Start protecting yourself on the web at www.NordVPN.com/nilered or use code NILERED and save 77%!
In this video, I'll be using the ferric ammonium citrate that I made to make "blueprints" of my own digital photos. Then, at the end, I'll try toning them with tea and coffee to change the color.
This process is called cyanotype or "blueprinting"
This video is the last in a series of 3:
•Part 1 - Making Prussian Blue - • Making Prussian Blue
•Part 2 - Making my own blueprint - • Making my own blueprint
Recipe source: pinhole.stanford.edu/cyano.htm
Sorry the contest is over :(
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Merch - nilered.tv/store
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
■ NileRed is now available on Nebula! go.nebula.tv/nilered
(when signing up with this link, a portion of your membership directly supports the channel)
Join the community:
Patreon - / nilered
Discord - / discord
NileRed Newsletter - nile.red/home#newsletter
You can also find me here:
Facebook - / nilered2
Instagram - / nile.red
Twitter - / nilered2
Nile talks about lab safety: • Chemistry is dangerous.
Music in credits (Walker by SORRYSINES): / walker
NileRed is making chemistry both fun and educational at the same time, and it's so professional!
Darius Anton you are correct
Chemistry is always fun
@@mercury6800 it is when you have a awesome teacher like NileRed. even my cat likes watching his videos
666 likes lol
NileRed is KZhead’s bill nye.
I'm a photographer and I definitely wouldn't consider 22:48 underexposed. Even the pre-toned one looked acceptable to me. You definitely lost plenty of contrast and thus some detail in the highlights, but if you'd exposed it any more, I think you'd have lost the detail in the storefronts and buildings (which comprises the majority of the composition). I think it looks quite nice.
and also on that one you could see how the rain made everything wet with the reflections.
Agreed, i find it perfect!
While I agree with you that the image doesn't look underexposed at all in the video, it's hard to tell if the same applies to the image in real life as the camera/editing software may be compensating a little bit. At the beginning of the video, he mentions that they look different from the video.
Good point, the camera to computer screen distorsion could be the culprit.
Mme. Hyraelle I think like any normal person he is being his own worst critic.
Your description of making coffee is very scientific.
When i was making the script, i was like "am i really going to be telling people how to mix instant coffee?"
Feh! Science? Since when is "spoonful" an acceptable scientific measurement? Maybe it was such when adding regulus to aqua vitae would cause a transmutation, but we live in a more enlightened era now.
@@NileRed But coffee was invented in 1920. EDIT No it wasn't EDIT 2 It wasn't made in 1920 EDIT 3 When was it made
@@spartacus17. Ethiopia in the earlier parts of the 1400's. The bean spread over the 15th century through Middle East, where it was discovered to taste rather good when roasted and made into "tea". It then spread back around to Africa in its drink form over the 16th century, before spreading north towards Balkan and the rest of Europe towards the latter half of the 16th century. By the early parts of the 20th century, American troops had gotten so used to their daily coffee, but evolution of combat meant you could no longer brew it on the battle field. The American military put their brightest minds to the task and discovered if you dry-freeze coffee (how you dry-freeze a liquid is beyond me) it becomes very soluble in hot water, and tastes almost the same. Thus instant coffee was invented somewhere around the earlier parts of the war. Well, one of the wars, not sure which one.
@@morphman86 Your sources?
Is no one gonna talk about how cool the stuff looked when he opened the coffee grinder?
To me just looked like occupational asthma
@@legohexman2858 made me sneeze few times
prusian dust, don't breath this
Grinded smurfs
@@coolmikefromcanada actually Prussian blue can help you if you have heavy metal exposure. He goes over this and talks about the cool blue cloud in his first video in this seiries
Here's something I learned from making my own printed circuit boards. You should ideally actually mirror the image and put the toner side down. That way, light won't come in from the side and creep in under the toner through the transparency. This helps keep lines nice and sharp.
Yes that definitely helps, I would also recommend only using sunlight instead of a UV exposure box because the light is much more parallel and even the tiny gap in between the toner and the photoresist can result in a loss of very fine details
My thoughts exactly! It would definitely be sharper. I guess there might be a slight danger of printer toner sticking to the cyanotype, but I doubt it.
