12 Different Cyanotype Tones Compared

(click on image to make it larger)

1.  Overexposed.  No Bleach.  Very long tannic acid bath.

2.  Brief bleach.  Long tannic acid bath.

3.  Medium bleach (half of cyan color left, half gone).  Long tannic acid bath.

4.  Bleach all cyan color out.  Tannic acid bath.

5.  Long bleach (almost all cyan color gone except in darkest shadows).  Tannic acid and coffee mix for toning bath.

6.  Medium bleach (half of cyan color left, half gone).  Tannic acid and coffee mix for toning bath.

7.  No bleach.  Coffee bath over night (about 7 hours).

8.  Completely bleach all cyan color out.  Coffee bath for about 2 hours.

9.  No Bleach.  Coffee and tannic acid bath for about 3 hours.

10.  Long bleach (almost all cyan color gone except in darkest shadows).  Coffee and tannic acid bath for about 3 hours.

11.  Completely bleach all cyan color out.  Black tea bath for about 3 hours.

12.  No bleach.  No tone.  Native cyan color.

Notes:

* The bleaching solution used was Borax in water.

* The tannic acid solution is from Bostick & Sullivan.  It is part of their bleaching/toning kit.  It is cyanotype toning solution B.

* The coffee is a dark roast.  I do not remember the brand.  I brewed an entire pot.

*  The tea is Tetley classic black tea. 

*  All the images had a standard exposure time of 10 minutes, with the exception of #1, which had a 12 minute exposure time.

*  The prints were scanned with an Epson Perfection V500 PHOTO scanner.  All color corrections were turned off so things might look a little bit flat.  But, while considering the differences that exist with each person's monitor, web compression, and jpeg compression, I decided to leave the images alone so that, even though they are a little dull, the relative differences would be preserved for comparative analysis.