What is a Sun Print?

Whilst the term ‘Sun Print’ can be used to describe various different ways of using the sun to either develop or fix a photograph-like image, this blog post is about the process more formally known as Cyanotype.

Cyanotype is the oldest non-silver photographic printing process and involves exposing a specially coated surface (in this case, paper) to the sun. By placing objects on top of the paper, the UV rays are partially or completely blocked in areas, leaving either a negative or positive image. Once the objects have been removed, the paper is quickly rinsed in water to ‘fix’ the image and prevent it being further affected by the sun.

In this step-by-step tutorial I will show you how to create a ‘negative’ image of a flower – this image is considered negative because once it has dried, the exposed areas of the paper will turn a vibrant Prussian blue whilst the areas covered by the flower (in this case a cosmos from my back yard – but you can use any flower you like) will remain various shades of pale blue to white.

You don’t have to limit yourself to making sun prints with flowers though, after the tutorial I will give you a few more ideas for objects to experiment with.

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