Making Digital Negatives and Cyanotypes
with Cotton Miller
November 12 – December 10, 2025
*
Course Description
The art of making an enlarged negative has long been the critical first step in contact printing for most alternative photographic processes. The move to digital techniques over the past two decades has made it possible to fine-tune the making of enlarged negatives. Cotton Miller has been at the forefront of this digital process having been mentored by Dan Burkholder and Christopher James and in the process, Cotton has developed his own techniques. For the very first time, Cotton is offering an online workshop to teach the practice of making digital negatives and then using cyanotype printing—a beautiful combination of digital and historic photographic processes—to practice and perfect the technique.
This interactive online workshop meets for two hours on four Wednesdays, allowing for time in between the group sessions to practice and come back for help and more information. Creating digital negatives involves transforming your digital images into a format suitable for contact printing in the cyanotype process. This process requires converting your images into black and white, applying an adjustment curve for the Cyanotype process, inverting your image, and printing on an inkjet transparency. Cotton guides participants through a step-by-step formula for creating digital negatives, then reviews strategies for optimizing your negatives for better results, and finally to open up the process for creative interpretation. Producing beautiful, blue-toned cyanotype prints at home is an added feature of this workshop.
The fifth and final session features an image review of the best prints made throughout the workshop with Cotton and none other than Dan Burkholder himself. A pioneer in creating digital negatives, Dan offers his insights, a historical perspective, and an infectious sense of humor that leaves everyone laughing and inspired to stay in a creative space long after this workshop is over.
Join Cotton (and Dan) to explore the fascinating intersection of digital and analog photography and open your world to the art of the handmade in a digital age.
Additional Information
WHO SHOULD ATTEND:
What You Should Know:
Participants need access to an Inkjet Photo printer during the workshop. Basic Photoshop skills are helpful. You also need access to a consistent UV source—either strong sunlight or a dedicated UV lamp—to make successful exposures.
This class requires a range of specialized supplies (Cyanotype chemistry, suitable watercolor or cotton-rag papers, brushes, trays, Pictorico, etc.). A full materials list will be provided once the workshop is confirmed.
Special Notes:
Class will meet 12:30 – 2:30 pm (Mountain Time) on Wednesdays starting November 12 and ending December 10 (five online group sessions); no class on Wednesday, November 26. Enrollment is limited to 12 participants.
Zoom Video Conferencing software (available for no charge from Zoom.com) will be used to facilitate the class sessions. Further details will be emailed to registrants.
Santa Fe Workshops always aims to produce a high-quality experience for our online attendees. That said, variables including regional and local internet provider speeds, traffic on Zoom's servers, and your own computing hardware can contribute to a less than ideal streaming event. While we do our best to minimize the impact of these variables, they are outside the control of Santa Fe Workshops.
Policies:
View Withdrawal and Transfer Policies for online programs.
For the convenience of participants, recordings of each class session are posted privately for one month after the end of each session. Santa Fe Workshops takes the recordings down after one month to protect the intellectual property of our instructors.
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about
Cotton Miller received his MFA in Photography & New Media in 2013 from Lesley University College of Art and Design, in Boston. In addition to being honored by The Boston Globe as one of six artists to watch in 2013, he had multiple exhibits in Boston and has won awards from the Society of Professional Journalists and the Texas Intercollegiate Press Association in 2007. Cotton has also assisted with projects for Time Magazine, ESPN Magazine, Athleta, and Highsnobiety.
Cotton is the Web Manager for Santa Fe Workshops and does web and exhibition consultation projects for a variety of artists, and is Adjunct Faculty for the Glassell School of Art at the Museum of Fine Arts – Houston. He has designed websites for Nevada Wier, Christopher James, Alison Wright, Elizabeth Opalenik, and Santa Fe Workshops. Cotton’s personal work combines traditional printing methods with digital, alternative process, mixed media, and multimedia. He worked as a master printer for Blazing Editions in Providence and Cotton was a research assistant for The Book of Alternative Photographic Processes (third edition) by Christopher James. Cotton collaborates with many artists for not only web design, but also digital retouching, graphic design, exhibition design, exhibition production, and printing fine art editions.
Website: cottonmiller.com
Instagram: @cottonmiller
