The printing testing has been most insightful for me, re calibrating my eye to recognize a new reality in negative densities, from the original method of allocating densities that light can barely pass through, to a density range I wouldn't have believed would print on silver with any success, toned green. The learning curve was slow due to finding a way to have my negatives printed, long drive cross town to try that out and normal entropy. Soon, relatively speaking, I will have a printing room a short walk from my back door.
Another new addition is the Epson printer I bought. Next step is finding any avenue for increasing the amount of ink it can put out, as it is now, anemic is overstating it. It was over ten years ago I bought the Epson 2200 and was printing very nice full color slides on acetate sheets that far exceed what I'm getting. Next step is having a long conversation with an Epson service tech.
Coinciding with these two above conditions, I am taking my sweet wife to Florida for ten days to soothe her Jones for beaches and a tropical setting. Along with the yearly family gathering that will be stitched onto our days beforehand. There will be snaps. Perhaps usable in a later portfolio.
Saturday, October 15, 2016
Thursday, October 13, 2016
Test Print ~ Comparing Single and Double Coating
Having tested sizing affects on Revere Platinum paper, I also wanted to see the difference between a print of a single and double silver coating. As the salt solution increases in the prepared paper, so lengthens the printing scale possibility. Paper treated with 2 1/2% salt solution can handle a negative with a very long density range. 3% solution can handle even more. The amount of silver applied to the treated paper also works roughly in this way. The richer the silver application, the longer the scale the print will be able to render.
From what I read it would seem that a single coat of silver is the standard application. I don't do that. I have always applied two healthy coats of silver on a salted paper print. In my thinking, it stood to reason that two coats further saturates the paper with silver, but also deeper into the paper, to an extent. Much of that has to do with sizing choices. I also didn't size back then. Hence my thoughts on the test for double sizing and how that affects the print. As anticipated, the image didn't seem as embedded in the paper as much as a single sizing and certainly much less so than on an un-sized paper. The double coating also exaggerated the densities in the negative, making a much more contrasty image than from the same negative on another paper with standard sizing.
This print would have been an exhibit quality print had it not been for a spot of contamination on the paper. Just enough to make it a test print for comparison. Easy enough to visually disavow it ever happened, in Lightroom, for demonstrative purposes. I found the Epson printer that fits what I am looking for as a dedicated film printer. In a town this size it should be easy to find Arista OHC sheets or Inkpress OHC or even Pictorico OHC, but alas, that is not to be. B&H will likely get my order.
The detail of the dancers' breast plate and feathered costumes separates much better, with very good acutance on a double coated print. Also dMax is better reached and held, in a double coated print. A single coated print can show roughly the same tonal range as a double coated print, those tonal ranges won't be as sharply defined or detailed, nor the image as visually deep as a double coated print. There's just more silver to be melted and reduced. Even the the double sizing, the silver coated will and evenly and the image isn't completely on the surface. The print, without the contamination would have been a good one. The front dancer's top feather is Zone 8 and the cotton fluff strips on his costume have reached Zone 7. All other tonal values printed in accordingly.
Paper; Revere Platinum: (sized; 2g gelatin), salt solution 2 1/2%, Sensitizer; Silver 13% sol 2 coats
Palladium toned Salted Silver Print
"Sacred Dance" ~ 8"x10"
Tucson, Arizona
New Paper Test ~ Final Image
Sometimes when testing out a variable, you end up with a twist to an image not expected, nor anticipated, yet acceptable as a finished print. That might sound rather blase discussing a salable print, and should that be in your thinking I would invoke Ansel Adams 187 versions of "Moonrise Over Hernandez". The first and last have little in common beyond subject matter.
I have an image in my head for how "Stagecoach on Main Street" will look when I have tampered with every aspect of that image in creating 'my version' of what that image should look like. Another printer might likely alter things to suit their own tastes, perhaps even changing toner. After seeing the finished print of the horse head, I have changed plans for toning that image. I will be using gold toner. But first I will be adding density to the lower tonal ranges and reducing density of the highlights by just a smidgen, to better print for a gold toner, which will deepen the shadow area and below like nothing else. Palladium toner lightened the very same shadow areas, considerably. The warm palladium tone for the white horse leaves a sort of dirty look to the white horse. It did make the harness look good, but then the gold toner will also make it snap, and make the shadow area and lower tones a deep black. Weston's Amidol black, and that would make the image more visually impactful.
Sharing the darkroom printing days now with PJ leaves a finite ability to print. We work quite well together, sharing space and printer, and processing. We average three prints each per print session. Today's session was a paper test, using the same negative. What was printed on Platine, or Arches 140 lb hot press paper, sized with the standard 2g/liter sizing with the 2 1/2% salt, coated twice with 13% solution silver. This print run we used the new Revere Platinum paper, which is pre-sized, as is Platine paper. What I printed on today was Revere Platinum paper, with two levels of sizing. The standard sizing that comes with the paper, soaked in the salting solution, and, same paper in a salting solution that also had 2g gelatin, or, a second sizing of the paper.
What I found out, is that the paper continues to coat quite well, evenly absorbing the silver over the same amount of time, roughly, with all other variables held the same. The print, however, is quite a bit more contrasty than the earlier version printed on Arches paper (with the sizing). That image printed in the full tonal range of the negative in 15 minutes. This print image on the double sized paper printed 25 minutes, with Zone 7 not fully in to my liking. A fine tuning thing, but still not what I am looking for.
Paper; Revere Platinum ~ Binder solution; 2g gelatin, 2 1/2% salt (25g) ~ Sensitizer; Silver 13% sol
The finished print was digitally photographed, then transferred to Lightroom for straightening and prepping and hopefully toning correctly to be very close to the finished print, next to the screen with my patient wife (who is a watercolor artist, and sees all the colors) for guidance.
Palladium toned Salted Silver Print ~
"Stagecoach on Main Street" ~ 8"x10" ~ 1/5
Tombstone, Arizona
I have an image in my head for how "Stagecoach on Main Street" will look when I have tampered with every aspect of that image in creating 'my version' of what that image should look like. Another printer might likely alter things to suit their own tastes, perhaps even changing toner. After seeing the finished print of the horse head, I have changed plans for toning that image. I will be using gold toner. But first I will be adding density to the lower tonal ranges and reducing density of the highlights by just a smidgen, to better print for a gold toner, which will deepen the shadow area and below like nothing else. Palladium toner lightened the very same shadow areas, considerably. The warm palladium tone for the white horse leaves a sort of dirty look to the white horse. It did make the harness look good, but then the gold toner will also make it snap, and make the shadow area and lower tones a deep black. Weston's Amidol black, and that would make the image more visually impactful.
Sharing the darkroom printing days now with PJ leaves a finite ability to print. We work quite well together, sharing space and printer, and processing. We average three prints each per print session. Today's session was a paper test, using the same negative. What was printed on Platine, or Arches 140 lb hot press paper, sized with the standard 2g/liter sizing with the 2 1/2% salt, coated twice with 13% solution silver. This print run we used the new Revere Platinum paper, which is pre-sized, as is Platine paper. What I printed on today was Revere Platinum paper, with two levels of sizing. The standard sizing that comes with the paper, soaked in the salting solution, and, same paper in a salting solution that also had 2g gelatin, or, a second sizing of the paper.
