Phase I;

The building project to put together a custom printing room is moving along nicely. The new workshop & tool shed is complete. Roofing comes next, then complete stripping of the current workshop down to the floor and rebuild everything, including the wiring. At my age, this is epic stuff, as well as hard on the body. Worth every ache and pain though, having a printing room out my back door. With the holidays and building there is precious little time for printing. My apologies. Soon though.

Schedule Break ~ Building Printing Room

Tomorrow my old friend Harry arrives to help be build a new tool shed/workshop for me then remodel the existing workshop into a custom darkroom/printing room. The first phase unfolds this week building and roofing the new shed, pulling down a dividing wall in the old workshop and hook up fresh switches and four-way plugs for the workshop. Phase two unfolds right after Thanksgiving when we finish the new space, add a dedicated electric leg for the air-conditioner, and new water line & sewer line hookups.

When the new printing space is completed I will be buying a Epson C88+ printer for printing the negatives, and will have a new UV printer that I'll build right here in the new workshop. I will be wringing out the new space and by year's end, all the bugs will be cleared and real printing begins in earnest. Be patient and good things will show up soon enough. I appreciate you taking the time to visit. Hopefully I make it worthwhile.

Second Print ~ Hot Negative

A second print from yesterday's printing session comes from the same negative group, so it also has a density range that is too long to print in well. The same situation with this image as the Longhorn Restaurant print, textural loss at both the lower and upper densities. Again, I have already corrected the negative to reflect the new density range. The print time will be approximately the same, there will just be more texture and detail at both ends of the tonal scale.

One more A/P print to hang on my walls at home, for awhile, until it is time to replace it with something newer. There will be three dancing Indians images in this portfolio. When they are printed right they will  be a nice accompaniment to the other period images. The Kallitype is very successful in showing off the dMax blacks. In this case the palladium toner enhanced the blacks a lot. Gold toner would also enrich and deepen blacks like nothing else, without adding the overall print warmth. There will be a lot of gold toned images coming after this palladium portfolio is finished. For me, the palladium suits these period images better than a stark black and white imagery. But then again, that's part of the printer's choice.

Paper; Revere Platinum ~ Print Time 15 minutes

Palladium toned Kallitype
"Sacred Spirit Dance" ~ 8"x10" ~ 1/5
Tucson, Arizona

Fresh Prints ~ New Insight

Today was not the best of days in the darkroom. Intervening variables made themselves known during the printing session, rendering two prints useless. Not the important part of the printing session. I've allowed my my calibrated eye to lose sight of the density objective, for most images. The nice bright densities slipped in to leave two negatives more contrasty than needed, losing texture in the top two tonal ranges as well as suppressing the lower tonal ranges from overprinting.

Today's printing session was working with the Kallitype. There are elements of that process I find enjoyable, even intriguing, although it is not the easiest process to nail down. As you know, the Kallitype is a mixed process; printing out before developing out. The print time being roughly 50% of normal print time, and I can only imagine that is derived from a fully printing out process such as the salt paper process. It is the other silver process I work with, and the one I worked in thirty years ago. I feel at home with salted silver printing, a printing out process.

As I mentioned before, the Kallitype will print more contrasty than the salted silver print, using the same negative and toning procedure. In my case it is because I use 13% silver solution for salted silver and the Kallitype calls for 10% solution in equal parts ferric oxalate. The lower silver percentage will create much deeper blacks; dMax. This print has plenty of dMax value, as well as Zone 7 and above, and that makes the image overall too contrasty for my taste. The second floor area of the restaurant should have full texture, and the areas under the roofed sidewalk could be a bit denser to hold in more texture as a Zone 3, instead of Zone 2. This is one of those prints I will hang on my wall for awhile, an artist's proof. When this one is reprinted it will have all the tonal values in place.

The drawback to the density setting method for negatives I use is that it is a visual calibration, and therein lies potential missteps like this one simply being too contrasty, too long a density range. I have already gone through the next batch of upcoming negatives to reset them to the corrected calibration.

