Rock monster - Toned Cyanotype print

Rock monster (toned cyanotype print) ~ Philli Overton

Sometimes presenting a finished photograph calls for more than a simple point-press-post approach. As part of my Visual Arts course through TAFE Queensland, I was able to experiment with wet and darkroom developing to present a minor portfolio of coastal themed photography. This example is a toned cyanotype produced from a photograph taken at Shelly Beach in Caloundra in April 2024.

Rock monster (photograph) ~ Philli Overton

• Camera: Olympus E-M10MarkIV
• Aperture: f/22
• Exposure: 1/20 second
• Focal lens: 150 mm
• ISO-100

The difficulty in capturing slow shutter speed images in the middle of a sunny day was offset by lowering the ISO and increasing the aperture to f/22 to capture the above softened flow of water rushing over rocks. Using a 40-150 mm lens allowed me to get close-up and force the perspective of what was really a tiny gap between the rock shelf off the headlands at Caloundra on Queensland's Sunshine Coast.

After inverting the image to produce a negative, the negative was placed over sensitized filament paper and developed under a UV lighting bed.

After exposure to UV light, the print was then washed under running water for 12 minutes before being placed in a tray of peroxide solution for 9 seconds to bring the blue of the cyanotype print to the fore. Once dry, the print was then left in a tray of water and baking soda to bleach the blue from the image, before being soaked in a tray of oak tannin solution for 25 minutes which absorbed into the filament paper where the blue once had been. After another wash under running water, the print was then left to dry and finally pressed under a hot iron to achieve the finished flat image that you see below.

The final result after a series of washes and staining with tannins.

This type of developing was once how some of the earliest known photographs were produced. The modern alternative is to simply use a sepia tone filter on your camera settings. While a modern camera may be a whole lot quicker, the experience of working with some alternative printing methods was something that I not only enjoyed but furthered my understanding of selecting which compositional elements work for different print applications.

Philli O.