Cyanotypes were most famously used by Anna Atkins in her book British Algae: Cyanotype Impressions. This was the first ever book that was illustrated with photographs, which made here a pioneer of this new art. Cyanotypes were one of the first kinds of photographs that didn't require a camera to make. This means they perfectly describe the word "photography". photo=light, graph=draw, so photography means "drawing with light".
Anna Atkins was an expert illustrator of plants. She discovered cyanotypes after meeting a British inventor who goes by the name of Fox Talbot. Atkins neighbour was Sir John Herschel, an astronomer. He discovered that a paper soaked in a complicated iron salt solution, when exposed to a UV light, for example, the Sun, captured a blue "negative" image after the salt has been washed away. Obviously, Herschel named these Cyanotypes or Blueprints.
Advantages of Cyanotypes
Cyanotypes are quite cheap and they are easy to use. A lot of surfaces can be coated with these chemicals needed and you don't need any equipment that you've never heard of or might struggle to find.
Anna Atkins was an expert illustrator of plants. She discovered cyanotypes after meeting a British inventor who goes by the name of Fox Talbot. Atkins neighbour was Sir John Herschel, an astronomer. He discovered that a paper soaked in a complicated iron salt solution, when exposed to a UV light, for example, the Sun, captured a blue "negative" image after the salt has been washed away. Obviously, Herschel named these Cyanotypes or Blueprints.
Advantages of Cyanotypes
Cyanotypes are quite cheap and they are easy to use. A lot of surfaces can be coated with these chemicals needed and you don't need any equipment that you've never heard of or might struggle to find.
Here is an example of a cyanotype on a mattress that had been soaked in chemicals. Cyanotype, or Blueprint, was used here to capture the outline of a person laying down.
This is a slideshow of some of Anna Atkins cyanotypes.
Here are the two cyanotypes I successfully created in one of my photography lessons:
The first one worked better then the second one because the first cyanotype had the right amount of objects, showing just the right amount of both white and blue, whereas the second one had too many objects and therefore there was too much white in the cyanotype. Also, because the first cyanotype didn't have too many objects so you can see the shapes very well.