

Thanks Matt. Another great episode and it's great to explore the alternative process. I love doing AP (P&P, carbons). I haven't done cyanotype but it seems to have resurgence in the last few years.

[@KDIY]

Awesome video Mat. I've been making cyanotypes for a few years now but I've never been happy with the results until I used X-Ray film. When you talked about the stained negative made sense that X-Ray film prints better because of the density and the blue tint. I'll definitely gonna try the white vinegar next time.

[@MatMarrash]

Thanks Karin and glad to hear that x-ray film is working out in favor of alt process!

[@GreggObst]

I'm in the process of experimenting with my 4x10 and 8x10 negatives on Ektascan B/RA single-sided X-Ray printed as Cyanotypes. The real goal is I'm looking to tone with dark-roast Coffee, Yurba Mate tea and Black Tea and compare those results against VanDyke Brown and Kalitypes to see which works best for a body of work I've been working on. I suspect the coffee toned Cyanotypes are going to win the battle for wanted aesthetic vs pain/cost factor but time will tell.

[@lillianvalentine1975]

great print! i always love watching the peroxide hit!

[@MatMarrash]

Thanks Amanda I'd never used H2O2 until earlier this year and now I'm hooked!

[@gui4j]

nice work Marrash , time for another round of tin and wet plate ... and a bit of polaroid action too !! :D

[@brineb58]

Great to see your process, I never did double coating ... will try it now!!!

[@MatMarrash]

While it's not exactly going to shorten exposure times, it's more to guarantee that the paper's fibers have absorbed as much sensitizer as possible. I also find it reduces streaks/marks from puddled up sensitizer from coating.

[@davidottman9501]

Thank you Mat for this! So far my few, early experiments with cyanotype have not had great results but with your help, better prints are (hopefully) on the way.

[@MatMarrash]

Thanks David and fingers crossed on those next prints!

[@crocato]

❤️ ❤️ ❤️

[@dongxu2059]

Cool video! Beautiful prints. I am still learning to read the exposure on direct sun. It´s so unpredictable but so special

[@dongxu2059]

btw, I learned to use also Black tea to tone the print to something more of a Sepia look. AVOID Alkaline paper because the emulsion won´t last long. I guess by adding vinager brings the pH down to acidic and it helps also to preserve the print in the long run as well

[@MatMarrash]

Direct sun can be tricky even on clear sky days. There's a bit of a different "look" with UV printers but the LED unit has worked well so far.

[@MatMarrash]

Toning and paper preparation are deep topics in their own right! The Fabriano I use does need treatment for Pt/Pd printing, but for that process I tend to use the Hahnemuhle platinum rag (great stuff albeit pricey!).

[@Foxglove963]

@@dongxu2059 . The very best for toning cyanotypes is tannic acid. It comes as a powder, use very little, and rock the tray. The color will be different from brown printing.

[@ChristopherMay]

Another great episode, Mat. The prints look wonderful. Have you ever tried toning your cyanotypes? Would love to see an episode on that sometime!

[@MatMarrash]

Thanks Chris I haven't toned a cyanotype in years but it used to be the only way I'd print anything blue! Nowadays I'm starting to like the funky color cast, but really want to dig in deeper to alt process.

[@richardstollar4291]

I want to try Kallitype which is a similar process but personally I think the results look better

[@aikogrouleff554]

LFF is one of the weeks highlights

[@MatMarrash]

Thank you very much, I love being able to share the process and prints with you all!

[@deadpoet108]

I use PH Down (available at any Hydroponic supply). A couple of drops will acidify your development bath without the nasty smell of acetic acid or vinegar.

[@MatMarrash]

Wow thanks for the great tip! It's always the non-photography branded solutions that work the best (and save the most $$).

[@tomschellingmusic]

Thanks for this awesome video Matt! This looks fun and makes me want to give it a try. I would love to see some guidance as to how to do this process if you were using the sun rather than a UV box.

