Print Tests ~ Day 2

Day two of the print testing returned more information, and fairly good prints as a result. Those who have been following along have seen the progress of the testing, including the strip test for print time. We have used what we learned from that test last week, using the inferred printing time and jumped right into seeing how that transferred to an actual digital negative. PJ made up a new negative, which was much denser overall, with just a bit of green over the image. Turned out to be a four minute print, and it turned out quite nicely. I used a copy of an earlier negative, of three I have, with densities that corrected the image areas that were off in the last print.

Today's prints also were toned in gold chloride 1%, with sodium thiosulfate, a toning/fixing formula provided by Bostick & Sullivan. That wouldn't be my preferred choice of gold toner formulas. If I continue using gold as a toner the formula I am interested in using uses sodium thiocyanate with the gold chloride. This formula is said to replace most of the silver salts with gold, rather than merely coat them. It is also one of the very cheapest forms of gold toning because of the little amount of gold in the formula, which turns out to be a 10% solution by volume using the 1% gold solution. If you are a math person you immediately realize that this translates to a fairly weak solution of gold compared to other formulas.

I took a snap of the prints when they came out of the wash, blotted off the water and took photo to see the difference in print darkness between wet and dry. I didn't want to do any digital manipulation of the image before posting to alter the image as it represents the print. The lighting in the darkroom area, although well lit, isn't what one would call bright, so I used the on camera flash to brighten up the print as I shot it. Being the camera is set at about 5800 K for most shots, using the flash brightened up the image enough for it to look different from the natural light shot of the print. The warm tone of the actual print was lost. It looked great as an image, just not an accurate accounting of the actual print. So, I am not going to show the wet image of the print, even though it does show the difference between wet print and dried print.

The gold toning enhanced the image quite nicely, separating values and deepening the blacks, leaving a nice warm toned finish to the print. I tend to like the warm toned prints, it works for me. I reprinted the same two images as before, not only because I would like to have a finished print to hang in my house, but also comparative images to see as they progress through the testing.

Gold Toned Kallitype ~ "Bicycle on the Stairs"
8"10" ~ when it is in final form it will be 1 of 5 (limited edition)
Arches Platine paper ~ Print time 6 minutes

Left wall is finally below paper base white and beginning to show the texture that was meant to be there, as a Zone VII. The stairs are in the correct tonal range to show up like poured silver, which is the thing that drew me to take this shot in the first place.
The wall on the right is now separated from the man and still shows Zone III texture, and the man is not longer enveloped in darkness. The separation overall is how I had envisioned it.








Gold Toned Kallitype ~ "Footbridge in the Forest"
8"x10" ~ 1 of 5
Arches Platine paper ~ Print time 4 minutes

The overall tonal separation is as desired, and the gold toner deepened the shadow area under the footbridge, finally bringing it out as an actual black. The Zone1 blacks, opening to the building top left, and large rock by the water bottom right, reached dMax, the water remains Zone VII-VIII. The trees in the background are no longer blank white, but now Zone VII as intended.



The Solar Printer has exceeded my expectations at this point. I couldn't ask for a better way to make these prints. Various forms of testing will continue for some time to come as there are several variables I still want to work out. UV intensity being one of them. Soon, I will raise the printer 4" and retest these prints. Less intense light increases print density range, another way to say it tends to increase tonal range. One of the reasons this print finally printed in the areas that were before blank white is because of the high intensity of the UV light source. Printing in an image from a negative as contrasty as this one is, in 4 minutes speaks for itself. The last "sun" print of this image was 14 minutes directly into the sun.

Also I've noticed the gold toner not only deepened the blacks and separated the tonal ranges, it also warmed the print image. I have no explanation for this. I have never been able to afford gold for toning. Now I can. I can also afford to buy palladium for toning, which I have done, and that wonderful little bottle of joy sits on the chemistry shelf in the darkroom awaiting use. After more testing using new digital negatives that will be forthcoming before next print session, I'll be using up the gold toner. That will be the time to being toning in palladium. By that time the digital negatives will be worked out and it will be time for working on exhibition quality portfolio prints. Then it will be time to begin talking about gum printing.