Paper; Revere Platinum ~ Print time 10 minutes; the print time is correct

Palladium toned Kallitype
"Longhorn Restaurant" ~ 8"x10" ~ 1/5
Tombstone, Arizona

Continuing the Portfolio

Thanks to PJ I have three new negatives to take with me to the darkroom tomorrow to continue the portfolio. As exciting as that is for me, even more titillating is my old friend Harry arriving on Wednesday to begin the work of remodeling my current workshop into a custom printing room, after, building a new workshop & tool shed before making over my printing space. Two phases to be completed before month's end. Then the prints will come fast and furious, ten steps outside my back door to the printing room.

For now, I can keep the focus on the printing at hand, which is finally calibrated well to the processes involved. I have been printing in salted silver (salt paper) and Kallitype, then toning the prints in palladium, for the most part. I have been focusing on these two mediums to begin with as they are more straight forward than gum prints. Having spent an afternoon with a new found photographer friend, enjoying the hung prints at the Center for Create Photography on the UA campus, and a special viewing of W. Eugene Smith photographs upstairs, then on to the Etherton gallery to view a show including Roger Ballen, and the prices on his prints should make any photographer take notice. Apparently I haven't been paying attention to exhibitions over the past years. A fine discussion for another time.

Now that I have settled into a known routine for scaling negatives, there isn't much to discuss on that front, unless someone actually queries on that subject. What did come up in the discussions with my friend yesterday, was the ongoing photographic courses he is taking at the community college. All I will say on that front is to repeat what I have said before. Teaching general photography in a classroom setting, as well as photo journalism, event photography, commercial photography and the like can be useful. Attempting to teach fine art photography in a classroom tends to be a disaster. When I heard the curriculum and approach to hand coated processes, and the outcome, well, I kept my thoughts to myself.

Having been away from printing as long as I have has some big downsides, like not knowing the photographers who have kept to historical hand coated processes and stay with them. My friend left me with a link to such a photographer's website, who works in historical processes and can actually print well in gum, a very rare talent these days. I don't believe this young woman would mind my mentioning her here; dh bloomfield photography: http://www.dhbloomfield.com I applaud all those who keep the historical processes alive and well. Hopefully I will have an opportunity to meet this printer and see more of her work. In my thinking, there are advantages to gathering talent within a group effort to fortify and enhance all involved. Such a group effort within hand coated print makers to come together would be beneficial for everyone. I'm working on that.

The Tombstone Portfolio

Yes, I squeezed three posts out of three prints. You know that's fair, for a one eyed old guy. Printing will be more continuous when I have my own printing room at my house. That begins the 16th when Harry arrives and phase I goes into affect. The week after Thanksgiving is when Harry arrives for the completion of phase II, the actual printing room. I will also be building a second printer, now that we know this setup works as well as it does.

PJ was kind enough to print three more negatives for me this morning, which I then rushed to the darkroom to print. They confirmed the earlier negatives of the same densities before them, this is the optimal density range, with corresponding print time, for a final print with a full tonal range, or at least one desired. The entire tonal range of the negative can be manipulated, altering the densities in two aggregate groups. One group representing Zone 1, 2, 3, and a smidgen of 4. The second group controlling Zone 6, 7 & 8. By stretching or contracting those grouped densities, the image can be controlled quite closely. The values I assign are for my tastes, and might be printed slightly different for another rendition, but I believe I have shown that the density range is proportional as expected for the lighting conditions presented, being full sunlight.

I have worked on this print through numerous iterations of the image. This is what I had been working towards all along. As in all the other prints, the paper is Revere Platinum paper, using the salted paper process; 2 2/1% salted paper; 13% silver solution- 2 coats. This one was a seven minute print. It could have been an eight minute print. I saw this, after the toning and fixing of course.....

Now notice the Kallitype print below the salted silver print. Same negative, same toning, but what you see is the silver levels. 

Palladium toned Salted Silver Print
"Stagecoach on Main Street" ~ 8"x10" ~ 1/5
Tombstone, Arizona

Inkpress negative; Spectral density using green over a scaled negative I refer to as 'bright'. The use of spectral density as a valuable tool cannot be overstated.










