Cyanotype Printing

The Cyanotype process was the first workable photographic process. It was first used by Sir John Herschel in 1842! It uses light sensitive iron compounds to make stunning blue images. Eventually it was replaced by other processes, but lived on in the manufacture of engineering drawings, hence the term "blueprint".

Today the Cyanotype process lives on for two reasons. Firstly, it is one of the easiest of the "Alternative Photography" processes to master. (Alternative Photography is the group of processes used by photographers before silver gelatin film and paper became the norm in the 1900's). Secondly, the vivid blue makes for stunning photograms and images, that look quite unlike most images that we come across today.

In this course, you will learn to:

* prepare the paper and chemistry
* make photogram images - beautiful shadow copies of items around us
* make a cyanotype photograph from a digital image on your camera or phone