My photoresist loves sticking to the transparency sheets I use, so I have to leave the very thin protective plastic on the top layer. Even though it is much thinner than the transparency itself the difference between sunlight and the LED street lamp I tried to use at first to get consistent exposure time is pretty big.
Mason Daub an LED street light is the wrong kind of light source to use. It contains blue light which will very slowly cure the photoresist, but it's not ideal. You should use UV light. A bigger UV LED nail curing lamp should do the trick.
Yeah I know white LED's don't produce much UV, it's just what I had on hand. If I was going to make a proper exposure box I would order some UV LED strips
"Prussian Blue" "Oil painting" This guy's the new Bob Ross
oh god i thought you where going to say hitler 1) Hitler was an oil painter 2) a byproduct of Zyklon B was Prussian Blue
@@perocean3992 calm down smooth brain
@@fujifilm5127 old comment I know, but are favourite moustaches favourite painting medium was watercolour
@@perocean3992 you're so cringe that calling you cringe would be an insult to the word cringe
I love how NileRed independently discovered Reciprocity Failure just based on his own observations
What is that? Is it the one where adding more of both meant no image?
@@daniellewilson8527 i havent watched the entire video yet but reciprocity failure is when film/light sensitve paper is exposed to light for a longer period of time and loses a bit of that sensitivity thus having to expose for a longer time to compensate for that loss of sensitivity
I thought that said recipratory failure lol
In chemistry-based photography there is the idea of reciprocity, where exposing film or paper for twice as long at half brightness will give the same exposure. ISO 200 film at 1/500th second is the same as ISO 100 at 1/250th. But in really long exposures, on the order of above a minute, there is "reciprocity failure": a ten minute exposure isn't the same as a fie minute exposure one stop down. From your experiment it seems like that may apply to cyanotypes too.
There's also the idea of the Exposure/density curve. This is ideally a straight line for film in the region you're exposing for, but for cyanotype they are very nonlinear with a hard toe and shoulder.
I absolutely love watching Nile red videos although I have no intention of reproducing any of these reactions or the facilities to try. I'm living vicariously through him.
im glad you still like them!
Man this brings me back to highschool being in a dark room trying to figure out what the hell I did wrong. As a teenager this was pretty fun and we were dealing with the real chemicals back there....mostly unsupervised. Gotta love it.
In my country, dark room at highschool means you get bully in it at hostel but you didn't know what you made wrong.
Seeking home nitrates to make my own nitric acid, not quite enough missing to ruin it for others, and I'm sure the teacher knew, cought yellow handed.. 😜
We *could* still have various elective courses in high school if certain right-wing groups didn't keep defunding everything but sports.
I love developing slide film cause when it comes out of the tank you know if you fucked up or not, you either see a beautiful color image or go ah shit i fucked up.
I really love the trial & error aspect of your videos , it feels a lot more organic and is much more entertaining to watch since it's more of an amateur experiment then it is a lecture ( and i use the word amateur really loosely cause clearly you know your science ). That's why i love your channel and cody's so much , keep it up man !
This is the format that I like as well!
@@NileRed it demonstrates the scientific process so well. In high school the scientific process is explained verbally but never exemplified, which turns science into a tedious list of facts instead of the problem solving and investigation that it actually is. I love it!
It's not difficult to picture Nile Red as the wild West _photocopier_ dude with his horse drawn development lab travelling around amazing folks with his "magic" cyanotypes.
Hey. When you are done with the photo and just about to frame it, put 2-3 coats of transparent varnish with UV filter. From my experience it does help a lot to keep the picture protected.
do you have a good recommendation for this type of varnish?
"You don't have to be like me and make the chemicals yourself, and you can often just order them online" Where's the fun in that?
Well , not everyone have these chemicals and supplies in the first place ( plus it's more expensive ) . It's just as fun to buy the premade solutions or the premade cyanotype paper ( Sun Print paper ) that will yield the same result , without having to make the chemicals yourself .
Lol, Ryan, I think you took the question too seriously. I think it was meant in jest. Of course not everyone has the time to make the chemicals themselves, that's another question. I got the chemicals online and it was fun. Though, I'd suggest avoiding the premade cyanotype paper, it's more expensive, less stable shelf life, and you can't experiment with different mixtures and materials.
