When creating your anthotype or other alternative photography prints, you may wish to keep track of the UV strength, humidity readings and temperature, since these certainly will affect the results of your exposures. The Weather app on Apple iOS (or a similar app on Android OS) will help you find this information easily.
When you open the Weather app, you’ll see weather-related information for the day and week. The examples used here show readings for Vancouver, Canada on September 8, 2023 at 1:25 PM.
Note the red highlighted Today area at the bottom of the screen showing the current temperature. Once you click on that Today line, a screen will pop up showing a Temperature graph for that day.
Note the small circled tab with a drop-down menu showing Temperature, UV Index, Humidity and others. Simply press the tab and scroll down that submenu to the reading you wish to consult.
For each, it will show on a graph the expected readings at various times throughout the day. This will allow to you to note, for example, at what time the best UV Index might be on that day.
That’s it! For your anthotype exposures, for instance, you can keep track and record this information over several days or weeks, then easily record the range (lowest to highest) for Temperature (16-28º Celsius), UV strength (6-8) or Humidity (65%-75%) over the span of your exposure.
You can then enter this important data in the Anthotype Day Submission Form:
For a cyanotype exposure on this day, for instance, the UV Index (UV strength) is moderate (5) and seems to peak for a few hours mid-day (between 11 AM and 2 PM). It would probably be the best time to expose a cyanotype.
Dennis Humphrey is an interdisciplinary artist from Vancouver, Canada. He practises contemporary and alternative photography (cyanotype, anthotype, integral film, photo-based encaustics, transfers), as well as printmaking, inkmaking, writing poetry and short fiction, as well as making handmade artist books. He describes himself as “a mature interdisciplinary artist who makes colours, prints, poems, books and paper things”.
Dennis Humprey’s gallery
Web: https://linktr.ee/dennishumphrey
Instagram: @kamiya_artisan
All images and text © Dennis Humphrey, 2024
World Anthotype Day
World Cyanotype Day