But which process?

[Dave miller]

Originally Posted by Phil

SNIP - how much do you think starting in Platinum would cost ?
P

Too much! Quite eye-watering in fact.

[Trevor Crone]

Yes, Pt/Pd is bloody expensive. I managed to get just over 100ml of Pd solution for £90 on Ebay from a guy who was selling up. 25ml of Pt solution cost me over £100 from the States Then there is the cost of paper and all the other solutions required for the process.

[Akki14]

Starting it? As in set flat cost? Probably... roughly.. £200? The platinum/palladium salts willl cost at least around $100 USD plus customs fees/tax, plus the developer chemical etc... Not done it but vaguely looked at costs for it.

[Akki14]

Oh I was slightly off there. Ouch. I guess £200 really only covers the salts...

Lumen isn't what I call a sunprint, Dave. Sunprint paper is just commerical blueprint/cyanotype paper. Lumen is photographic colour or B&W paper that is left out in the sun, then either scanned (shh) or toned and fixed. Toner isn't exactly cheap though, especially as I see gold toner recommended for lumen prints most often and that's around £26/bottle.

[Dave miller]

Originally Posted by Akki14

Oh I was slightly off there. Ouch. I guess £200 really only covers the salts...

Lumen isn't what I call a sunprint, Dave. Sunprint paper is just commerical blueprint/cyanotype paper. Lumen is photographic colour or B&W paper that is left out in the sun, then either scanned (shh) or toned and fixed. Toner isn't exactly cheap though, especially as I see gold toner recommended for lumen prints most often and that's around £26/bottle.

I've always called using old photopaper Sunprints, because that's how we made them, in the sun. Trouble was, as young kids, we didn't have any fixer, or indeed any idea what that was, so they never did last long.

[Michael]

You could also do a hell of a lot worse than buy a copy of Spirits of salts by Randall Webb and this forum's Martin Reed. You'll get it for £15.50 from Firstcall. It covers a lot of what you might find yourself doing.

Yu can't get Mike Ware's cyanotype book without spending silly money (I was silly but meant to be). Christopher James's book is ultra-quirky but informative.

[Akki14]

Quite a lot of information is on Mike Ware's website for cyanotype and some other alternative processes (although I disagree with his thoughts on traditional cyanotype).
http://www.mikeware.co.uk/mikeware/main.html
Mostly it's a good resource for silly little factoids relating to the cyanotype process though

[Dave miller]

Originally Posted by Akki14

Quite a lot of information is on Mike Ware's website for cyanotype and some other alternative processes (although I disagree with his thoughts on traditional cyanotype).
http://www.mikeware.co.uk/mikeware/main.html
Mostly it's a good resource for silly little factoids relating to the cyanotype process though

With apologies to Mike Ware. I think he managed to turn a simple process into a rather complicated one; I've never managed to finish reading his book on the subject.

[Akki14]

I've met Dr. Ware once last year. He's a very nice man. I disagree with his "bad points of traditional cyanotype" laid out in his online version of Cyanotype II. I have detailed my disagreement previously in this forum section, it's hiding under Tom Kershaw's topic, the title of which escapes me but it is about why traditional and why not cyanotype II.
And frankly at the end of the day it's all a way of getting prussian blue on some paper so if mine are not the absolute, beall, endall of perfect tonal range, so be it. It's unique to the process.

And you should at least skim for anything with a footnote/citation. Those tend to be the gems of factoids.

[Phil]

Och bugger it - can't be bothered with all this, think I'll just go inkjet instead
No, seriously again folks, thanks for all the info - shame the platinum is out, but never mind - could well be cyano or salt, have to weigh up the pros of each. Must admit I am not overtly keen on the heavy blue of cyano (sorry Heather ) but it does look like a realtively cost-friendly way of learning my chops. Has anyone tried Carbon?
Again, this forum comes up with great answers, so thanks to all.
Cheers
Phil