What I found out, is that the paper continues to coat quite well, evenly absorbing the silver over the same amount of time, roughly, with all other variables held the same. The print, however, is quite a bit more contrasty than the earlier version printed on Arches paper (with the sizing). That image printed in the full tonal range of the negative in 15 minutes. This print image on the double sized paper printed 25 minutes, with Zone 7 not fully in to my liking. A fine tuning thing, but still not what I am looking for.
Paper; Revere Platinum ~ Binder solution; 2g gelatin, 2 1/2% salt (25g) ~ Sensitizer; Silver 13% sol
The finished print was digitally photographed, then transferred to Lightroom for straightening and prepping and hopefully toning correctly to be very close to the finished print, next to the screen with my patient wife (who is a watercolor artist, and sees all the colors) for guidance.
Palladium toned Salted Silver Print ~
"Stagecoach on Main Street" ~ 8"x10" ~ 1/5
Tombstone, Arizona
Tuesday, October 11, 2016
Second Test Print ~ First Printing
The portfolio of southwestern themed images continues to slowly expand as I work through the density issues. As I noted in the last post we have reached a printing range, averaging 8 minutes, sometimes 10 minutes, which is right about where we want to be. The work now is fine tuning the negatives to arrive at the optimal print image as we each envision it to be. My tastes for what a print should look like have changed over the past thirty years.
For me, printing in the high density range is the trickiest part of the process with hand coated processes, lightening or darkening during toning and dry down can sometimes be considerable. It takes practice to more fully control for those variables. The print sessions are demonstrating that in big ways. Several of the images I was able to capture in Tombstone were without any modernity in the scene. No vehicles, people or parcels to take away from the frontier facade the town goes to great lengths to convey to the visitors who flock there. There are also period characters who make the setting even more authentic. I will be printing more of the scenes with characters, one being of Doc Holliday graciously posing naturally on the board walk.
This image of a white horse, with full harness, seemed a decent challenge to portray in silver or palladium. Zone 7 in all its splendor, full range with textural detail. I'm not there yet. I am close, on this first test print. Now the tuning comes into play. Next run, it will be much better.
Paper; Revere Platinum ~ Salted; 2 1/2% solution ~ Silver; 13% sol (saturated) 1 coat
Palladium toned Salted Silver Print
"Horse Head" ~ 8"x10"
Tombstone, Arizona
For me, printing in the high density range is the trickiest part of the process with hand coated processes, lightening or darkening during toning and dry down can sometimes be considerable. It takes practice to more fully control for those variables. The print sessions are demonstrating that in big ways. Several of the images I was able to capture in Tombstone were without any modernity in the scene. No vehicles, people or parcels to take away from the frontier facade the town goes to great lengths to convey to the visitors who flock there. There are also period characters who make the setting even more authentic. I will be printing more of the scenes with characters, one being of Doc Holliday graciously posing naturally on the board walk.
This image of a white horse, with full harness, seemed a decent challenge to portray in silver or palladium. Zone 7 in all its splendor, full range with textural detail. I'm not there yet. I am close, on this first test print. Now the tuning comes into play. Next run, it will be much better.
Paper; Revere Platinum ~ Salted; 2 1/2% solution ~ Silver; 13% sol (saturated) 1 coat
Palladium toned Salted Silver Print
"Horse Head" ~ 8"x10"
Tombstone, Arizona
New Printing ~ Print Comparison
After umpteen articles on theoretical application and procedure we re arriving at the printing range needed for a fully scaled image at a print time as close to ten minutes as possible. I view print time the same way I do setting densities in a negative. Each negative is unique, in density arrangement and printing time because of unique density range & and shape of the contrast index curve. Realizing I will catch hell for saying that, but that is the case.
Below is the before and after images, from the negatives I compared in yesterday's post, respectively. At one time, I would have likely preferred the first image for it's strong contrast, and deep blacks. Apparently my tastes have mellowed over the years, as I tend to like to see textural detail in all the zones that would normally exhibit detail, even texture. What was altered in the newer negative is an adjustment of approximately one tonal range worth of density added to the lower tonal range; the shaded area under the roof, especially the deeper shadow area around the woman at the door. I also manipulated the highlight region, representing Zones 7-8 and decreased the density.
In this particular instance, using the contrast adjustment would have corrected the too long of density range, but the hand manipulation, using standard Lightroom controls works best for me. Perhaps when I get good at reading densities I can incorporate other tools and techniques. After a thirty year hiatus, my eye has forgotten a lot. There is another element involved with decisions of negative density and how much to print down a negative, personal proclivities of vision, tastes. I am not yet finished with this image. All the images I am posting are test prints, considering all of the above variables. I have arrived at a workable printing range in the basic sense. I can get each negative to print and come out alright, I just haven't reached any final analysis on how exactly I want the image to look like. At this time, I am inclined to go the way of PJ's exploration of masking work, whereupon I would be able to work with just the tonal ranges in the shadow area under the porch roof, separating them better dropping the glassed area densities to Zone 1, woman Zone 2, porch area Zone 3 and the roof top and building facade Zone 6-7. That is the next step in fine tuning the negative to print exactly as envisioned.
Palladium toned Salted Silver Print
"OK Corral" ~ 8x10
First Negative
Area under the roof line has good separation and rich blacks but much is lost in the deeper shadow area around the woman. The roof and building facade have no detail at all.
Palladium toned Salted Silver Print
"OK Corral" ~ 8x1
Updated Negative
The area under the roof line here has been flattened by increasing the densities from
Zone 1-3. The manipulation I did affects this tonal range. The second manipulation was with the highlights Zone 7-8, which I decreased a full tonal range. This effectively compressed the entire density range of the image from the ends, towards the middle tones. There are parts of this I like, seeing detail and even texture, however I also want more contrast to show up, and that will take more local control of the densities. The next negative I print of this image will have the best attributes put to the final negative.
This is why I have come around again to my original approach to negative development. Each image is unique in all of its qualities, including density range, shape of the curve for controlling the relationships between densities, printing depth, toning choices and so on. Alter any of those variables and the final image is altered. Each image is an expression of one's artistic expression. I cannot imagine showing a portfolio with a dozen prints that were all identical. That's for computers to do, not an artist. Oh yeah, I am going to get slammed for that remark. Takes me back to explaining to a room full of photographers of every level and stripe that what we are actually looking for, in our gallery, were accomplished black and white photographers with a body of work to show for it. Raucous to mayhem in under ten seconds.
One thing is becoming very clear to me about toning with palladium. I do like the warm tones it brings to a print image, for the most part. One of the things it does do, in the formula I am using anyway, it lighten the shadow area over the course of toning. This was evident in the second print, whereas what appeared to be a rather dark area under the porch lightened up considerably after toning in palladium/citric acid solution. What I had thought to be plenty of print time, calculated by watching the highlights printing in, turned out to be just shy of where I had wanted it to be after toning. Gold toning is another animal. The formula I am using with the gold chloride (1%) luxuriously deepens the shadows and blacks. I mean Weston blacks. Choices. That is what it is all about, making artistic choices.
