Cyanotypes: Printing with the Sun

A perfect summertime activity for the photography-minded is making cyanotypes. I was introduced to this process in my photography class a few weeks ago and got to make a couple of them for the course and found myself instantly hooked.

Basically, a UV-reactive, iron-based emulsion is applied to a heavy watercolor-type paper (or fabric or even wood or eggshells), allowed to dry, and then decorative materials are placed on top of the paper, a clear sheet of glass or acrylic is placed on top of that, and it is all exposed to the sun or an artificial UV light source for a period of time (usually a few minutes). Then the glass and other items are removed from the paper, the paper is washed in cool water, and the paper is dried. What is left behind is a bright, blue print and an impression of whatever was placed on the paper. The images are really striking.

I did a little investigation and discovered I could buy pre-treated papers, saving myself the trouble of mixing up the chemistry and treating the paper myself, so I bought papers in a variety of sizes and colors, and started playing cyanotypes on my own. I found Cyanotype Store papers from B&H Photo were affordable and make great images. For the glass, I used a piece of glass from a picture frame I got at a thrift store and used gaffers tape to tape it to a piece of thin particle board, making an improvised contact printing frame. I have been using this in my darkroom to make contact sheets, and it works well.

First, I did the easiest type of cyanotype — placing found objects like leaves, flowers, keys, coins, lace, etc. on the paper and seeing what sort of images I would get.

The first cyanotype I made in my photography course using botanicals

Cyanotypes on top made with hydrangea, lace, and confetti. The one on the bottom is lace and photo negatives of roses.

Then I tinkered with using vellum and acetate paper art ephemera I had bought at the craft store for my collage work. Some of that worked really well, and some didn’t. It depended on how translucent the material was. Too clear, and it doesn’t show up. Too opaque, and it just leaves an outline with no detail. The vellum pieces, which are very much like photo negatives, worked well, so of course I had to work with film negatives. At first, I used some of my medium format 6x6 negatives. These were really successful.

These are all cyanotypes utilizing different pieces of pre-cut paper art ephemera made from vellum or acetate.

These are cyanotypes made from 120 film negatives of images of roses.

Then I learned that some folks make digital negatives on transparencies they print on inkjet printers and make much larger cyanotypes from these digital negatives. This process involves buying a special type of transparency film (I used Pictorico) and taking a digital image, making it monochrome, inverting it into a negative, mirroring the image, and printing it onto the transparency. This transparency is placed on top of the cyanotype paper. My first experiment worked really well, even though I didn’t really know what I was doing.

This cyanotype was made from a digital negative I made from one of my own photos of trees growing out of a sidewalk at the side of a shopping center.

Now that I’ve learned a bit more, I’ve really gone down a rabbit hole and am investigating the possibility of getting a better printer more suited to making digital negatives — not only so I can make cyanotypes but also so I can make negatives of my husband’s digital work and make silver gelatin prints of it in the Guerilla Darkroom.

I’m also considering doing cyanotypes with a group of faculty I work with at school that is interested in mindfulness practice. There is something very satisfying about the process, and it requires some patience as you wait for the sun to work its magic and then for the paper to dry. I think it would be a lovely practice to bring to the group.

Since discovering “sun prints,” I have found artists on BlueSky like @castingoutloud.bsky.social who do amazing cyanotype work. They’ve shown me there is a lot to learn and experiment with. I’m so happy I was introduced to this alternative photographic process.