Palladium toned Kallitype
Same negative, same palladium toning

The most obvious difference between the two images are the stronger blacks of the Kallitype. Some of this visual difference can be accounted for by personal error, copying the print then preparing it for posting can lead to unintended shifts. Basically though, the I have tried to print the image as demanded by each process. I was able to print down the salted silver print until everything had been printed in. For the Kallitype I had to follow rough protocol, being about 50%-60% of print time before development.



Printing conditions are basically the same between the two prints. Same paper, same negative and same palladium toner. Print time for this Kallitype was 5 minutes; 7 minutes for a salted silver. With exception to wanting to add one minute to the salted silver print image, both prints were for all practical purposes spot on. Full tonal range print in direct sunlight, everything in textura sl tonal range.

The real beauty of hand coated printing methods is the ability for each photographer/printer gets to create their own interpretation of any given image. I am a traditionalist, sort of.... I shoot and print pretty much like I was hoping to take my portfolio to Gallery 291 to see Alfred about a show. That's just me. By the time this post is being read I'll be at PJ's having negatives printed, more images for the Tombstone Portfolio. I plan on having fifteen prints for that portfolio. Portfolio II is already being organized.

Personal Artistic Tastes ~ Printing Choices

Although this blog has a stated focus of discussing hand coated processes and printing methods, the very energy that glues all the process and procedural elements into place is the artistic vision of the photographer. Nomenclature being what it is I prefer using the term printer, and printmaking. Many lines have been blurred over the years with technological advancements. Printmaking is the same now as it was 150 year ago when it was first applied. Speaking for myself, this is exactly why I adore it so much. In the past century of coating rag paper with silver or palladium, the traditional method was rodding, using a thin glass rod, heated and bent for 'handles'. The only real change to that procedure in that century is the advent of the "Puddle Pusher". Acrylic at its best, an 8 1/2" small rod, with a flat handle attached on one side. No more bending glass for handles....

Pushing silver back and forth over a piece of Revere Platinum 100% rag paper, a little soaking in each pass of the rod, is the same thrill today as it was when I first tried it thirty five years ago, as it was a century ago when the Secessionists hung their "poor man's platinum" on gallery walls. I'm going to stick my neck out here and posit that Paul Strand likely printed using platinum or platinum/palladium, as did Edward Steichen in his print of Alfred Stieglitz, and vise versa. Some day, perhaps palladium. My words will only ring well to only a slice of photographers today. Although a growing resurgence in hand coated processes. If there is karma, the resurgence in hand coated printers will continue to grow, and reciprocally, the art buying/collecting public at large will take notice of hand coated printmaking, in limited editions, and come to realize the collectable bargain those prints represent. Those that know me are aware of my fierce belief in limited edition artwork. Open edition and collectable art, are not mutually inclusive terms, for me.

At my age, my only intention is creating as many beautiful prints as is possible in the finite time I have left. How that is received by the public has no part to play with my printmaking. What I do intend for every print that is made by my hand is that it be worthy of an exhibition image, in archival form, printed well to represent the image as previsualized. It is true that pieces of modernity infringe upon the original salt paper process. Today I use a "Puddle Pusher" coating rod, on rag paper that's been around longer than I have, and today I'll slide the printing frame under the Solar Printer, close the printer door and flip on the timer. But that saturated solution of silver, soaked two coats deep into that rag paper is going to get black the same way it did for me thirty years ago, using the sun. I am enjoying the advent of technology upon my beloved printing procedure, but the print quality remains the same as it was those many years before.

What all this is about comes down to is finding a process, as well as a negative density range that reflects your vision. The density range of a negative alters the outcome of how a silver print will look, toned or not. One of the things I hope to bring out is the differences between processes. There are several processes that use silver, like the simplest of them all the salt paper process, the Kallitype, and the Van Dyke Brown. Each process uses a different form of ferric iron or salt as the binder for the silver solution, which ranges from 10% to 13%. Also, there are more than one developer for Kallitype and Van Dyke's, with each altering the final image color, from purplish, through red, red/brown, brown, black. It is the same with Pt/Pd printing. There is more than one developer.