Below is the before and after images, from the negatives I compared in yesterday's post, respectively. At one time, I would have likely preferred the first image for it's strong contrast, and deep blacks. Apparently my tastes have mellowed over the years, as I tend to like to see textural detail in all the zones that would normally exhibit detail, even texture. What was altered in the newer negative is an adjustment of approximately one tonal range worth of density added to the lower tonal range; the shaded area under the roof, especially the deeper shadow area around the woman at the door. I also manipulated the highlight region, representing Zones 7-8 and decreased the density.
In this particular instance, using the contrast adjustment would have corrected the too long of density range, but the hand manipulation, using standard Lightroom controls works best for me. Perhaps when I get good at reading densities I can incorporate other tools and techniques. After a thirty year hiatus, my eye has forgotten a lot. There is another element involved with decisions of negative density and how much to print down a negative, personal proclivities of vision, tastes. I am not yet finished with this image. All the images I am posting are test prints, considering all of the above variables. I have arrived at a workable printing range in the basic sense. I can get each negative to print and come out alright, I just haven't reached any final analysis on how exactly I want the image to look like. At this time, I am inclined to go the way of PJ's exploration of masking work, whereupon I would be able to work with just the tonal ranges in the shadow area under the porch roof, separating them better dropping the glassed area densities to Zone 1, woman Zone 2, porch area Zone 3 and the roof top and building facade Zone 6-7. That is the next step in fine tuning the negative to print exactly as envisioned.
Palladium toned Salted Silver Print
"OK Corral" ~ 8x10
First Negative
Area under the roof line has good separation and rich blacks but much is lost in the deeper shadow area around the woman. The roof and building facade have no detail at all.
Palladium toned Salted Silver Print
"OK Corral" ~ 8x1
Updated Negative
The area under the roof line here has been flattened by increasing the densities from
Zone 1-3. The manipulation I did affects this tonal range. The second manipulation was with the highlights Zone 7-8, which I decreased a full tonal range. This effectively compressed the entire density range of the image from the ends, towards the middle tones. There are parts of this I like, seeing detail and even texture, however I also want more contrast to show up, and that will take more local control of the densities. The next negative I print of this image will have the best attributes put to the final negative.
This is why I have come around again to my original approach to negative development. Each image is unique in all of its qualities, including density range, shape of the curve for controlling the relationships between densities, printing depth, toning choices and so on. Alter any of those variables and the final image is altered. Each image is an expression of one's artistic expression. I cannot imagine showing a portfolio with a dozen prints that were all identical. That's for computers to do, not an artist. Oh yeah, I am going to get slammed for that remark. Takes me back to explaining to a room full of photographers of every level and stripe that what we are actually looking for, in our gallery, were accomplished black and white photographers with a body of work to show for it. Raucous to mayhem in under ten seconds.
One thing is becoming very clear to me about toning with palladium. I do like the warm tones it brings to a print image, for the most part. One of the things it does do, in the formula I am using anyway, it lighten the shadow area over the course of toning. This was evident in the second print, whereas what appeared to be a rather dark area under the porch lightened up considerably after toning in palladium/citric acid solution. What I had thought to be plenty of print time, calculated by watching the highlights printing in, turned out to be just shy of where I had wanted it to be after toning. Gold toning is another animal. The formula I am using with the gold chloride (1%) luxuriously deepens the shadows and blacks. I mean Weston blacks. Choices. That is what it is all about, making artistic choices.
Monday, October 10, 2016
Finished Negatives ~ Ready for Printing
I am sticking my neck out a bit here posting a negative as finished, before printing. It certainly won't be the first run around the block I've made for naught. I am fairly confident of this negative and these densities though, due to the last negative out; Stagecoach on Main Street, which printed right on the pre-visualized density range/relationship, as hoped. The negatives following have all been prepped the same way, roughly with the same density range and relationship as that one. The optimal word here being 'roughly', being the process utilizes visual inspection in setting the actual densities. There is no scientific or mathematical formula for this route. Old fashioned visual inspection brings this about. Sort of titillating, no?
I'm bringing up the terms range, and relationship separately simply because I believe them to be separate yet dependent variables affecting the negative, and hence the finished image. Once again, density range denotes the difference between the thinnest density of a negative (Zone I) and the densest density (Zone VIII), the basis of which means that when the 'print time' has been reached, Zone VII will have printed in, with the expected textural detail, and all Zones beneath Zone VII will also be printed in according to their relationship to other existing densities. That's the handshake.
Once a printable density range has been identified and applied to the negative image, the shape of the contrast index curve, more specifically the relationship between the tonal densities of that negative, is then created by defining the relationship of the tonal densities. By using the Curves function, bulging the curve to add overall density, shapes the curve to favor middle tones, decreasing the amount of the image's lower tonal values, and some highlight values. Utilizing the contrast function, then adding dichromate to the sensitizer, or developer, for increased contrast range reverses this, with most of the print image either as Zone 1-3 or Zone 7-8, with very little if any middle tones. Both processes produce finished images of beauty. They both have very different visual qualities.
The point of which is simply this. The choice of how your final print will look is yours to make, when preparing the negative. My personal view being that this should be done with each image to be printed, on its own merits, and personal choice of the mood of the image, bases upon those choices. Each printer has to find a process that accords to how they want their prints to look. There are numerous processes from which to choose.
One negative; two density ranges ~ two different density relationships
Original Negative;
What would have been a 'soft' negative when I began working with digital negatives, is now very hot, when also applying the spectral density. The woman in the doorway, and the storefront area behind her were depressed when trying to print down the roof & building area top of print.
Updated Negative; shorter density range with increased density in the lower tonal ranges.
The densities on the roof area is not that much more than the rest of the densities. I have not defined any part of this print where Zone VIII will be present. The only area I can see where Zone VII might show up is the strip of sunlight that separates the roof from the upper building facade. This is not planned as a full scale 8 zone print. The highlight area may reach Zone VII when all other values reach their respective print time. What can be seen is the redistribution of density values in a slightly different relationship to each other.
I'm bringing up the terms range, and relationship separately simply because I believe them to be separate yet dependent variables affecting the negative, and hence the finished image. Once again, density range denotes the difference between the thinnest density of a negative (Zone I) and the densest density (Zone VIII), the basis of which means that when the 'print time' has been reached, Zone VII will have printed in, with the expected textural detail, and all Zones beneath Zone VII will also be printed in according to their relationship to other existing densities. That's the handshake.
Once a printable density range has been identified and applied to the negative image, the shape of the contrast index curve, more specifically the relationship between the tonal densities of that negative, is then created by defining the relationship of the tonal densities. By using the Curves function, bulging the curve to add overall density, shapes the curve to favor middle tones, decreasing the amount of the image's lower tonal values, and some highlight values. Utilizing the contrast function, then adding dichromate to the sensitizer, or developer, for increased contrast range reverses this, with most of the print image either as Zone 1-3 or Zone 7-8, with very little if any middle tones. Both processes produce finished images of beauty. They both have very different visual qualities.