[@michaelsherck5099]

Just take the contact printing frame with the negative-paper sandwich inside outdoors and prop it up facing the sun. Check it for exposure every 5 or 10 minutes and take it back inside when done. Will probably print more quickly than in a UV exposure unit, and the print will probably be higher in contrast. Give it a try and good luck!

[@MatMarrash]

If you've got reliably sunny days where you're located, sun exposures can be a cheap way to get into alt process. Since cyanotype is a Print Out Process (POP) you can inspect the print as it's being exposed; the only hard part is keeping the negative in place/register. Like Michael outlined in his reply, a contact print frame with metal springs and a hatch back can make testing pretty easy. If you don't have one of those, you can also expose a "test strip" of coated paper with the negative and cover the exposed area a fixed amount to test for your time.

[@tomschellingmusic]

@@MatMarrash Ok, awesome, thank you! Just bought a kit, excited to give it a try! One other question to clarify-the acid, is that meant to control highlights so they don't blow out? Does that make varying degrees of acid a way to control contrast on a negative then?

[@MatMarrash]

@@tomschellingmusic You got it, it's another means of contrast control. Start w/o acid to see how it goes, and add controlled amounts from there. Happy printing!

[@olafwDE]

Great video as usual, Mat. With all these chemicals involved, it got me thinking: Could you please give some advice on how to dump used baths in an environmental friendly way in a future video? How do alternative processes compare to the silver gelatine process on that matter? What's the best process for a home photo lab with no access to professional recycling facilities? Have a great weekend y'all, and take beautiful photos.

[@milesmetcalfe94]

For the most part, in the small quantities of a home lab if you dilute the chemicals you are fine to pour them down the drain. Obviously check your local government guidance to see if they have a specific photo chemical disposal procedure but yeah mostly just down the drain after they have been diluted and the sewage plants will be able to filter and clean everything properly.

[@KDIY]

​@@milesmetcalfe94 Any chemical that has small particles of silver in it can't be filtered in the sewage plant. So fixer needs to go directly to a recycling center. It's important to share this every time somebody asks about it because Silver is considered a heavy metal. Even if you don't drink water treated by the sewage plant you can ingest it through Bioaccumulation

[@olafwDE]

@@milesmetcalfe94 As Karin points out, the dilute and dump approach is not the way. Fixer is the most problematic stuff. Not only that the silver particles will stay in the cycle, it also kills the microorganisms in the sewage plant. Here in Germany for instance, dumping nasty stuff thru the sink can get you into severe trouble with the officials. With my comment I tried to raise awareness of this issue. I follow several photo lab related channels, and I can't recall one of them ever mentioning this topic.

[@45andSingle]

Great video, Mat. I'm going to try Cyanotype printing and was wondering if you could help me with a couple of questions. I plan to scan some photos, then convert them to b&w in photoshop, and invert them to create a negative. Then I print that on a laser print transparency sheet. My question is, can you reuse a negative more than once in this process? And can you layer two negatives on top of each other in the Cyanotype process to get that double exposure effect? Thank you so much! JD

[@B3D5X]

Nicely done! I'm really into Kallitype (poor man's Platinum/Palladium) because I love the maroon/black color of the developer I use when gold toned. Albumen is fun too but it's been giving me grief lately. Another process I've been dying to try is collodio-chloride (a.k.a Aristotypes) which is coated onto baryta paper to prevent the collodion part from leaching through. Once you've printed to satisfaction, all you have to do is rinse, tone, fix, and wash. UV Photographics even sells a self-toning Aristotype emulsion. Funny you mention the Pyro stain. When you re-develop wet collodion negatives to add density it's done with Pyro also. It can give a red stain which helps filter the UV light before it hits the print, just like with your film negatives.