"A Cyanotype of your choice". Careful, NileRed... that's a dangerous slope. : P
lol, yeah. Someone may want one of your wiener.
But it's a triangle not a slope.
*confused in women*
c y a n i d e
I think the underexposed ones looked pretty nice!
Wei Su Same here!
They both were cool
"The Gayest Person on Patreon", "I'm sorry mistress" and "I'm SURE I can fit them all in my mouth" are the best names on your Patreon :X
bruh
You'll soon be doing old skool dodge and burn to adjust the exposure of individual parts of the image!
If you found the cyanotype process cool you should try the daguerreotype process (also called "wet plate")! Its mostly silver nitrate and a developer bath. You get really beautiful images on metal plates!
The experiment is in-depth and professional. It's hard to find videos on KZhead with such quality. As always, great video.
In the final scene, did you just expose FAC coated paper and then brush on PF? That's allegedly how Herschel did it though we haven't tried ourselves. Very enjoyable series seeing you come at it from a different angle. If you try other recipes doing your first rinse in 1% Citric Acid lowers the contrast and helps other tones to the party. There are also a few published curves for Photoshop to adjust the tones for better representation. A Photoshop script called Chartthrob (Free) can be used to generate your own curves. Lastly, we never have luck making laser digital negatives. Inkjet is much better but make a test to see which color ink in your printer blocks the most UV. Reddish orange Canon inks work much better than black for us.
I love how methodical your videos are. Much respect, sir!
More of this please! This perfectly ties up all of the videos you've done about dyes/pigments etc. Curious about other chemistry + photography connections, there isn't nearly enough good info out there like this video.
I'm really glad you liked it! :)
As a primarily analog photographer who specializes in this sort of photography, I really love and appreciate your interest in cyanotype and hope you decide to explore the chemistry of other photo processes as well, there's a lot of very interesting stuff that can be done in a darkroom.
Can you recommend some channels that show/teach this?😍
@@nickmuffin1722 there aren't a ton tbh! Borut Peterlin does a lot of wet plate and monochrome historic process printing but he doesn't exactly make tutorials, you'd still prob want a solid reference book like The Book of Alternative Processes by Christopher James, or one of the process specific books published by Focal like Gum Printing: A Step by Step Manual by Christina Z Anderson. I think everyone else I've seen on KZhead who posts any sort of alt process videos does it pretty infrequently or only uploaded a couple. I personally wish I had enough patience to document my own work to post on here, but having attempted it a couple times, it's almost more work than just making my prints lol.
@@AoiFukuyama wow thank you so much!! You helped a lot, i will definitely look into these. I have a Agfa Click 3 inherited from my grandpa, and few undeveloped paper reels from the same. I want to learn more about the camera and the reels before i go trial and error and destroy it 😭. But thanks again, you made my day soooo muchhhh betterrrr... Sending all the good vibes to you.
I know that technology connections channel did a whole series on photos and how to develop and how they used to be developed etc
singapore represent babey!! i love the photo at 22:48 and all of the reactions/timelapses. this was so cool to watch i hope i get the time/opportunity to do this one day
alot of this i already learned from a black and white photography class, but its very interesting to see someone with no experience's take on it.
I been waiting for this one, it was worth it. I love the results, especially the non bleached and toned one, beautiful colour.
I very much love these practical applications of chemistry. Would love to see you cover more of these, including toning, in future videos!
I would love to see a video on 6,6'-dibromoindigo, AKA Tyrian purple. A very historically significant dye, and one that was incredibly expensive before it could be synthesized, due to how many snails had to be collected to extract a useful amount of it.
