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.

All of which goes to demonstrate the latitude of printing characteristics that can be achieved by altering the variables even slightly. My eye continues to study the density range and relationship to each other, and how those densities actually print out, individually and in aggregate. That shapes the contrast index curve and hence the very appearance of the print image. I have now revisited this group of test images and further tweaked the densities to print in shorter times, and less harshly, as demonstrated in the print "OK Corral".

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