The point of which is simply this. The choice of how your final print will look is yours to make, when preparing the negative. My personal view being that this should be done with each image to be printed, on its own merits, and personal choice of the mood of the image, bases upon those choices. Each printer has to find a process that accords to how they want their prints to look. There are numerous processes from which to choose.
One negative; two density ranges ~ two different density relationships
Original Negative;
What would have been a 'soft' negative when I began working with digital negatives, is now very hot, when also applying the spectral density. The woman in the doorway, and the storefront area behind her were depressed when trying to print down the roof & building area top of print.
Updated Negative; shorter density range with increased density in the lower tonal ranges.
The densities on the roof area is not that much more than the rest of the densities. I have not defined any part of this print where Zone VIII will be present. The only area I can see where Zone VII might show up is the strip of sunlight that separates the roof from the upper building facade. This is not planned as a full scale 8 zone print. The highlight area may reach Zone VII when all other values reach their respective print time. What can be seen is the redistribution of density values in a slightly different relationship to each other.
Sunday, October 9, 2016
Sunday Theory
I don't have an fresh image to post for today, but you already knew that from the last post. This is more about process than product, as it is process that defines the outcome of the print. There are a number of methods to scaling a digital negative for printing in hand coated processes. Probably one of the originators of such a method is Dan Burkholder, who has applied his technique and written about it for twenty years now. He is also one of the photographers offering a workshop in connection with Bostick & Sullivan. I respect his methodology and his photographic work.
This isn't about any particular photographer or their methodology. This is about realizing a personal vision as a photographer, how you envision your prints to look. As a photographer and printer I have
my own preferences for how I shape the negative in order to arrive at that 'look'. No need for explanations there. Most of the photographers who might stumble across this blog, feel themselves to be a photographic artist, and stay with it long enough to have built a body of work demonstrating their photographic skills, would be in my opinion the remaining vanguard of black and white photography, in the traditional sense. These are the potential visitors I speak to.
I am honing my skills at visually inspecting a negative and realizing how it will print. And being anywhere near correct. More than once I approached a print using a negative I thought was going to make my heart glad, only to realize another failure far more extreme than I could have imagined. I was still what I call 'calibrated' to a visual density range derived before the addition of spectral density. The density range I was producing probably exceeded Colloidal plate density standards. Not even salt paper with 3% binder and double coating with saturated silver could record the upper densities without totally blackening the bottom half, after very long exposure times. Stunning failure, as I remember it at the time....
The above description of heartache on the road to discovery, is, I believe, part of the personal process of the photographer to shape their printing methods to better realize their photographic vision, through the various historical printing processes. So, back to existing methods for scaling the digital negative, something that will have to be addressed for anyone using digital negatives for printing hand coated processes. If you don't already have your own personal method that is working for you, there are several different methods to choose from. Each method results in a different 'look' to the print. This is not a good or bad, right or wrong thing, but a preferential choice. No different than choosing a method leading to a print that looks like a W. Eugene Smith, or say at Paul Strand. Both excellent photographers and printers. Their prints just don't look the same, which is why they are very recognizable as artists.
If you are already printing and having a ball, then there is little I can add to your experience unless it has to do with a medium you haven't tried out and are curious about. Pretty much the reason I take the time to write these articles. An open discussion, ideally, where ideas, practices and procedures are discussed to general knowledge or perhaps a different slant on the process(es) not already tried. As I said, there are numerous methods of arriving at a printable negative. Some are variations upon the theme. All are globally applied methods. That is, one theoretically "ideal" scaling is saved and later applied to each negative as it passes through. One outcome (tonal range and CI shape) for every printing.
I will mention again, that tonal range and the shape of the contrast index curve are not one and the same. They are two dependent variables intertwined in their actions in adding density to various tonal values, or tonal ranges, respectively. It is possible to have a very long tonal range, lowest density to highest density, and show mostly those two ranges without any middle tone values. It is also possible to have a print image with mostly middle tones, with lots of luxurious textural detail, but little dMax or even Zone 2 or even 3. Both realized a density range sufficient to reach dMax in the print time used, while retaining a Zone 7 somewhere in the print. The difference between the two is the shape of the contrast index curve. The first using direct contrast increases, along with potassium dichromate in the sensitizer to increase contrast, the second using curves to bulge the center densities, then applying spectral density (green). Both work. The prints look nothing alike. It's a choice.
I do not believe in using a global application for shaping a negative because for me it comes down to mood, for the print decision. What mood do I want attached to the image. Each negative for me is a canvas where anything that is going to happen, will take place, and where the goal is manipulating densities to reflect the feel of the final print. Every negative is a unique statement. Each negative has its own evaluation and manipulation to realize this effort. My personal vision for the print is scaling that image to showcase the full range of the tonal scale, proportionately. What I fudge sometimes are the density values that might not otherwise show much textural detail, say, Zones 3 & 7. But that's just me.
I have begun the process of printing a portfolio of southwestern images. Some of the images were captured thirty years ago using my Burke & James 5x7 blat bed view camera. It's actually older than me. The stagecoach image came from a Canon 20D DSLR a few years ago. There will also be images from Jerome, Arizona, and the Mesas in the Sedona Valley.
Here is a sample of an advertised application for scaling digital negatives. I have no knowledge of this product, and I do not advocate for its use. I am posting it to showcase the possibilities available photographers today. The use of the words "LOSSLESS" and"destructive" caught my eye..... This isn't free. This application is $75. I'm just too traditional to go there.
Precision Digital Negatives; http://www.precisiondigitalnegatives.com/
"The unique, patented, Color Density Range Control is a LOSSLESS method of tuning the negative to the requirements of your alternative process—resulting in far less drastic and less destructive adjustment curves. This system can do things that are impossible with any other system."
The plan is to spend my Monday in the sweet arms of the darkroom where I hope to print an updated version of "OK Corral" and a few other images from Tombstone. Well, that's the plan.
This isn't about any particular photographer or their methodology. This is about realizing a personal vision as a photographer, how you envision your prints to look. As a photographer and printer I have
my own preferences for how I shape the negative in order to arrive at that 'look'. No need for explanations there. Most of the photographers who might stumble across this blog, feel themselves to be a photographic artist, and stay with it long enough to have built a body of work demonstrating their photographic skills, would be in my opinion the remaining vanguard of black and white photography, in the traditional sense. These are the potential visitors I speak to.
I am honing my skills at visually inspecting a negative and realizing how it will print. And being anywhere near correct. More than once I approached a print using a negative I thought was going to make my heart glad, only to realize another failure far more extreme than I could have imagined. I was still what I call 'calibrated' to a visual density range derived before the addition of spectral density. The density range I was producing probably exceeded Colloidal plate density standards. Not even salt paper with 3% binder and double coating with saturated silver could record the upper densities without totally blackening the bottom half, after very long exposure times. Stunning failure, as I remember it at the time....
