Alternative Processes – Using Your Mobile Phone To Create Cyanotypes

As our regular readers will know, we have been looking at alternative post processing of mobile images for sometime. We have a Flickr group dedicated to this and we publish tutorials and additional information to help you make hard copies of your mobile images using alternative processes. We have published several articles already to our new section, see here.

We’re delighted to be working closer with Matt Shapoff of Handmade on Peconic Bay (HMPB) fame. Shapoff originally an engineering student before attending of the photo department of NYU – he knew where his passion lay, he switched majors and used his engineering knowledge to experiment with photography. Shapoff received his Masters at NYU in Interactive Telecommunications – he uses both degrees,  every day.

HMPB is an eco-conscious design lab dedicated to creative experimentation, mixing 19th century printmaking with 21st century digital design. Inspired by natural curiosities, Shapoff creates modern vintage photographic prints, up-cycled framed art, handmade paper goods and accessories, including silk and cotton scarves and tote bags and fabulous cyanotype printing. He really is a talented guy and we’re not the only ones that think so, he’s also now working closely with Martha Stewart and we know he’s put in a good word for us 😉 In this first elementary tutorial Shapoff captured images using his iPhone which he then uses to create cyanotypes prints, don’t miss this. Over to you Matt (foreword by Joanne Carter).

“Simply put, cyanotype printing involves placing found objects, acetate or transparency film, or photo negatives onto a chemically sensitized printing surface, then laying the printing surface in the sun, where the UV light reacts with the chemicals on the paper to create a blue hue. The places on the printing surface not touched by sun—where the printing surface was covered by the objects or negative—show up white because the chemicals did not have anything to react with. The result is a cyan-blue print that is natural, organic, and stunning.

The process begins to sound a little more complicated when you bring up the chemicals that are used to sensitize the paper in the first place. Ferric ammonium citrate (a green powder) and potassium ferricyanide 121120PriNt ColleCtive(a red powder) are mixed with water, and then with each other, to create the final cyanotype solution that is applied to the printing surface. For the beginner, however, there are many options to make the chemical-mixing process easier. For example, you can buy cyanotype sensitizer, which has pre-measured amounts of the required chemicals for more straightforward mixing. Or you could go one step farther and visit your local science museum—a basic solar print kit includes a piece of already sensitized paper so you don’t have to worry about any chemicals at all. There is also a product called Inkodye by Lumi, which is actually not cyanotype printing because it uses a different ink mixture; however, Inkodye reacts to UV light in a similar manner, so you can learn the process without mixing any chemicals.