Here are a couple tips that I think could help. The negative is one of the most important things so you can convert the color image into a halftone first before inverting to a negative. This will allow you to adjust your levels more equally for just a single color exposure like your doing here or even for the duo tone. Also place the emulsion side of your negative closest to the paper, this will allow for less uv light to "bleed" under the blacked out portions which is a result of the very minute thickness of the transparent layer and you can also buy thinner transparency to reduce the amount of uv light to bleed. The closer you can get your negative to lay to the paper the better your result will be. In the print shop we vacume the negative down to the paper to get it as close as possible. Makes a huge difference. Also you could try a lower dpi "dots per inch" on the printer when printing the negative. Sometimes higher dpi washes out even though it's better quality some paper just can't hold it so try lowering the dpi to like 300 or 200 or 150 and see the difference in results. These are all things you can do that I feel would really help. I think it would be awesome to get some blueprints with lots of linework to expose. Like the Eiffel tower or the colleseum.
This is what I think caused some difficulty with dialing in the exposure of the print. When enlarging from film negatives (assuming the film was properly exposed and developed) you have information all over the negative and can adjust the exposure of the print gradually. If the digital image has too much contrast the properly exposed region between underexposed --> no detail
That Photo from Singapore is really something like taken out of time. The development just amplified that. In my opinion this is nothing short of a work of art.
This is one of my favorite series you've done. As a photographer I love seeing the classic work you've done, as a nerd I love seeing how you're doing it. Bravo!
I'm an artist and this video inspired make some prints! I ordered everything I need and can't wait to see how everything will turn out!!!
@Silicon Nomad its not gonna happen
S P A C E - D U S T E V E N - C R A Z I E R - S P A C E - D U S T
You could make a religion out of this
no don’t
Yes, do
bill wurtz's history of the entire world, i guess
idk how its relatable to this video, but the sun is a deadly laser making cyanotypes
It’s important to note that the art paper is not only thicker and more durable but acid free which could likely help with the cyanotyping process
Bases actually bleach cyanotypes. You have to avoid buffered paper.
even the overexposed shot looked really cool..i LOVE the effects you are getting with this method!!
I wish my school chemistry lessons were this applicable.
Also, I'd like to see more videos on early photographic processes. You still have all that mercury, right? Daguerrotypes, perhaps? (I may even be convinced to build you a simple camera for it in exchange for a beaker, I got a couple of old lenses laying around.)
Daguerrotypes are very dangerous to make due to the way the mercury is used. Photographers went blind, or mad from mercury poisoning.
@Silicon Nomad good point
@@taraswertelecki3786 but now we have better protective gear and better safety
the one you let sit directly in the tea looked the best! you could actually see the wetness of the rain on the tents!
This is outstanding. I'm getting ready to play with cyanotype (I got the premixed stuff), and all of your experimentation in this video got me all excited to get at it. Thank you for all this work.
7:30 "it can be a disaster" I actually sincerely enjoyed the rougher outcome more than the higher quality prints you produced later in the video; it gave it a lot of character that you lose with a perfect print.
"Tanin solution" Straight up cup of coffee 😆
Ikr :D a true chemist.
I always enjoy your videos greatly, but this one is, as of yet, my favorite video of yours. Some years ago, I started out with digital photography but not long after moved into film photography and darkroom processes, then followed by historical photographic processes. To see you go through step-by-step the recreating of what was done in the 1860s and on is quite fantastic. Trying to get the chemistry of the process properly working, to compensate exposure, to test different exposures and times of the day right for UV light, the way you test exposures by exposing the image for different times to check the density... You even got to the basis of density (Dmax) and reciprocity charts. It's all exactly what was and still is done in the making of a photographic print. *THIS* is the basis behind all the research and standardization in the photographic industry, creating UV-exposure units and emulsion-coating. It's what Kodak and Fuji, among many other chemical/photographic industries, did up until quite recently in 2004 when digital started to take over the market. As I said before, this is a fantastic work and video. Congratulations.
This video is truly awesome. I love the cool combination of chemistry and technology as well as your scientific approach to things. Brilliant!
THANK YOU! i was going insane due to boredom this helps a ton.
This is very satisfying to watch (development)
I agree! but not as satisfying as wen actually doing it in a darkroom
22:48 that is just amazing!!! , i would never think twice before hanging this in my room , so good !
I bought a kit. I fell in love with the process and can't wait to try it myself. Thank you!