I have found the Kallitype to be a very nice outlet for the printing. Tomorrow's post will show two prints from the same negative, same palladium toning, two different looks for the same image, a salted silver & Kallitype. The salted silver print was a 2 1/2% salted paper & 2 coats of 13% saturated solution of silver on Revere Platinum paper. The Kallitype is a single coat of 10% silver solution to equal part ferric oxalate 20% sol. The salted silver process using this relationship of salt/silver solutions handles a much longer tonal scale than the other methods. By reducing the silver solution, and salt solution relationship, increases the contrast of the image with the salt paper process. Hence the 10% silver ratio of the Kallitype reflects a more contrasty image. You will see this in tomorrow's post, with the two finished prints side by side.

The images I've been working on and posting make up the first portfolio, the Tombstone Portfolio. Next up will be another portfolio with more historical shots of Arizona, some taken in Jerome in the eighties when I made the pilgrimage home from Eugene, Oregon to visit. My connection to Jerome goes back to 1958 when I sat astride one of the burros that took children for rides on the cobbled streets, for 50 cents.

Paper; Canson White: salted 2 1/2% ~ Silver solution 13% ~ 2 coats

Negative; Kodak F-250 Super XX ~ using Burke & James 5x7 flatbed view camera

                 developed in Pyro/Hydroxide (Hybrid Windish formula) 20 minutes

Un-toned Salted Silver Print

1985 ~ 5"x7" ~ Unique

"Jerome House"

Jerome, Arizona

The Tombstone Portfolio

Every photographer who has ever developed their own film and printed knows what I mean when I say that the testing is over, printing begins. If I didn't make that abundantly clear whooping it up in the last post. My theoretical process is functional. One can set the densities of a negatives in an ordered way through visual inspection and arrive at a predictable print time and tonal range. In a nutshell.

The negative I posted a few articles back can be compared to the print that it made, and pretty the subsequent prints thereafter. That print was the sweet spot. Each print now may differ a minute or two, depending on interpretation of tonal values, which for me is when I see a Zone 8 slip into the texture of a Zone 7. I would also mention here again that toning will alter the print image. Palladium toning tends to lighten up darker areas of a print, meaning the blacks. If the black is well burned in it will remain, although perhaps not as deep. A gold toner would strengthen any black, deepening and enriching.

This print was a new one, a wider angle shot of the horse's head, posted earlier. Here, again, I will add two minutes to the print time, to bring in the fuller textures of the horses. I pulled the print as the man on the left was almost entirely black and I didn't want to lose any more detail. All that opened up when the print went into the palladium toner. Next time.

Palladium toned Salted Silver Print
"Hitching the Team" ~ 8"x10" ~ 1/5
Tombstone, Arizona

The Tombstone Portfolio

The testing of density range and print time is finished. I have arrived at what I believe is the optimal print time, and the finished print image is what I had envisioned. Once again I made three palladium toned prints in one print run. I consider that a pretty successful print session. These three well scaled negatives left reciprocal full scaled prints with 8 minute print times. Much less needs to be said about the final print beyond the tonal scale representing what I had in mind for the subject.

The OK Corral is the heart of Tombstone, the consummate story of how grudges were settled in the old west. My photographer's eye was always seeking dynamic opportunities with historical characters and scenes, when I see that opportunity approaching most signs of modernity can be eliminated as well, sometimes all, as in these shots. I haven't altered the natural signage.

The image I have most wanted to capture was the OK Corral, with Doc Holliday, bright sunshine outside and the Doc & woman character in the shade are both fully scaled. The new formula for scaling the negative has shown six prints in a row all print between 5 minutes and 10 minutes, most at 8 minutes. The variation mostly comes from personal interpretation of the print, and expectation of changes in the print due to lightening and darkening, respectively. I decided to error on the lighter side, leaving a Zone 7 white at Zone 8, say. Careful note taking helps when printing the image again.

The new negative accommodated for the roof & building facade brilliant sunlight as well as the deep shadowed area underneath the porch. Keeping the light effect on the woman's sleeve, and the crisp white took some tweaking. In the print, there is a full tonal range underneath the porch, as well as above. A good example of a compaction.