[@MatMarrash]

Wow Nick you've definitely got the alt process bug! I've seen and handled some collodion POP prints and they're gorgeous. One of the few prints that matches the "feel" of an ambrotype against a dark surface. The process I need to get back into after all of these years is carbon printing. Soooo much work but when you get it right, *chef's kiss*

[@B3D5X]

@@MatMarrash Ah yes. That one seems quite daunting. I'm sure you've watched Borut's videos about it though! Wouldn't it be cool if the gelatin relief stayed after drying too?

[@Foxglove963]

Nick So you are into Kallitype. Congrats! Its the most difficult photographic technique ever invented.

[@B3D5X]

@@Foxglove963 Oh really? Sure you're not thinking of Calotype? THAT one seems super difficult. I think I would also put albumen higher up than Kallitype.

[@Foxglove963]

@@B3D5X The Kallitype was invented in England by W.W.J.Nicol in 1889. The kallitype is similar in many ways to the platinum print and results in prints which can be very beautiful. But it is a very demanding and unforgiving process. The slightest impurity in chemistry, in paper, in sizing paper, temperature variations, etc, will result in failure. Seems the process that you have in mind is the simple Van Dyke brown print.

[@gregcoatesphoto]

That is very cool. Is that second negative the one from the Clifton Gorge? I used to escape to those trails while I was in college when I needed nature time. :-)

[@MatMarrash]

Thanks Greg, and you guessed it right! That's at Clifton Gorge right as you head down the big staircase towards the rapids. Such a relaxing place to go hike and take pictures.

[@TraceyMcCarriar]

I have only done a few cyanotypes. The first ones came out great and then after that, everything washed off when I put it in the water. Can you offer any tips on why that might happen? Thanks! Great video!

[@Junno1998]

Hello, This video explains everything so clearly thank you. The only question I have is if you know the ratio for the vinegar and the water when making the rinsing bath? Thanks in advance and the prints are super cool btw!

[@MatMarrash]

Hi Jonne thanks for the comment. There doesn't need to be much vinegar at all, only about 25mL per liter of water.

[@RodUSMC75]

Question: Is that Non-UV coated glass? The green tint looks like it might be. If it not non-uv you may be robbing yourself of UV.

[@MichaelLloyd]

I've been missing out. The only alt process that I've tried is Pt/Pd.

[@MatMarrash]

If Pt/Pd is alt process caviar, cyanotype and van dyke brown are peanut butter and jelly!

[@MehriJamshidi]

i used ammonium citrate brown; i could not find the green one. is it posdible?

[@jillcorr2015]

How much vinegar would you add to the bath? Any specific proportion?

[@lisabakke9280]

Thanks and did you wash in plain water after the hidrogen peroxide solution?

[@MatMarrash]

Yep you'll want to do a final wash for at least another 10 minutes to make sure any excess peroxide is out of the paper.

[@frotz661]

What does the acid in the clearing bath mean for the stability of the paper? Can it be neutralized without destroying the Prussian Blue?

[@MatMarrash]

I've never worked with any very thin papers in this process, but so far the acid is easily washed out in the final water wash. Heavier watercolor and printmaking papers are recommended since they can withstand repeated washing.

[@AHibbs-tu7ks]

The acid is eliminated in the subsequent rinsing baths. I haven’t had any trouble with the acid lingering and affecting the paper. I use vinegar or citric acid sold for canning. I test with litmus paper and make sure the pH is between 5-6.

[@johndavidwolf4239]

FYI for those who don't have a graduated shot glass, 5 ml is one teaspoon.

[@lisabakke9280]

Thanks. 30ml Hydrogen peroxide per liter?

[@MatMarrash]

Hey Lisa, thanks for watching. A little H2O2 goes a long way, ~ 30mL per Liter of water. It's an optional step, but accelerates the coloration that naturally occurs with drying time.

[@zy8719]

tell us the secrets of your hair

[@MatMarrash]

Got-2-B-Glued freeze spray, a little goes a long way!

[@ipodhty]

​@@MatMarrash i assumed it was undiluted hc 110