The above description of heartache on the road to discovery, is, I believe, part of the personal process of the photographer to shape their printing methods to better realize their photographic vision, through the various historical printing processes. So, back to existing methods for scaling the digital negative, something that will have to be addressed for anyone using digital negatives for printing hand coated processes. If you don't already have your own personal method that is working for you, there are several different methods to choose from. Each method results in a different 'look' to the print. This is not a good or bad, right or wrong thing, but a preferential choice. No different than choosing a method leading to a print that looks like a W. Eugene Smith, or say at Paul Strand. Both excellent photographers and printers. Their prints just don't look the same, which is why they are very recognizable as artists.
If you are already printing and having a ball, then there is little I can add to your experience unless it has to do with a medium you haven't tried out and are curious about. Pretty much the reason I take the time to write these articles. An open discussion, ideally, where ideas, practices and procedures are discussed to general knowledge or perhaps a different slant on the process(es) not already tried. As I said, there are numerous methods of arriving at a printable negative. Some are variations upon the theme. All are globally applied methods. That is, one theoretically "ideal" scaling is saved and later applied to each negative as it passes through. One outcome (tonal range and CI shape) for every printing.
I will mention again, that tonal range and the shape of the contrast index curve are not one and the same. They are two dependent variables intertwined in their actions in adding density to various tonal values, or tonal ranges, respectively. It is possible to have a very long tonal range, lowest density to highest density, and show mostly those two ranges without any middle tone values. It is also possible to have a print image with mostly middle tones, with lots of luxurious textural detail, but little dMax or even Zone 2 or even 3. Both realized a density range sufficient to reach dMax in the print time used, while retaining a Zone 7 somewhere in the print. The difference between the two is the shape of the contrast index curve. The first using direct contrast increases, along with potassium dichromate in the sensitizer to increase contrast, the second using curves to bulge the center densities, then applying spectral density (green). Both work. The prints look nothing alike. It's a choice.
I do not believe in using a global application for shaping a negative because for me it comes down to mood, for the print decision. What mood do I want attached to the image. Each negative for me is a canvas where anything that is going to happen, will take place, and where the goal is manipulating densities to reflect the feel of the final print. Every negative is a unique statement. Each negative has its own evaluation and manipulation to realize this effort. My personal vision for the print is scaling that image to showcase the full range of the tonal scale, proportionately. What I fudge sometimes are the density values that might not otherwise show much textural detail, say, Zones 3 & 7. But that's just me.
I have begun the process of printing a portfolio of southwestern images. Some of the images were captured thirty years ago using my Burke & James 5x7 blat bed view camera. It's actually older than me. The stagecoach image came from a Canon 20D DSLR a few years ago. There will also be images from Jerome, Arizona, and the Mesas in the Sedona Valley.
Here is a sample of an advertised application for scaling digital negatives. I have no knowledge of this product, and I do not advocate for its use. I am posting it to showcase the possibilities available photographers today. The use of the words "LOSSLESS" and"destructive" caught my eye..... This isn't free. This application is $75. I'm just too traditional to go there.
Precision Digital Negatives; http://www.precisiondigitalnegatives.com/
"The unique, patented, Color Density Range Control is a LOSSLESS method of tuning the negative to the requirements of your alternative process—resulting in far less drastic and less destructive adjustment curves. This system can do things that are impossible with any other system."
The plan is to spend my Monday in the sweet arms of the darkroom where I hope to print an updated version of "OK Corral" and a few other images from Tombstone. Well, that's the plan.
Saturday, October 8, 2016
Print Results ~ From Posted Negative
I'm feeling vindicated, having written about scaling a negative by visual inspection, and a good bit of it being theory. Well, some things stand up to reason with enough probing for holes. The newly added variable to the process is this spectral density. I have to say, it's fairly awesome to use, and I'm not sure it even matters exactly which green color, as long as it is a nice forest green, enough that someone who is color blind to green can see it on the screen.
I had sort of calibrated my eye to see a density range commensurate with what I would expect to see on a developed out negative, thick densities, to be able to print long enough under UV to reach dMax and still have highlights. The addition of spectral density changes that. It also seemingly increases the UV resistance of the green increasingly with each increased tonal density. Nothing scientific on my part to check this out specifically, yet having been seeing good results with negatives having extreme densities to get a full range silver print, negatives with an almost normal density range prints well.
This print is the result of printing the negative posted yesterday, 10/7. As I had hoped, the range of the negative has been compacted quite a bit, with the middle tones also greatly enhanced, to arrive at a negative that was visually representative of all the tonal ranges. The image is also copied with a DSLR and prepared to fit on screen and hopefully representative of the original. As close as my eye will allow.
Although I like the finished print, it remains a test print, perhaps an artist's proof to hand on my own wall. The final print will be about 2 minutes longer under the printer light to print in the details of the textural zones. I wanted to see how much dry down there would be on this print. Now I know. Two more minutes would increase detail enough to warrant the extra time. As I had hoped this negative allowed for detail on the top right corner, building top, and on the street in front of the coach. What this digital image isn't showing is the detail on the carriage and around it. What I learned is what those densities look like on a negative now. Now I'm in the sweet spot.
The print is printed on Arches 140 lb, gelatin sized and salted paper (2 1/2% salt), sensitized with (2) coats of saturated silver (13%) and toned in palladium.
"Stagecoach on Main Street" ~ 8"x10"
I had sort of calibrated my eye to see a density range commensurate with what I would expect to see on a developed out negative, thick densities, to be able to print long enough under UV to reach dMax and still have highlights. The addition of spectral density changes that. It also seemingly increases the UV resistance of the green increasingly with each increased tonal density. Nothing scientific on my part to check this out specifically, yet having been seeing good results with negatives having extreme densities to get a full range silver print, negatives with an almost normal density range prints well.
This print is the result of printing the negative posted yesterday, 10/7. As I had hoped, the range of the negative has been compacted quite a bit, with the middle tones also greatly enhanced, to arrive at a negative that was visually representative of all the tonal ranges. The image is also copied with a DSLR and prepared to fit on screen and hopefully representative of the original. As close as my eye will allow.
Although I like the finished print, it remains a test print, perhaps an artist's proof to hand on my own wall. The final print will be about 2 minutes longer under the printer light to print in the details of the textural zones. I wanted to see how much dry down there would be on this print. Now I know. Two more minutes would increase detail enough to warrant the extra time. As I had hoped this negative allowed for detail on the top right corner, building top, and on the street in front of the coach. What this digital image isn't showing is the detail on the carriage and around it. What I learned is what those densities look like on a negative now. Now I'm in the sweet spot.
The print is printed on Arches 140 lb, gelatin sized and salted paper (2 1/2% salt), sensitized with (2) coats of saturated silver (13%) and toned in palladium.
"Stagecoach on Main Street" ~ 8"x10"
Friday, October 7, 2016
New negative ~ Visual Scaling
I have begun altering my approach to scaling the digital negative for printing. As I move through the testing phase of negative densities and use of spectral density, two things have become clear to me in controlling the print. First, the use of green toned negatives as the optimal spectral density works, well. Secondly, the density range of the image doesn't have to be increased all that much.