Palladium toned Salted Silver Print

"OK Corral" ~ 8"x10" ~ 1/5

Tombstone, Arizona

Consistency in Print Time

I have a stack of finished prints of the original dancing Indians in "Sacred Dance", flawed all, three of them with unexplained contamination marks, immediately taking them out of the exhibition level print. No need to mention this becomes painful after awhile. I haven't reprinted that particular one as after extracting the negative from the printing frame it too got contaminated with some sort of liquid. A quick check today shows that the liquid had no lasting effect on the negative.

What I did print was another variation of the dancing Native American Indians at a Pow Wow in Tucson. Native American Indians tend to shun having their photograph taken, for spiritual reasons. I try to respect that, for the most part. I don't single them out and try to make the portrait. If they are in the open public performing I feel that is fair game, and I have a long lens. One upcoming print will be a full frame image of Doc Holliday, mugging for the camera, and he looks glorious.

The Tombstone portfolio continues to grow. These new negatives are printing as hoped. The print time is such that the print reaches a 'good' point when the blacks reach dMax and the rest of the tonal range is separated to represent the subject matter in the lighting conditions of the time, or as the printer wishes to represent the lighting. The best aspect of the consistency within negatives is foreknowledge of outcomes to variations within the process. Variables like choice of toners, etc. it's all part of shaping the outcome

This was the third print, printed on Revere Platinum paper; salted 2 1/2% ~ Silver Ag 13% - 2 coats
Toned in palladium/citric acid ~ Center dancer is holding a large feather in front of his face.

Palladium toned Salted Silver ~ Salt Paper
"Horse Head" ~ 8"x10"
Tombstone, Arizona

Capturing the Light ~ Print Time

One of the biggest visual struggles when printing the salted silver prints is deciding exactly when to stop printing. At what point does further printer begin to suppress the middle tones without adding anything of value to the whites. Toning changes and fixing changes, then dry down all have small influences upon the final print, as many of you know. Having a predictable negative when printing just can't be stated well enough. The negatives of the new formula of visual inspection of density values is finally paying off. The prints are all coming out to be 10 minute prints, giver or take a smidgen. We have effectively created perfectly scaled negatives to work well with our 160W UV printer with light source 8" above the print surface. All of that can be rearranged to fit different printing needs.

The portfolio I have begun printing up is made up of images I shot some years ago while visiting Tombstone, Arizona. If one is sufficiently patient, there are short golden moments whereupon the shots are devoid of any modernity, which then makes the image a bit more visually traditional, especially in the palladium form. Perhaps that is but my personal proclivities, but I am hoping to present the images in as traditional a light as possible. The intent not being to deceive, but to visually show what one might see had the print been made a century before. There are a couple of time when a piece of a modern car needed to be cloned out, or some other small visual evidence out of period that would otherwise distract. I don't remove or re-text natural town or business signs.

I have other images of historical sites in Arizona, some being of Jerome, an old Copper Town that has legends of its own. The first portfolio of historical western images will consist of twelve planned prints. Perhaps that might swell to fifteen, as there is a sizable collection from which to draw from. There will likely be three or four prints with a stagecoach in the image, as it makes for rather fine historical material context. The negative formula has to do with offering good dMax, good shadow detail with full highlight texture and detail, all in a natural relationship to the lighting conditions.

I liked the weight of the barrel in the lower corner of the image, with decent blacks, showing detail in full shade, while holding in detail in the upper tonal values in full sunlight. The print time cut off was when the driver's white sleeve just separated from the surrounding tones and showed the first texture. That's the break between Zone 7 & 8. The gray range of the middle tones fell into place once the texture areas of Zone 3 and Zone & reached their optimal point (print time).

This print was also printed on Revere Platinum paper; salted 2 1/2% ~ Silver Ag 13% - 2 coats
Toned in palladium/citric acid

Palladium toned Salted Silver ~ Salt Paper
"Stagecoach from Porch" ~ 8"x10"
Tombstone, Arizona

New Prints from New Negatives ~ The Sweet Spot

I'm late. I know. Life and paying dues to the Trickster. I did make it to PJ's darkroom for a quick printing session before an appointment, then squeezing in a third print afterwards just because the new negative formula is right on. The sweet spot, the ten minute print, fully scaled. We have adjusted for every conceivable contamination scenario and now every print is a pristine print. The Puddle Pusher, can't say enough good things about that thing.

