Stalking the Image

I have discussed print 'color', tonal range and textural quality of the finished image. These qualities are of course reciprocal negative qualities. For this post the focus is on hand coated silver printing; salt paper and Kallitype. With rare exceptions, print 'color' derives from paper selection, choice of sizing/which one, print medium (salt paper/Kallitype) choices of salt/iron binder, and to an extent, intensity of the UV light source. The primary difference between any of the silver processes is the salt or iron used as the 'binder'. The binder reacts with the silver salts reducing the silver solution to metallic silver. The Salt Paper print uses sodium chloride, aka table salt. The Kallitype uses ferric oxalate (iron).

The controls for each of these are slightly different due to the differences of the binders. For salt paper prints, the paper is pre-soaked in a salt solution, between 1% and 3%, then dried, before a 10%-12% solution of silver nitrate is applied. the range of options of salt level and silver level has to do with the negative contrast. The higher the negative density, the richer the solution mixture of both elements. The Kallitype doesn't need paper preparation. A favored and well deserved paper is Arches Platine 100% rag paper. The first paper created specifically for platinum printing, which of course also words exceptionally well with silver as well. The 10% silver solution is mixed with an equal amount of a 20% solution of ferric oxalate, then brushed onto the paper before printing.

There are caveats to this with printing. Printing time is similar, however the Kallitype image doesn't need to be printed in nearly as much as a salt paper print. One reason being the Kallitype is also developed out, and there are more than one formulas for that depending upon the resultant image you want, from bluish, sepia, reddish brown, all the way to black. Be it known though, that the salt print can also be developed out. I will be working with this method, but first must await having my current nifty workshop transformed into a proper printing room. The amenities I will have will be running water, drain connection, six foot fiberglass sink, work surfaces and a 24"x24" UV printing box. And air conditioning. I live in the desert. No need for light tight, just no direct sunlight when working with solutions. Incandescent lighting works fine.

This print is another river shot, usually along the Willamette River, a walk from my then home in north Eugene. Many quiet moments spent along the banks of that river with my 5x7 Burke & James view camera in hand. As FYI Burke & James began production of that camera in the 1880's.... My version is likely thirties or forties, or so. It sits behind me, for now. I was offered $40 for it, with the Schneider Kreuznach Acutesar 210 lens mounted on it. Yeah, slightly wide angle. The view seen in most of my salted silver prints. I won't mention what I was thinking when I refused that offer.

An example of the wide angle lens on the camera at a quiet spot along the river, behind an inlet pool. The scene caught my eye due to the serenity of the water, just meters from a much more energetic  flow. My camera focus was on the rocks in the pool. This is a salted silver print (salt paper) printed on Canson paper treated with 2 1/2% solution of salt, with two coats of saturated solution (13%) of silver. The negative was developed in a rejiggered Windish Pyro/hydroxide formula.

Salted Silver Print ~ River Scene
1987 ~ 5x7 ~ Unique
Willamette River ~ Eugene, Oregon