Test Print ~ Palladium toned Salted Silver

The testing continues, with interesting outcomes cropping up that become real head scratchers. One of the variables that will be dropped out for now is two silver processes; salt paper and Kallitype. There are two really good reasons, one being cross contamination, and the other being simply the two processes are different enough to create more questions than offer up good prints. Both processes print roughly equally even from the same negative. Roughly equal meaning if a negative is scaled such that it prints nicely on salt paper, then it will print approximately equal as far as tonal range is concerned. That being said things can go sideways quickly without altering print times, as Kallitypes don't print like a salted silver (salt paper).

My direct experience with silver printing has been in the salt paper process. That process can be stripped down to two chemicals; table salt and silver nitrate, to make the print. There are formulas that include citric acid in the silver nitrate solution. I am currently staying with the formula I used before, as it is tried and true and I use it now as a baseline. I will print a batch of images with the citric acid included, as well as try out gelatin sizing on the paper when salting the paper. That is the fine tuning part that is a lot more fun than testing, even when there are breakthroughs.

I have come to find Kallitype printing more enjoyable, as a process, than the salt paper process. Perhaps it has to do with not having to pre-treat paper, which then becomes fixed at the salt % used, as well as using four times as much silver, in more saturated form. Part of the testing has to do with realizing the optimal level of binder to silver with the salt paper process. Printing my 5x7 negatives that were developed traditionally using pyro/OH required the binder (salt) at 2 1/2% and the silver solution saturated, at 13%. That agreeable handshake was a very good mixture. For the salt print then, the current 3% binder (salt) solution is actually a bit too much. The negatives as they are scaled now, would fit the 2 1/2% solution better.

In the salt paper process, the binder (salt) to silver ratio can be adjusted to suit the density range of the negative, to a degree. For thinner negatives, less than Log 1.2-1.8 say, the silver solution should be at 10%, and the salt binder between 1%0-2%. For thicker negatives Log 1.2+, the silver should be at 12% by the book, {I use a saturated solution of silver at 13%} and the binder between 2%-3%. And therein lies the tuning range for the negative's density curve. As the binder decreases, with the silver constant, the more contrasty the print. Less binder (salt) = increased contrast. Increased binder = ability to record negatives with a very long density range.

I am at that tuning point now, needing to decrease the salt binder to 2 1/2% while keeping the density range of the current negatives approximately the same. The print times between a salt paper and Kallitype are quite different, using the same negative. Also, when printing a salted silver, you print the image in fully, to the tonal range desired, for me that would be Zone 7, textured white. Then I slip the print into the wash tray or 30 seconds or so to allow the print to become wetted, as well as watch some of the unused silver begin to wash off. Then into the toner which will arrest any further darkening, or, fading from bleaching effect when in the fixer.

Printing in a Kallitype normally doesn't run like that. There are times when a dense negative is used and printing in the upper tonal ranges until them show up, when they seem to not want to come in, turns the print very dark when it is placed in the developer. Very dark. A print this morning was one such prints. After twenty minutes, in print increments of usually 4 minutes, I pulled the print, even though none of the sky had even begun to show up, as well as anything above Zone 6. When it hit the developer, the sky came in like magic, as did a lot of other attributes that hadn't even begun to appear during printing. Much is being learned from this.

Anyone wanting to look at either of these processes, on the right side of the page is a Processes section listing four processes, for easy access. The print I'm posting is a subject I have been wanting to print; flowers. I have too many such images to count. One has to begin somewhere, so I begin with my wife's favorite flower, one she has painted in watercolors many times. Still a work in progress, but it is getting close to what I want it to look like.

In yesterday's post I showed the negative I used for this print. Now you an see how that negative translated in silver, toned in palladium.

Palladium toned Salted Silver Print ~ "Lilies" ~ 8"x10"