Making Digital Negatives and Cyanotypes

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 consecutive Saturdays this winter, 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 fourth 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.