There is a sort of quasi relationship between the spectral green and how it translates for each density range. What I am seeing is the green retards UV light, in proportion to the tonal density, with an increase in retardation as the negatives densities increase. The same green tone is going to retard the Zone 7 density more than it will the Zone 2 density. That has shown me that the really dense negatives I started out making are no longer needed now that I use spectral density for better print time using the Solar Printer. The green tone setting PJ and I have been using on our negatives has returned about a ten minute print time addition to the negative, otherwise. The sweet spot for printing for me is from about 8-12 minutes for silver based printing; salt paper, Kallitype, etc.
The new negative can be seen to have much more texture showing in the middle tones as well as highlights, where only near black showed before. This will be the revised negative I will be printing tomorrow, for comparative analysis to the original, and between the prints. I am having to retrain my eye to recognize the tonal densities of a negative by looking at the negative of the image. I know that can be done, and was.
"Stagecoach on Main Street" ~ Original Negative
Top right corner too dense to see building. Street density too dense to see any detail. Under belly of horses and carriage show very low densities, which translated to black in the print. There was a tinme when my eye wanted to see very strong differences between tonal ranges. I'm learning that this need not be the case.
"Stagecoach on Main Street" ~ New Negative
The highlight densities have been reduced a lot here, Shadow detail, as in street, building behind stagecoach, carriage and horses all show more gradation of tones, less stark differences. The middle tones have been favored, with the driver's shirt sleeve and roadway the densest tones. This negative should print as nicely as it looks. Now my eye is seeing the more subtle tonal differences, and allowing the green tone of the spectral density to handle print time. The longer print time means more silver melted on the print paper, better dMax and longer tonal range on the print.
The newer version of this image was done with me setting the densities by visual inspection, instead of relying upon a global application of setting density. I still believe that if we are to rely upon digital negatives for printing, we should also be able to control how each negative prints, and that means shaping the image by setting up the density range, for that image. Not all images are not going to be alike in mood or lighting condition. Creating a density range that creates the optimal effect for each image would be the goal. But that's just me. We'll soon see how this negative prints.
There is a sort of quasi relationship between the spectral green and how it translates for each density range. What I am seeing is the green retards UV light, in proportion to the tonal density, with an increase in retardation as the negatives densities increase. The same green tone is going to retard the Zone 7 density more than it will the Zone 2 density. That has shown me that the really dense negatives I started out making are no longer needed now that I use spectral density for better print time using the Solar Printer. The green tone setting PJ and I have been using on our negatives has returned about a ten minute print time addition to the negative, otherwise. The sweet spot for printing for me is from about 8-12 minutes for silver based printing; salt paper, Kallitype, etc.
The new negative can be seen to have much more texture showing in the middle tones as well as highlights, where only near black showed before. This will be the revised negative I will be printing tomorrow, for comparative analysis to the original, and between the prints. I am having to retrain my eye to recognize the tonal densities of a negative by looking at the negative of the image. I know that can be done, and was.
"Stagecoach on Main Street" ~ Original Negative
Top right corner too dense to see building. Street density too dense to see any detail. Under belly of horses and carriage show very low densities, which translated to black in the print. There was a tinme when my eye wanted to see very strong differences between tonal ranges. I'm learning that this need not be the case.
"Stagecoach on Main Street" ~ New Negative
The highlight densities have been reduced a lot here, Shadow detail, as in street, building behind stagecoach, carriage and horses all show more gradation of tones, less stark differences. The middle tones have been favored, with the driver's shirt sleeve and roadway the densest tones. This negative should print as nicely as it looks. Now my eye is seeing the more subtle tonal differences, and allowing the green tone of the spectral density to handle print time. The longer print time means more silver melted on the print paper, better dMax and longer tonal range on the print.The newer version of this image was done with me setting the densities by visual inspection, instead of relying upon a global application of setting density. I still believe that if we are to rely upon digital negatives for printing, we should also be able to control how each negative prints, and that means shaping the image by setting up the density range, for that image. Not all images are not going to be alike in mood or lighting condition. Creating a density range that creates the optimal effect for each image would be the goal. But that's just me. We'll soon see how this negative prints.
Thursday, October 6, 2016
Tombstone Print ~ OK Corral
It was sort of a shootout today, finding just how contaminated the water is in the old Barrio, old iron plumbing from a century ago, puts so much iron materials in the water and just a drop, just touch that stuff and the paper you want to lay silver solution on and dark splotches show up like a filthy disease. the negatives I took with me were ones I prepared using the Burkholder method. For whatever reason, that increased the densities at the high end making the prints almost impossible to print down. Not a problem with Dan's method. Something I overdid in the negative.
I have already revisited the negatives and reworked them my personal way of density assignment though visual inspection. Another set of negatives are ready for printing, at which time I will be able to put prints side by side with two methods of setting up the negative.
For whatever reason, the density range went wild on the negative of the stagecoach, putting the upper zones out of printable range. The print below is a Kallitype, toned in palladium. Zone 6 is barely printed in and Zone 7 & 8 aren't apparent. The adjustment I made was a small curved bulge to the curve, then tone the image green, as all other negatives.
Palladium toned Kallitype ~ "Stagecoach on Main Street"
8"x10" ~ Revere Platinum paper ~ Black developer
Palladium toned Salt Paper Print ~ "OK Corral"
8"x10" ~ Arches 140lb cream
In both prints, the upper tonal ranges were much too dense for printing in relative to the middle tones, suppressing them, as seen in the image above, with the higher tonal range, roof & store front on top, have lost all texture and detail. Next negative will be one I set up using my own method.
The Kallitype print of the Stage coach was a twenty five minute print, on a Kallitype. Very serious densities. I am having to learn to dial back on the densities way more than I had first anticipated, having had to use them before the spectral density variable came into play. I am not at all convinced the spectral color affects all density ranges equally. I believe they retard the higher opacities proportionately more than the lower tonal ranges. Still sorting that one out.
If all works out as planned there will be corrected prints to show before the week is up. Stay tuned.
I have already revisited the negatives and reworked them my personal way of density assignment though visual inspection. Another set of negatives are ready for printing, at which time I will be able to put prints side by side with two methods of setting up the negative.
For whatever reason, the density range went wild on the negative of the stagecoach, putting the upper zones out of printable range. The print below is a Kallitype, toned in palladium. Zone 6 is barely printed in and Zone 7 & 8 aren't apparent. The adjustment I made was a small curved bulge to the curve, then tone the image green, as all other negatives.
Palladium toned Kallitype ~ "Stagecoach on Main Street"
8"x10" ~ Revere Platinum paper ~ Black developer
Palladium toned Salt Paper Print ~ "OK Corral"
8"x10" ~ Arches 140lb cream
In both prints, the upper tonal ranges were much too dense for printing in relative to the middle tones, suppressing them, as seen in the image above, with the higher tonal range, roof & store front on top, have lost all texture and detail. Next negative will be one I set up using my own method.
The Kallitype print of the Stage coach was a twenty five minute print, on a Kallitype. Very serious densities. I am having to learn to dial back on the densities way more than I had first anticipated, having had to use them before the spectral density variable came into play. I am not at all convinced the spectral color affects all density ranges equally. I believe they retard the higher opacities proportionately more than the lower tonal ranges. Still sorting that one out.
If all works out as planned there will be corrected prints to show before the week is up. Stay tuned.
