Van Dyke Brown - next project

Hello all,

At the beginning of class on Wednesday the 13th, we will spend a few minutes looking at the Van Dyke Brown prints that you have thus far.  We will also look at any final Cyanotype prints.

On Wednesday February  20th, we will have a critique of your VDB prints. 2 prints of original, new imagery.

So, you will have to create at least two new negatives and print/reduce/tone them until you get them as desired. You will have to use class time effectively and possibly come in to the lab outside of class to pull this off.

SILVER NITRATE STAINS SKIN - BE CAREFUL WHEN MIXING THE SOLUTION.
ALS0- DONT USE ANY BRUSHES WITH METAL WHEN APPLYING THE SOLUTION AS A CHEMICAL REACTION MAY OCCUR.

Wikipedia summary of the process

Great write - up of the process

A great resource on the process including how to chemically reduce the prints after they dry.

Nice article on Van Dyke Brown including information on chemical reduction and toning.
There is also a really great step by step write up to make a negative for VDB prints. VDB prints are very flat by nature. I read somewhere that it is like printing onto Grade 1 photo paper. So, you have to make a very high contrast negative to account for this.If you use your negatives that you made for Cyanotypes, you can expect to get very flat prints. Given the color of VDB prints, they will really look like mud. Here is the article about how to make the curve for VDB.

Beyond the Blues - good overview of the process and ideas for combining the process with Cyanotypes

Orgins of the name

Another nice write up on the process with an emphasis on making archival VDB prints

More notes on the archival processing pertaining to VDB