Cyanotypes!

I’ve always loved those dreamy blue-and-white prints you see in art galleries, so when I discovered you could make cyanotypes at home, I had to try it.

Here’s what I did: I ordered some cyanotype paper from Amazon (there are tons of options) and grabbed a UV lamp while I was at it. The cool part? You don’t need a darkroom or fancy equipment. Just a printer, some transparent thermal paper, and a bit of patience.

The idea is pretty simple. First, I took a photo I wanted to print and inverted it on my computer to create a negative – blacks become whites, whites become blacks. Then I printed this negative onto transparent thermal paper using my regular inkjet printer. Make sure you get transparent thermal paper specifically designed for printing; regular transparency film doesn’t work the same way.

Once I had my negative, I placed it directly on top of the cyanotype paper and put them both under my UV lamp. The transparent negative acts as a mask – where it’s dark, it blocks UV light, and where it’s clear, light gets through. After exposing it, I rinsed the cyanotype paper in water, and like magic, this gorgeous Prussian blue image appeared.

Here’s the tricky part: exposure time. Too short and your image is washed out. Too long and you lose all your detail in dark blues.

I started with test strips – cutting small pieces of cyanotype paper and exposing them for different times (5 minutes, 10 minutes, 15 minutes). I kept notes on each one. My UV lamp needed about 12 minutes to get the contrast just right, but yours might be different depending on your lamp’s strength and how dense your negative is.

The best part? Once you nail down your timing, you can print consistently beautiful images =)