The non-linear exposure response over time has been known for a very long time in the film world. A specific example is film-make star trail images. If an exposure is made over 2 hours, the stars move, making a trail for each visible star. However, on film, each trail begins to fade out, as the exposure time / effect begins to diminish. This effect is called reciprocity failure, and is exactly what you describe here. Charts are/were even distributed to help photographers deal with the phenomenon on long exposures. www.ilfordphoto.com/wp/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/Reciprocity-Failure-Compensation.pdf
Would you mind uploading that photo from Singapore on imgur or something like that ? I really love photos like that with the rain and such
What I really like about your videos is that the quality is so constant. As far as I can remember, your videos have always delivered and it makes me happy even seeing there's a new one to watch. It's a rare feeling these days on youtube. Thanks!
Thanks, i appreciate it!
Thank you very much for sharing your experiments with such a patience and attention to detail. Super helpful.
I am not gonna lie I nearly screamed when he said he took the photo in Singapore Singapore gang where y’all at
The cover of the Elliott Smith album "Elliott Smith" was done in cyanotype. It was the first thing that I associated with the thumbnail of this video.
I love this. Particularly fascinating to me since I've recently gotten into developing my own film and making prints (old darkroom equipment is super cheap right now).
You have an eye for photography too! Well done - I’ve really enjoyed this series.
This is a very useful video. I have started trying to replicate your process since the previous video and this one adds quite a few helpful details! I loved the extra bit on toning the prints at the end, beautiful results!
I'm glad you liked it!
SCIENCE
ART
CHEMISTRY
Bitch!
you ruined it.
Ritik Sharma you ruined it, so you're the bitch. bitch.
Best run through of the cyanotype process Ive seen so far!
Your content is constantly high in quality and creativity. Looking forward to your next chemical exploration.
You should consider a video about photoresist!
13:45, This graph does not show exponential, it shows rational, just for these math purists.
Umm, no? It is actually pretty similar to exp(-x), the exponential decay. It is encountered pretty often while studying reaction rates (first order kinetics to be specific).
My mouth dropped when you put it in the peroxide. I'm definitely making some of these!!!
After watching this video, the history of photography I learned about in my intro art class makes so much more sense!!
Great video! How do you recommend a lay person become competent in chemistry? I can’t afford to take a ton of classes outside my major, but I want to become knowledgeable at a high level in chemistry
Will E I would also be interested in the responses to this!
Will E same here.
I would look into MOOC opportunities. These are Massive Online Open Courses and are essentially (usually) free online based courses with aims of reaching many people. These are a good bet and usually easy to find. Many universities have their classes recorded and used for these giving you the same knowledge, just not the hands on experiences associated with those classes
Skillshare maybe? Also, I would honestly invest in a 'little chemist" set, for kids. Most of them are trash, but there are few that come with accual chemicals and hundreds of experimens
If you're just "some guy" with no chemistry background, you'll land on several government lists for ordering certain chemicals and glassware. So, watch it. If you decide to go forward, make sure you never order or make any DEA listed chemicals. Also, have someone teach you basic lab safety precautions. You can't replace your eyes.
You could have used these strips as a dosimete- Oh.
Your videos are wonderful. Please keep making them!
As a person coming from the art side of this, I am quite impressed at what you accomplished in this series. It taught me more about the science of cyanotyping, and I really enjoyed seeing how you used the medium!
Could you somehow mask part of the photo during the toning? Like block the sky so it stays blue while the subject turns brown?
You could probably try coating parts you don't want to tone with paraffin.
1:32 Yeah sure, “ferric ammonium citrate”
Wow, these just keep getting better. Bravo!
Hell yeah Nile! It’s good to see content from you :)
Careful with NordVPN, i saw Louiss Rossmann read there contract, it was really bad.
what do you mean?
I think rossman stated he thought it was a scam. As a client of NordVPN, I couldn't be more happy.
He wasnt sure it was a scam (and not the product but the ad contract), what he focused on and what was the message of the video was that you should really use and get to know the products you advertise, and only advertise those that you think are really valuable to you and your audience, otherwise you will lose credibility, and in the end you will lose more money because of your lack of credibility that what you make for those ads.
I guess you're talking about this video /watch?v=VrME4kn15rQ
Just watched Rossmann's video... it doesn't specifically state that their service doesn't work, but it clearly shows how they reach out to creators is less-than-reputable... damn
8:03 am I colour-blind? It looks greenish blue to me.
