Costs
Part of How the cyanotype process works, from planning to completion
How to price supplies for the cyanotype process
Working out the real cost of a finished cyanotype print, where the money actually goes, and when buying an existing reproduction beats making one yourself.
What to take away
- Paper and transparency film dominate the cost. The chemistry is a small share of a cyanotype.
- Sunlight is free and unreliable. A lamp buys repeatability, and that is the honest way to value it.
- Count the failures. A process with a test strip and a reject rate costs more per finished print than per sheet coated.
- If you register work formally, the fee structure is published rather than quoted, so it can be budgeted exactly.
Where the money goes
Split a cyanotype edition into four buckets and the picture becomes clear quickly.
| Bucket | Items | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Per sheet | Paper, sensitizer, wash water | Paper dominates |
| Per image | Digital negative, film, ink | Second largest, and reusable |
| Per session | Gloves, wipes, tray cleaning | Small |
| Amortized | Trays, glass, lamp, scale | Falls toward zero |
The negative is the item people forget. A single transparency costs more than the chemistry for several prints, but it is reusable across an entire edition, so its cost per print drops as the edition grows.
Count the failures honestly
Cost per sheet coated is not cost per finished print. A realistic beginner rate is one usable print for every two or three coated, falling to something much better once exposure is calibrated.
Multiply accordingly. If a sheet costs a certain amount and you keep one in three, the real figure is three times that. This is the arithmetic that makes test strips look cheap: a strip costs a fraction of a sheet and removes most of the rejects.
The wider method for building supply figures without inventing prices is set out in our overview of printmaking supply costs, and it applies here unchanged.
Equipment that changes the numbers
A UV lamp is the main equipment decision. It does not make better prints; it makes the same print at the same exposure regardless of the season. Value it as a reduction in the failure rate rather than as an improvement in quality, and it becomes easy to judge whether you need one yet.
A vacuum frame is a further step, worth it only for large prints where glass alone will not hold contact. A drying rack is cheap and matters more than either.
When buying beats making
For historical or documentary images, a reproduction from an institution is sometimes cheaper and better than making one. Archives publish what they hold and how to request copies: the National Archives explains its still picture reproduction service, including the record group, series and item citation you need before an inquiry can go anywhere.
The point for a budget is that such services have a defined process and defined charges, which is more than can be said for the time you would spend rephotographing something badly.
The costs outside the studio
- Framing and glazing, which frequently exceed the print's material cost.
- Packaging and postage if you sell.
- Registration, if you protect an edition. The Copyright Office explains that an application has three elements: a completed form, a nonrefundable filing fee and a nonreturnable deposit, so it can be planned rather than guessed at.
- Water, which is trivial per print and noticeable if you run a tray under a tap for an hour.
Our account of the process itself explains which of these steps you can shorten without hurting the print.
Common questions
Is cyanotype cheap? Cheaper than most alternative processes, and dominated by paper rather than chemistry.
Should I buy paper in bulk? Once you have settled on one. Before that, buy small packs of several papers and test.
How do I price a print for sale? Materials, plus failure rate, plus time, checked against comparable work. Materials alone always underprices.
Do digital negatives get cheaper? Per print, yes, sharply, because one negative serves the whole edition.
