Alternative process printing anyone?

[Jake67]

Anyone here ever print cyanotype, vandyke brown, kallitype, etc? I have a vandyke kit with gold toner on order. My ultimate goal is to learn Platinum/palladium printing.

For those not familiar with with these processes, generally they are done via contact printing. The negative is the same size as the print. Prints are made by coating watercolor paper with the photographic emulsion with a paintbrush, sandwiching the negative against the coated paper, and exposing it to a UV light source. (most commonly, the sun)

This is a very analog process by the way. So much so that most of the techniques go back to the beginning of photography itself.

Platinum/Palladium prints are very beautiful. Almost 3D prints with huge tonal range. Here's an example.(Not mine. Just posted here so you all can see.)

Again, this is chemistry coated on watercolor paper and exposed by the sun:



edit: by the way, yes you can do this with a digital camera! You just have to create a negative and print it on transparency. In a lot of ways, it would be easier with a dslr because you'd get to skip all the steps that involve film. A lot of people who do these shoot with large format cameras to get a big negative without enlarging. I plan on scanning images taken with my 67II and having the negs enlarged digitally.

[Wheatfield]

Digital imaging has really opened up the possibilities for alternative printing because it is no longer necessary to have a big camera to make a big negative (most alternative processes want contact printing because of slow emulsions).
I did some gum bichromate printing many, many years ago, my method back then was to enlarge a 35mm negative onto a sheet of film, and then contact print the resulting positive to get a negative for printing.
As you mentoned, not it's a fairly simple process to output an inkjet negative.
The only thing that might be an issue is if you are using a colour inkset to create your monochrome negative you might end up with wonky results. Many of the older processed have very limited colour responses.
You might want to dedicate a printer to creating negatives and go to a custom quad tone black ink set.

[HGMonaro]

I dabble in Vandyke Browns and Cyanotypes. Currently got some cyanotype brewing in the cupboard (code for I've got some mixed I haven't used for a while!). I've also got some nice papers to use as a local shop was selling pads of it quite cheap. I had used 4x5" negs (as that's the only view camera I have) and enlarged inkjets 'neg' on OHP film for larger images. If doing this, you need a OHP media that the inkjet will dry on. There's a brand that specifically is for this but I can't think of the name. I used generic stuff and if you held the transparency film upright while waiting for it to dry, the ink would all run down the page! Not what I was wanting! If never truely dried either.

I have a couple of platium/palladium print I've received in print exchanges and they can be a thing of beauty! Also have a stunning cyanotype I received in a print-swap, much better than anything I'm managed (I use it as a reference to what's possible!!!)

Cheers, Nige

[Wombat]

I absolutely adore platinum/palladium prints. You can actually emulate the effect in Photoshop. See this site - CodeIdol - Thinking about Photoshop Fine Arts Effects Cookbook - PHOTOGRAPHERS - the effects are not a bad imitation at all. I get the best results from scanned b&w film negatives, but with care you can get good results from a dslr. Still, I'm going to try the process of making OHP negs and contact printing. There's something about that old hands-on stuff that has a magic of its own.

Thanks for starting this thread. I'll follow it with interest.

There's a nice bluegrass tune from your area, Roanoke. Hard to play on mandolin, but good to listen to Sam Bush or Dave Grisman playing it.

[Jake67]

Most bluegrass tunes are from my area! This region is the world capitol of mountain music. If you're into bluegrass, there are tons of festivals that happen each year in the area.

Edit- your in AUS. You should visit the southeast one day. It's beautiful over here.

[Wombat]

It's on my list of places I must see before I die. I'm the world's worst bluegrass mando player, but I just love the stuff - can't get enough of it - and Virginia is without doubt the place to go to bathe in it.

[Jake67]

Originally Posted by Wombat

It's on my list of places I must see before I die. I'm the world's worst bluegrass mando player, but I just love the stuff - can't get enough of it - and Virginia is without doubt the place to go to bathe in it.

The Galax, VA bluegrass festival is the biggest one.