The original task was finding the correct density range/print time to print in silver, tone in palladium. The "Poor Man's Palladium". We've begun with the salt paper process to use as a baseline for print time, being one prints to visual completion in the salt paper process. That is, print in the image to where you would want the value to look like when the print is finally dry. There are considerations to make to do that. The above has caveats, one being toning choice. Toning in gold doesn't come out the same as toning in palladium. Then a small change after fixing, as a slight lightening, before that is mostly nullified after dry down.

The palladium toning lightens up the print image, mostly seen in the lower tonal range, where areas of black of about Zone 2 opens up, or lightens up to something closer to a Zone 3. The longer the density range, longer print time, this affect of lightening in the blacks decreases a bit. The negatives I have been working for, and how have, are effectively scaled for a full density range in the print, from pure black (Zone 1) to perhaps blank white (Zone 8), but certainly show the fully textured whites for the most part. I reprinted the Horse Head negative to fit the new negative formula and printed it today as a salt paper print, then toned it in palladium. I was after holding the majority of the white horse in the Zone 7 range of full texture, with the highlights in the white area, like along the upper mane, to be Zone 8, but just below complete paper base white.

The three prints were printed on Revere Platinum paper; salted 2 1/2% ~ Silver Ag 13% - 2 coats
Toned in palladium/citric acid

Palladium toned Salted Silver ~ Salt Paper
"Horse Head" ~ 8"x10"
Tombstone, Arizona

The Target Negative ~ Straight Printing

The first successful photography business I ventured into was called Straight Photography. I was something of a purest at the time. As I noted more than once, my mentor in all t hings black and white photography was Alfred Stieglitz. And no, I didn't actually meet him, although... I was only two years off when he passed on. What he espoused and promoted a century ago remains pertinent today, and I believe any photographer today who fervently remains in the black and white camp, especially film shooters, are the choir of this position.

I might mention here that even the digital black and white photographers keep to traditional b&w values, applied using digital tools instead of chemistry. Good news for them is the new Piezographers who are replacing ink sets; both dye and pigment, with carbon based ink, applying it to black and white photography digitally with nine nozzles of black. Technology marches along as healthy as ever, while the beloved black and white realm of photography remains constant, albeit perhaps, less printers today, with so many other avenues now available. Perhaps too, I am wrong, with more interest in black and white photography today increasing, with the Millennials finding the artistic joy of this craft as inviting as screen based entertainment. I have grandsons who show me a lot of said pulse.

Having opened this post with Straight Photography, such a subjective position makes for a seeming conundrum, although I might argue otherwise. I refer to Stieglitz' "equivalence", in that the final print is what the photographer/printer deigns it to be through personalized treatment. As you know, from printing. The comparison between the Salted Silver and Kallitype image of the stagecoach was for exactly that reason. By altering the negative, I alter the print's outcome. Personally speaking, I am after something in between those two images, and I believe the new negatives I just printed up will do exactly that.

One of the negatives I just printed up is the image of "Horse Head", which I printed a couple of sessions ago. What I came to see of this print was that the density range was off, leaving the print lacking detail,  yet shorter print time which shifted the image much warmer, with the palladium toning moving things even further warm brown. The new negative should/will correct this, printing in the upper tonal ranges, which are important being the primary image, the horse, is white. That's working for a tonal range within a tonal range. Fine tuning.

This print is a salted silver (salt paper) print, on Revere Platinum paper, salted 2 1/2% ~ 13% Silver solution; Print time 8 minutes, toned in palladium toner 4 minutes. The new negative will bring down the highlight zones and fill in lower tonal zones, shortening the density range just enough that everything prints in as desired when Zone 7 fills in. This print is okay, but not what it could be.

Palladium toned Salted Silver Print

"Horse Head" ~ 8"x10"

Tombstone, Arizona

New Negatives Printing

The last print sessions were very instructive on how the green toned digital negatives respond to the two different silver processes, with the density range from the last printing batch. The negatives I will be printing tomorrow will be pretty much the sweet spot between the green toning, in conjunction with the shorter density range. I am also reworking the lower tonal ranges, adding densities in balance with the upper tonalities to end up with a print with a full tonal range, when it is desired.

