Cyanotype Toning
 

Just completed my first tests in Cyanotype toning, perhaps not the best subject for Cyanotype, but a neg that I had to hand.

I had seen a video on toning where they did not bleach back the print prior to toning, it went straight from the final wash into the toner I thought I would give it a go.

As I had nothing else to hand I used tea and coffee as the two toners, the results were pretty much what I had been expecting.

The tea altered the blue to I guess a blue black and also stained the colour of the paper, giving it a warmer feeling

The coffee also changed the blue to blue black, but seemed to do it much quicker and did not stain the paper.

I have attached scans below.

Next thing is to coat some more paper and repeat the toning with a bleach bath and see what (if anything) the difference is.
Ian

They look really good.

It depend what you are looking for from your toning you could try double toning tea then coffee or vise versa.

Well done on experimenting Ian. It is often the only real way that one will find out 'What will happen if?...'

Pictures in books and on screens rarely capture the real essence of something that can be held and seen in the hands.

You have prompted me to add this process to my ever growing list of things to try... :)

Oh, and I meant to say, I really like the tea toned print. I find it really interesting that both the tea and the coffee toners change the blue tones totally. I do wonder if the toning works because both are weak acids? For I have found that trying to tone in an alkaline, like sodium carbonate / washing soda, it bleaches my prints, rather than intensify the blues, as I have seen written elsewhere.

Terry S

great looking prints Ian I didn't know what Cyanotype was so I looked on YouTube ,and found this man it was very interesting..... In Camera Cyanotype Tutorial Alternative Process Photography
by Raychristofer .
also I see the dog is getting involved :D every time I get my cameras out all my dogs disappear :slap:. as much as I love my dogs I cannot wait to photograph real people :D:D

Thanks for the replies.

Mitch - thanks for the idea of doubling up, hadn't thought of that something else to try.

Terry - I've bought a small batch of sodium carbonate powder to use as my bleach, and as far as I can work out it will turn the print into a pale yellow at which point is bleached to the maximum. I've read somewhere that it is possible to expose to the max then bleach back to get a yellow (ish) print. We'll see how it goes.

Paul - thanks for the link, I built myself a pinhole 5x4 last year, wonder if that will work in there, guess it would need and exposure of many hours, but I don't think you can over expose so the longer the better. It would be real easy to load even if I ended up having to tape the paper on the 5x4 back and use it without the dark slide. Now you've got me thinking. Hmmmmmmmm. Something for the summer and sunny days.

Ian

Thanks for the examples, Ian. Well done & showing that a rather simple solution of toning is possible. Want to try Cyanos once as well & definitely not all in blue. Though I am a big Blues fan. :-)
Frank

Toning with bleaching
 

Finally got round to having a go at bleaching and toning.

I have attached the results for anyone interested to have a look at.

They are
bleached only (not bleached all the way back, just until the blue changed colour)
bleached and toned in coffee (bleached back as far as I thought I could get away with and then toned)
bleached and toned in tea (bleached back as far as I thought I could get away with and then toned)

Used about half a teaspoon of sodium carbonate to 1 litre of water as the bleach, think this was maybe too strong as bleaching action was very quick

The results seem to mirror the first set that I posted, only with a little less definition.

I'm pretty sure that I prefer the original ones where they were toned without bleaching.

Ian

Here's all six in the same place as I think it will be easier to compare rather than on two separate posts.

Well there's a surprise, now that they are all side by side, there is more difference than I thought.

In order they are
original
coffee toned
tea toned
bleached
bleach coffee toned
bleached tea toned

Ian

Me too.

Yep, I like the first set as well. Quite a lot of contrast seems to have been lost in the bleached back prints.

The one done in the tea of the second set I think holds up as the best out of the second three, as it hasn't quite been as bleached back as far as the other second two.

It's great to see you experimenting and letting us all see the results though Ian. It's only by doing these type of tests, do you find out personally what happens and which process you like and maybe not like so much.

Great stuff! :)

Terry S