Printing Day ~ New Negatives
I will be printing the negative I posted yesterday in a couple hours. Titillating possibilities, as well as a bit of apprehension, being I've already posted the negative to be used, ergo... I will be bringing back a finished print that will exceed promising, and of course be visually awesome. Reminds me of the fishing host/guide on the television program I was taping, with constant high anxiety each and every show, just the possibility of not actually hooking into a fish and be able to to yell... "Fish On!". Well, in the words of a now dead war hero... Charge! That's all I can do at this point. Wish me well....
Tuesday, October 4, 2016
New Negatives ~ Working Formula
The search for the grail of best printable density ranges for printing in silver has pretty much run its course. Mostly. Still a lot of things that will be tested, to continue fine tuning the process. What has proven out well is the sort of hybrid process PJ has conjured up through his efforts in Photoshop, which I don't have. The closest thing I have is Corel Paintshop Pro, which I would recommend to any photographer doing digital imagery.
The last negative test was using PJ's visually inspected density manipulation through various density ranges related to the hue factor that was coupled with it. There is a mutual influence taking place between PJ and me. PJ's negatives, for my historical tastes, were rather thin. He has been seeing the negatives I have been handing him, and how they print, and has accordingly begun pumping up the densities of his image considerably. Reciprocally, I come from negative densities that one can skate on, and am coming to realize such densities don't need to be applied to be printable. There is a commonality in that reciprocal relationship; the spectral density of green toning of the negative image.
What I am seeing happening is that our negatives have now arrived at about the same place, both using green toned negatives, with densities that could easily be intertwined without altering much of the image structure. That tells me we're moving in the right direction, arriving at a density range setup that is printing as we like, respectively. The previous images I've been posting are nearing a final stage of printing, so I have begun flipping through folders of images I've kept on a separate drive. Too many to count. Being I live in an old western town in the Sonoran Desert, not far from the Mexican border, I need to look through the western focused images. These will be the next negatives used to print. This is how I prefer to view the image when making decisions about the finished print.
8x10 Negative ~ Green Toned
OK Corral; Tombstone, Arizona
8x10 Negative ~ Green Toned
Stagecoach Main Street ~ Tombstone, Arizona
The last negative test was using PJ's visually inspected density manipulation through various density ranges related to the hue factor that was coupled with it. There is a mutual influence taking place between PJ and me. PJ's negatives, for my historical tastes, were rather thin. He has been seeing the negatives I have been handing him, and how they print, and has accordingly begun pumping up the densities of his image considerably. Reciprocally, I come from negative densities that one can skate on, and am coming to realize such densities don't need to be applied to be printable. There is a commonality in that reciprocal relationship; the spectral density of green toning of the negative image.
What I am seeing happening is that our negatives have now arrived at about the same place, both using green toned negatives, with densities that could easily be intertwined without altering much of the image structure. That tells me we're moving in the right direction, arriving at a density range setup that is printing as we like, respectively. The previous images I've been posting are nearing a final stage of printing, so I have begun flipping through folders of images I've kept on a separate drive. Too many to count. Being I live in an old western town in the Sonoran Desert, not far from the Mexican border, I need to look through the western focused images. These will be the next negatives used to print. This is how I prefer to view the image when making decisions about the finished print.
8x10 Negative ~ Green Toned
OK Corral; Tombstone, Arizona
8x10 Negative ~ Green Toned
Stagecoach Main Street ~ Tombstone, Arizona
Test Day Prints ~ Catching Up
Life continues to demand my total attention from time to time, as it's known to do. My mother often intoned the creepy phrase..."there's no rest for the wicked". Not that everything went to hell after that, just a cautionary tale my mother was known to savor. Life contingencies dealt with I am once again working on images. I learned some things, last printing session.
Working with the negative densities as we have has given us the expected bio-feedback loop of visually realizing the proper densities of an image by repeated exposure to comparison of digital negative to finished print. Windy way of talking about familiarity. Now finally having an 11x14 print frame means uncut digital negatives and larger paper size for coating. Which calls for larger trays, more chemistry, and well, you know about that. We had just cycled out of all 8x10 paper we had been using, with the smaller frame. The paper used in these test prints were two variations of Canson paper; 90lb and 140lb respectively. Both were prepared for salt paper printing, at 2 1/2% (sodium chloride) There isn't a lot of difference in print image from these papers than from the lighter weight Canson paper and Arches Platine paper I had used before, respectively.
Although I did like the heavier Canson paper I used, I am liking even more the Revere Platinum paper, that arrived in time to try it out. That paper doesn't have a lot of information on it but I learned a valuable lesson on the print I made. Each side of the paper was slightly different, in the same way as on Platine. I got curious about just how an image might sit on the smoother side. That image is below. I probably wouldn't do it again, as part of the quality of a hand coated image is how it interacts with the paper. For me, having the image sit completely on the surface doesn't enhance it.
I also must confess to pulling out the wrong digital negative for the dancing Indians image. One rather flat, not having been enhanced with increased densities. It basically printed, just not fully as it could have. The Lilies were printed on Revere Platinum, on the smoother, more sealed side of the paper. Hopefully the next foray into the darkroom will be with the new negatives I just finished preparing, with all improvements we have come to learn over the past weeks. The flat bottom toning tray has yet to arrive, to my painful chagrin. Thus toning must wait just a bit longer.
Binder: 2 1/2% sodium chloride ~ Canson 140lb hot press uncoated stock
Silver; 2 Coats ~ 13% (saturated) ~ with Citric Acid (2g) ~ gelatin sizing 7g/1000ml
Soft negative;
Un-toned Salted Silver Print ~ "Sacred Dance" ~ 8x10
Un-toned Kallitype ~ "Lilies" ~ 8x10
Printed on smooth 'closed' side of paper. Image sits right on top.
Working with the negative densities as we have has given us the expected bio-feedback loop of visually realizing the proper densities of an image by repeated exposure to comparison of digital negative to finished print. Windy way of talking about familiarity. Now finally having an 11x14 print frame means uncut digital negatives and larger paper size for coating. Which calls for larger trays, more chemistry, and well, you know about that. We had just cycled out of all 8x10 paper we had been using, with the smaller frame. The paper used in these test prints were two variations of Canson paper; 90lb and 140lb respectively. Both were prepared for salt paper printing, at 2 1/2% (sodium chloride) There isn't a lot of difference in print image from these papers than from the lighter weight Canson paper and Arches Platine paper I had used before, respectively.
Although I did like the heavier Canson paper I used, I am liking even more the Revere Platinum paper, that arrived in time to try it out. That paper doesn't have a lot of information on it but I learned a valuable lesson on the print I made. Each side of the paper was slightly different, in the same way as on Platine. I got curious about just how an image might sit on the smoother side. That image is below. I probably wouldn't do it again, as part of the quality of a hand coated image is how it interacts with the paper. For me, having the image sit completely on the surface doesn't enhance it.
