PREPARING AN IMAGE FOR CYANOTYPE!

Cyanotypes can be made in a number of ways, including laying physical objects on top of paper that has been coated with a sensitized emulsion for cyanotype printing. However, you may wish to make a cyanotype of an actual photo that you have taken, and that can be done too! To be able to do this we need a film or transparency negative. A negative can be printed on a regular laser printed onto an acetate transparency, but to do so you must first prepare the image. The following tutorial will provide basic instructions on how to do so in Adobe Photoshop.

The first thing to do is open up your image of choice in Photoshop. Next, you will want to convert it to a black and white image. There are a couple of ways to do this.

The easiest way is is Image > Adjustments > Desaturate. This will simply convert to to a black and white image like so:

This can work well for some images and not as well for others. In this particular sample image, the contrast is fairly flat. To make a good looking cyanotype, we want a broad range of tones and contrast, so for this image I am going to try something a little different.

This time I am going to use Image > Adjustments > Black & White:

Initially this does not look that much different than using Desaturate, but it does give me control over the different values for each band of color (red/yellow/green/cyan/blue/magenta).

If I play with the color sliders I can really create some nice contrast in my image. In this specific example, I pulled the slider down on the reds somewhat to darken the pink background, pulled the slider down significantly on the blues to make the blue grid nice and dark, and pushed the slider up for the yellows to make the hands stand out a bit more. Once the image looks how I like it, I can simply click OK.

Once I have my image converted to black and white, I now need to make it a negative. This is quickly achieved by using Image > Adjustments > Invert. My result will now look like a negative image like so:

Now that I have a negative image I need to resize it for printing. You will be provided with paper in class to make two cyanotypes. The size of this paper is approximately 7.5 x 11 inches (18.7cm x 27.5cm). On that size of paper, you can reasonably print an image as large as 6 x 9 inches (15cm x 22.5cm). If you would like, you can cut your paper in half to 7.5 x 5.5 inches to be able to make more prints, just smaller in size. On that size of paper you can reasonably print an image that is about 4x6 inches.

Once I know what size I plan to make my cyanotype, I can resize the image accordingly.

First, I select Image > Adjustments > Image Size.

The first thing I want to do when the dialog box pops up is to set the Resolution to 300 pixels/inch if it is not already. You must do this first!

After I have set the Resolution, I can change the width and height. By default, if I change the value of one, Photoshop will automatically adjust the other to match. In this case, I changed the width to 8 inches, and Photoshop automatically adjusted the height to 6 inches. Once I click OK, my image will be resized to 8x6 inches at 300 pixels/inch.

My image has now been resized, so the last step is to save as  a new file and take it to be printed.

Click File > Save As...

When the dialog box pops up, make sure you set the Format to JPEG, give the file a name of your choice, and click save!

Now that the negative image is prepared for print, you can take it to the printing station in the basement floor of the library, along with the transparency provided to you in class. They should be able to print onto the transparency for you using the bypass tray on one of the printers. It may also be possible to take your file and transparency to a copy shop who can provide the same service.

Once you have your printed transparency, you can bring it to class and you will be able to make a cyanotype of the image. It is both an exciting process as well as interesting to see how an image changes in appearance as a cyanotype!