Comments on: Cet article n’est pas disponible en français

By: Fabiano Busdraghi

Fabiano Busdraghi — Tue, 28 Oct 2008 09:23:31 +0000

Hi Loris,
I use the classical Cyanotype. Ware’s cyanotype is a little bit more complex and toxic, and one thing i love about classical cyanotype is its semplicity and lack of toxicity.

But maybe to obtain black cyanotype it is the only possible way.

Thank you again for reading and your suggestions.
Fabiano

By: Loris Medici

Loris Medici — Mon, 13 Oct 2008 11:12:39 +0000

BTW, which Cyanotype formula do you use? IME, Ware’s cyanotype split toned with sodium carbonate + tannic acid gives nice dmax and close to neutral shadows…

By: Loris Medici

Loris Medici — Mon, 13 Oct 2008 10:41:11 +0000

Ciao Fabiano,

It is by chance that I ended up here; I was looking for information about Massimo Attardi (and his method of printing on wood), it happens that you’ve made an interview with him…

Nice site and good effort; keep going -> will see the Italian section too… (My Italian is “cosi cosi” compared to my English - I’m not speaking it since my childhood…)

Regards,
Loris.

By: Fabiano Busdraghi

Fabiano Busdraghi — Sun, 12 Oct 2008 05:26:06 +0000

Hi Loris,
thank you very much for reading and commenting. In the past I read a lot of your posts on the Alt-photo-process mailing list and I know you are a great expert. I hope you will came back to Camera Obscura, I’m translating all the posts in English, but it takes a lot of time!

Thank you for the hint on the acid too. It is a shame that gallic acid is much more difficult to find than tannic acid.

It is sure that you can not make Pt/Pd prints with cyanotype, each technique has its own characteristics and beauty. But I’m not especially interested in the precise characteristics of the print, I print in Pd because it is black and relatively easy, in other cases I prefer carbon prints. If i can turn a cyanotype in a more neutral print with reasonable hight dmax it would be an interesting and cheap alternative to Pt/Pd. Not the same, but a technique that can satisfy my needs.

I don’t own the nice Mike Ware book, but I read it some years ago.

By: Loris Medici

Loris Medici — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 14:13:28 +0000

Hint: Change the tannic acid to gallic acid. You’ll get an image formed by “iron gall ink”. (See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iron_gall_ink for more info about the ink…) Unfortunately it eates the paper in the long term.

BTW, I don’t believe you can get the delicacy of Pt/Pd by toning Cyanotypes to black (even if you manage to do it successfully); simply because the tonal progression is not that soft -> especially in the highlights. You can’t beat a Pt/Pd print’s highlights with any other process… Full stop.

As a last note: As you’re so into Cyanotype, I think you should definitely buy Mike Ware’s book “Cyanotype”.

By: Fabiano Busdraghi

Fabiano Busdraghi — Wed, 26 Sep 2007 10:07:14 +0000

Ciao Mauro,
grazie per la visita e l’apprezzamento. Il feed è nella colonna di destra sotto la voce “Meta”.

By: MauroBs

MauroBs — Wed, 26 Sep 2007 09:54:36 +0000

Beh che dire?? Viva la serendipità.. una teoria che appoggio appieno sopratutto in campo fotografico…
Vai Fabusdr.. esaustivo e sperimentale come sempre..
molto utili tutti i tuoi consigli.

P.s. non è che hai un feed Rss così mi arrivano tutti i nuovi articoli in mail??

Bye