Yeah, it kind of does to me as well. I'm not colorblind though, I'm fairly sure about that.
Loved learning about this. Ordered the transparency...will give it a try. Thank you so much.
make more vids nile, i really like your channel bro, it's educational and absolutely fun to watch.
Will you be doing a video on making psychedelics from scratch for educational purposes (no, literally for educational purposes)
lenny face is all I can answer you my friend...
Hey nilered why don't you make iodoform?
Love this video and really explains the process well! Would love to see some more photography based videos! As a photo major I'm curious of the other photographic and even printmaking processes chemically
The one thing about Art is that even if these pictures aren't perfect, they're still beautiful. 😌
Science is cool
Early
Yes! Art! I love seeing you do art!!!!
I think it is my new favorite work of yours. Bravo!
1 view :O
Too much of 'though'. Just an observation.
Yess!! I was so excited for this video!
That Singapore photo was perfect for this! All the prints of that shot were beautiful imho!
Prussian blue is so gorgeous, you did a fantastic job
The emulsion of the two solutions changed color just like if you were mixing paints, the FAC is a dark green, and the PFC is a lighter orange. It's a super fine dispersion of different colored particles that appear as a solid color from a distance
I’ve always been more into physics than anything, but your videos have really peaked my interest into chemistry again thank you
This is my favorite of your videos. I just started shooting large format, and you've inspired me to try this with film negs
Idk, I'd have used the canvas boards & gesso to get rid of textures if you didn't want textures. Another thing my daughter loves painting on is thinner high-quality MDF, cut into the shape she wants. She adds pouring medium to her primer, pours the paint on & then she used a metal blade that you use for drywall, she also has a tool that resembles a metal squeegee or piece of glass to give herself a non-textured base to start with. I think if you cut out the thin MDF into an octagon (like a stop sign...or cut it into another shape), prepped it in the way that I explained above & printed out one of your favorite pics from a decent cam that it would make an excellent gift or cute decor in your home. To finish it, pick up some picture frame or wall mirror hanging hardware & install them on the back & spray it with either a clear coat of acrylic protectant clear coat or you could even give it a pour of clear epoxy if you want it to have a shinier finished look & be exceptionally durable. My daughter cut out a 4 foot tall shape of a beer bottle; expanding the rest of the dimensions to maintain the perfect look. She prepped it, painted a background made up of things you'd find if you entered a very cool bar, got prints of my sister & her friends, glued them to the places she left open for the prints to make them resemble bar coasters (I'd imagine something like my daughter's piece would look very cool if you used the print style used in this video & doing something else such as maybe cutting a boat shape & printing using family pics of caught fish prints as licenses over a background using different painted lures or something), let everything dry & poured a thin coat of clear marine epoxy over the piece. She used her heat gun to disperse the bubbles (you can also use the spray they sell for this purpose), let it dry completely, sanded it, polished it & added the hanging hardware to the piece. Idk, cool video.
Been waiting for this last video for over a month now FINALLY
ha, I finally delivered.
thank you so much for all the hard work!
really digging these photography themed videos!!!
That was an amazing print of Singapore. Brings back some good memories.
The rapidly rising exposure time for doubling darkness (density) is called reciprocity error in analog photography. You don't usually notice it below exposures of 1 second. But starting at 1 second, you might have to expose a lot longer than usual. This is of a lot of importance of people who do night photography.
Interesting. I have done a lot of long exposure night shots, but ive only used a digital camera, so i dont think those same issues arise. With digital, i think the rate is practically constant. Correct me if im wrong though.
Digital sensors don't have that kind of non-linearity in the exposure time-density relation, so you won't notice it with digital cameras. By the way, did you know you can develop photographic film and paper with coffee powder, ascorbic acid and sodium carbonate? It is a pretty cool chemistry party trick and relatively safe.
LimaVictor I had no idea!
To work with watercolor paper the best way without getting it to wrinkle or expand is to presoak it in a low level of water for a few seconds and then lay it in a flat suface and fix it with kraft gummed paper tape and then allow it to dry. Once dry it's ready to be used and it won't shrink or expand
This is the most artistic corner of chemistry 👍