As I noted in an earlier post I had been training my eye to see a density range from very thin to 'can't see through it' densities, using ink alone. Before coming across Dan Burkholder's spectral density procedure. That has helped immensely in this pursuit. Being I have been working towards an identifiable negative it was necessary to continue using the same images for comparative analysis. That has shown me how the print warms up or cools off depending on the contrast of the print, which is controlled by the density range of the negative; i.e., print time shaping the final image. More print time deepens blacks, Zone 1 & 2, also better separation between tonal ranges.

A shorter density range and reciprocal short(er) print time tends to warm the print, and showcase the toner as well. The two prints in yesterday's post demonstrate this quite nicely. Both prints were made from the same green toned digital negative. Both prints were toned in palladium toner. The first print was as made in the salt paper process and the second print is a Kallitype. Print time for the salt print was 26 minutes, with an 18 minute print time for the Kallitype, which would have been better served with another 3 minutes of print time to bring in the top tonal values; Zone 7 & 8. There's no real texture in those areas. The fuller explanation of print time/print color is encapsulated in yesterday's post.

The negatives I will be working with now will be quite a bit softer in the sense of comparing them to the negatives I began with. Much of that has to do with the spectral density. That has become a constant, with a known value that can be easily added to any image when the density range has been set. That, is an intuitive procedure through visually inspection, in setting the fuller tonal range of the image by using the controls in Lightroom. Those controls manipulate tonal areas, pretty much divided around Zone 5. Zones 1, 2, and 3 are one group, Zone 6, 7, and 8 are another. Then there is overall amount of density of the negative, and specific controls for blacks & whites.

This post is about negatives, and these will be printed tomorrow for the next print session. PJ's "Puddle Pusher" coating rod is absolutely wonderful by the way. I will actually be working with new images that haven't been seen before. What a concept. The print I posted earlier of "Sacred Dance" printed very nicely as a Kallitype, a 10 minute print time image that developed out as hoped. These following negatives will be set accordingly to that negative. Here is what that looks like.

"Indian Spirit Dance" ~ 8"x10"

Diffferences between Salt Paper & Kaliltype prints

The first run at printing this image as a Kallitype was mostly successful, being I ended up with a print that wasn't ugly, yet not where it needs to be yet. As noted in yesterday's article the salt paper and Kallitype are cousins using an iron component for the silver to work with. Being the Kallitype printing method is still new to me I continue to learn new things about it each printing session. One of those new insights was seen today, printing the Stagecoach image. I had been working with that image using the salt paper method, as it one I have a feel for from the earlier years working with it.

The Kallitype is quickly becoming my new printing thrill. I like the methodology, perhaps because it is a mirror to the Pt/Pd process, and can be swapped with the Kallitype with a small tweaking of the ferric oxalate. Same process. What I learned from this print is that the same negative is much more contrasty in Kallitype form, The reason is the difference in silver content.

For now I am single coating the paper with the Kallitype process as it offers a good rich look and can handle the longer scale negatives. And there is where the contrast is showing up. In the salt paper print the silver is at 13% and the paper is coated twice. That's 1 ml each coat for 2 ml of 13% silver. The Kallitype uses 10% silver solution; and a single coat. That's a lot of difference in silver content in a print. The Kallitype is going to be more contrasty of an image than the salt paper print counterpart, using the same negative.

That showed up quickly today. That negative printed 18 minutes today, the salt paper print time was 26 minutes. That was the second lesson. The more contrasty the negative, the more print time can be given a Kallitype before it just turns dark. The Kallitype 18 minute print time difference is roughly 60% to the Salt Paper 26 minutes, and still the top highlights were not quite printed it. The print time will be adjusted to 21 minutes (a + 3 minute adjustment)

As with the other images the paper remains Revere Platinum

Palladium toned Kallitype
"Stagecoach on Main Street" 8x10"
Tombstone, Arizona
Kallitype ~ 18 minute print time ~ same negative both prints

Salt Paper Print ~ 26 minute print time

What also shows up is the print 'color'. The Kallitype is a cooler toned print, even though it was toned with the same palladium toner. Printing the image in tends to warm the print. Also the silver you are seeing in the salt paper is over four times richer than the Kallitype, well, originally, as the palladium replaces the silver in the paper and becomes a palladium print. What I will be looking for is any advantage to super soaking the paper with silver to make it very silver rich, if it is to become a palladium in the end. The question remains, does that structurally or aesthetically add to the image?