I also must confess to pulling out the wrong digital negative for the dancing Indians image. One rather flat, not having been enhanced with increased densities. It basically printed, just not fully as it could have. The Lilies were printed on Revere Platinum, on the smoother, more sealed side of the paper. Hopefully the next foray into the darkroom will be with the new negatives I just finished preparing, with all improvements we have come to learn over the past weeks. The flat bottom toning tray has yet to arrive, to my painful chagrin. Thus toning must wait just a bit longer.
Binder: 2 1/2% sodium chloride ~ Canson 140lb hot press uncoated stock
Silver; 2 Coats ~ 13% (saturated) ~ with Citric Acid (2g) ~ gelatin sizing 7g/1000ml
Soft negative;
Un-toned Salted Silver Print ~ "Sacred Dance" ~ 8x10
Un-toned Kallitype ~ "Lilies" ~ 8x10
Printed on smooth 'closed' side of paper. Image sits right on top.
Saturday, October 1, 2016
Test Day Print ~ Salted Silver
Today's test print was a reprint of the Chateau Scene I had printed using the bulged curve method to increase the density range. What remained constant was the green toned image. The green tone controls the print time. The tonal range of the print is controlled by the density range of the negative. I took Burkholder's method of bulging the curve, except I apparently got too excited, and my bulge was more like Berle Ives wasteline than Dan's curve.
This was the negative that PJ created in Photoshop, right in front of my eye and still I cannot tell you what he was doing. He had used the Photoshop command to turn the RGB negative into a 'black and white', which it promptly did, also bringing up a control window with half a dozen hue controls, much like a CYMK representation, with a couple others added. By using the slider on each hue control reciprocally added or decreased density in different tonal ranges. Also assigned to this 'black and white' image, was the green tone needed to hold back print time. Technically speaking, it could be said that an overall green tone on an image should retard the UV light in all areas, tonal ranges, equality. Ergo, the heuristic value of using the spectral density isn't altering the tonal range of a print, but to retard UV light, increasing the print time, which does have some affect on the finished print.
A negative with a print time of three minutes, which I have, will result in a print with a shorter tonal range, flatter, than a print with the same density range on a negative, with the color (spectral density) added, (which happens to be green). The same negative, toned green as we are applying, will add approximately 10 minutes to that print time. That added time will increase dMax drastically. It takes several minutes of print time on a hand coated silver print to come near reaching dMax. Ten minutes and it is certainly possible with our Solar Printer. But not in sunlight, unless pointed into the sun.
What the two prints showed clearly is that PJ's method works extremely well controlling the various tonal ranges for more fine tuning. After I had left yesterday after printing my new negative, he continued to work on our new system, of intuitive density assignment of tonal values by visual inspection, then an added spectral density for print timing. I am told he can now select any desired density area, using masking and layering, to control that specific area for manipulation of all sorts. This of course is deeply exciting to me. We treated print paper for salted silver printing, and my new Revere Platinum paper arrived upon returning home today. Monday is going to be another delicious day in the darkroom.
Two print images from two negatives, using two methods of preparing the negatives. The first image was my using the curves function to bend the middle tones upward adding probably... seemingly double the density of the original. Both prints were salted silver prints, on Canson White paper, un-sized and at 3% salt binder on the paper. I had misjudged the efficacy of the spectral density, accounting for the way to dense middle. That was a 30 minute print time.
Image number two is the same image, this time manipulated by PJ in Photoshop as described above, increasing the density range, seen in the middle area, from the house towards the viewer, separation that wasn't seen in the first image. This print also had the same green tone treatment. This was an
8 minute print time. The density range between the tonal value doesn't have to be as extreme as I had been making them, before finding the path to spectral density. I am also coming to realize that another way of altering print time is to back off the UV intensity. But that's another article.
Palladium toned Salted Silver ~ "Chateau Scene"
30 min print time ~ bulging the middle densities of the 'curves' function (overdone, much too dense)
Tones in front of house is mostly one tonal range, also mountains and clouds not nearly printed in.
Palladium tone Salted Silver Print ~ "Chateau Scene"
8 minute print time ~ PJ's manipulated tonal range
Tones in front of house has separated some with PJ's manipulation
Another manipulation will increase the separation between tonal densities. The final area to intensify is the sky, the bilious clouds should be the same density as the house. When the house prints to Zone 7 the clouds will be at Zone 7.
This was the negative that PJ created in Photoshop, right in front of my eye and still I cannot tell you what he was doing. He had used the Photoshop command to turn the RGB negative into a 'black and white', which it promptly did, also bringing up a control window with half a dozen hue controls, much like a CYMK representation, with a couple others added. By using the slider on each hue control reciprocally added or decreased density in different tonal ranges. Also assigned to this 'black and white' image, was the green tone needed to hold back print time. Technically speaking, it could be said that an overall green tone on an image should retard the UV light in all areas, tonal ranges, equality. Ergo, the heuristic value of using the spectral density isn't altering the tonal range of a print, but to retard UV light, increasing the print time, which does have some affect on the finished print.
A negative with a print time of three minutes, which I have, will result in a print with a shorter tonal range, flatter, than a print with the same density range on a negative, with the color (spectral density) added, (which happens to be green). The same negative, toned green as we are applying, will add approximately 10 minutes to that print time. That added time will increase dMax drastically. It takes several minutes of print time on a hand coated silver print to come near reaching dMax. Ten minutes and it is certainly possible with our Solar Printer. But not in sunlight, unless pointed into the sun.
What the two prints showed clearly is that PJ's method works extremely well controlling the various tonal ranges for more fine tuning. After I had left yesterday after printing my new negative, he continued to work on our new system, of intuitive density assignment of tonal values by visual inspection, then an added spectral density for print timing. I am told he can now select any desired density area, using masking and layering, to control that specific area for manipulation of all sorts. This of course is deeply exciting to me. We treated print paper for salted silver printing, and my new Revere Platinum paper arrived upon returning home today. Monday is going to be another delicious day in the darkroom.
Two print images from two negatives, using two methods of preparing the negatives. The first image was my using the curves function to bend the middle tones upward adding probably... seemingly double the density of the original. Both prints were salted silver prints, on Canson White paper, un-sized and at 3% salt binder on the paper. I had misjudged the efficacy of the spectral density, accounting for the way to dense middle. That was a 30 minute print time.
Image number two is the same image, this time manipulated by PJ in Photoshop as described above, increasing the density range, seen in the middle area, from the house towards the viewer, separation that wasn't seen in the first image. This print also had the same green tone treatment. This was an
8 minute print time. The density range between the tonal value doesn't have to be as extreme as I had been making them, before finding the path to spectral density. I am also coming to realize that another way of altering print time is to back off the UV intensity. But that's another article.
Palladium toned Salted Silver ~ "Chateau Scene"
30 min print time ~ bulging the middle densities of the 'curves' function (overdone, much too dense)
Tones in front of house is mostly one tonal range, also mountains and clouds not nearly printed in.
Palladium tone Salted Silver Print ~ "Chateau Scene"
8 minute print time ~ PJ's manipulated tonal range
Tones in front of house has separated some with PJ's manipulation
Another manipulation will increase the separation between tonal densities. The final area to intensify is the sky, the bilious clouds should be the same density as the house. When the house prints to Zone 7 the clouds will be at Zone 7.
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