Soft Petals
Playing with shadows
It is a beautiful day, so no better time to go out and play with shadows and light. Today I'm making cyanotype pictures.
The English scientist and astronomer Sir John Herschel discovered the procedure in 1842. Though the process was developed by Herschel, he considered it as mainly a means of reproducing notes and diagrams, as in blueprints.
Anna Atkins created a series of cyanotype limited-edition books that documented ferns and other plant life from her extensive seaweed collection, placing specimens directly onto coated paper and allowing the action of light to create a silhouette effect. By using this photogram process, Anna Atkins is sometimes considered the first female photographer.
-Source Wikipedia
The night before I make my cyanotypes I coat my paper with a light sensitive solution and allow it to dry. I make the solution from Ferric ammonium citrate, Potassium ferricyanide and water. Because the cyanotype solution is sensitive to UV light and not artificial light, unlike a lot of darkroom photography, I can do the preparation in artificial light instead of in the dark.
For the subject of my cyanotype I have chosen these yellow poppies, their petals have lovely translucent qualities that work well with this medium.
Exposing the chemically treated paper to the UV light of the sun, the paper turns from yellow to a blue grey. The paper will stay lighter where it is not exposed to the UV light.
In the images below you can see the process of the exposed paper changing colour when placed in a water bath. The grey areas turn blue and the blue/green areas turn white.
'Soft Petals' 2017 -Cyanotype on paper
Very cool medium! Never seen anything like it. Keep up the great work !
Thank @jeffjagoe. If you like cyanotypes there a few different cyanotypes pieces in my blog or on my website http://www.opheliafu.co.uk/.
Congratulations lady @opheliafu for this beautiful work, I really like this technique, thank you very much for sharing
Thank you @jlufer, it's one of my favourite techniques.
You are indeed very clever and creative :)
You are too kind 😊!
I speak the truth :)
Wow ! I am in awe , this is incredibly beautiful artwork <3 <3 <3
That's a lovely response, thank you @fernwehninja
your most welcome for such a lovely photos <3 ^_^
I didn't know about this old procedure and using it for art. It's awesome that you bring it here for everyone to see and know the process. Stay awesome opheliafu :)
These have always been my favourite things that you do. Great stuff!!
I used to be super fascinated by pressing flower petals in phone books. And my mom taught me how to knit. I thought that was really cool too. Strange or natural?
Did you get my reply to this about flower presses? Loads of my past replies seem to be missing- or I've lost the plot!
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Oh my , this is a so poetic way to capture the essence of the nature : the leaves revealed by the sun and catched on the paper... I had heard of that technique before, but you explained it greatly ^_^)