Print Day

A fairly decent return on the day's printing. The focus was on Kallitype printing. There are differences in how the final print looks, between the salt paper version and Kallitype. One of the variables at work here being the level of saturation of the silver solution in conjunction with the density range of the negative. With contrast being somewhat inversely proportional to silver saturation; that being, as the silver solution decreases the contrast increases with the density range of the negative remaining constant. The printing formula I use for the salt paper print is a saturated solution (13%) of silver nitrate, then two coat the salted paper. That allows for the longest possible density range of a negative. Perhaps it could be increases slightly by increasing the salt percentage from the 2 1/2% solution as I use, to 3% salt solution. After that, you're in uncharted territory.

PJ's "Puddle Pusher" coating rod arrived in time to be used today and I give it twelve stars our of five. It has all the advantages of using a glass rod without the necessity of having to use something equal to a Bunsen burner to bend it for the handle areas, etc. This plexi type tube comes with a rectangle handle that makes it all amazingly easy for coating the paper. No streaks, do uneven coating, just back and forth until the wall of silver ceases to be enough to move. Thanks to Photographer's Formulary for that wonderful little device.

I worked on two prints today. The first, of the dancing Native American Indians I've printed before,  using a different negative. The negative I used today had a longer density range and I believe printed in more to how I had envisioned it. It is from this negative I am redoing my other negatives. My eye now can look at the negative image and know if it will print well and for roughly how long, in our UV printer anyway. I will post the second image in another post as there is enough to discuss on the changes to the final image it is worth separating.

I am still printing on Revere Platinum paper, 300 g/M2 weight (approx 140lb) and I find it to my liking possibly just a tab bit more than the Platine paper. Both are high quality. Both come pre-sized as well. They both work well with and hand coating processes. This print was more contrasty than the print before it, and this shows up not only in saturation of the lower tonal values but also in the color shift in the final print; from the warmer toned print of the flatter negative/darker print. The print today is cooler toned, yet printed longer, as it had a longer density range.

Palladium toned Kallitype
"Sacred Dance" ~ 8"x10
Tucson, Arizona

Back in Printing Wonderland

The journey through Florida over the past almost two weeks was most enjoyable, as expected, with the view to view coverage of thick green, and water, lots and lots of water. The simple of it was six days in our favorite little town of Gulfport, Florida, the spit of land at the edge of St Petersberg, on the water. Our spot was on Madeira Island, one long, powder soft, white sand beach stretching for miles, uninterrupted along the waterline. Sand Pipers, White Egrets, Blue Herons, Pelicans, Gulls.... all diving and weaving and running about the shoreline eating along the way.

I did of course collect images. Lots of images of beaches and palm trees and funky structures still intact from times way before me, and well, beautifully funky. Doesn't fit well with the thread of this blog. No need to tell photographers the shooting gallery of images available the lens at any given time. For the flat field shooting of snapping a view, it's hard to beat the digital automatic form now. One of the ones I take with me is a Nikon 20meg 50X lens setup that is something like 75% or 80% efficient to grab a desired shot before it gets away. That's figuring in turn on time, hold shutter button for the metering/focusing function before capture. If it's a Dolphin all of a sudden leaping out of the water... don't even try. But if the shot is down an historical street or building, that's what it's good at, with exception to the normal parallax issues.

Which takes the issue back to an earlier post concerning the wonders of digital negatives. The photographic input can come from film or digital recording. It all goes through digital manipulation before final output onto the acetate sheet. PJ informs me his Fomapan 4x5 sheet film is on the way, as is the Inkpress acetate sheets, and Revere printing paper. Having stocked up on silver, palladium and supporting chemistry recently, it is printing time. There could be a time when I will call upon the images from the Florida trip, working on a beachy type portfolio. But for now, I have at least one portfolio worth of images of historical sites and activities from the Old West, sans any (almost) modernity showing, and worthy of being candidates to become a palladium print. Coming soon.