New Kallitype Print ~ Palladium Toning

Still I wait for my Pictorico, patiently, UPS and all, holding up the entire production line. In the meantime I pulled out old negatives, printed before I began employing spectral density to the negative image. What I am finding out is that the jump from the print distance of the first printer to my current printer is sufficient to warrant taking another look at the spectral density I'm currently using. It worked quite well in the prototype printer, 160W at 8" from the print. My current printer remains the same 160W at 12" from the print. I am working to arrive at a print time for silver between 10-15 minutes. That makes a gum print, using much thinner negatives less than ten minutes and a palladium print about the same, theoretically. Time will be the arbiter of that.

I have one negative I was able to print on the final sheet of acetate I had on hand, from the Arizona Portfolio. Being I can't yet reprint the negative to add densities for comparison, the negative came out well, and would print well as a salted silver if I used a 10% silver solution to a 1% - 1 1/2% salted paper. My paper is salted at 2 1/2% that a 13% solution of silver will be applied. My choice is to rework the negative to conform to that. Realizing that staying with a formula or procedure just 'cause that's the way it was always done, is not what you might call a good strategy. I fall pray to that from time to time. A new consideration for me is that I have begun shooting b&w film for development once again, for the purpose of printing 5x7 palladium prints, in a portfolio. The first will be the Old Barrios of Tucson, Arizona.

For a number of reasons, the old formula/process I employed thirty years ago needs to be revisited, tested against a different regimen that might satisfy printing in more than one medium, as a developed negative, as well as an enlarged version, which then can be altered for any medium. First stop for that test will be printing salted silver prints using 10% silver solution and 1 1/2% salted paper. The constant in this process, for me, is double coating. I firmly believe in that part of the process. Another aspect of the finished image is of course the toning. For this portfolio I am toning the prints in palladium. When I began printing the Kallitypes I used sodium citrate for the developer. This is a warm toned (brown) developer. I switched to sodium acetate as it is the (black) developer. The Kallitype leaves deep blacks that even palladium doesn't warm or soften. The palladium shows up in the middle and upper tones, as a warm tone. I believe befitting this portfolio, visually as well as historically.

The image I'm posting is from the negative I printed on the Kodak 3250 printer. Turns out, it is a bit flat, something I altered recently from the original, which had a considerably longer density range. Changing printers, and apparently darkrooms, has altered how the image is printing. The change in printing the Kallitypes, from printing sessions in PJ's darkroom, and now, remains considerably different, in that there is no printing in of the image now. Just the faint whisper of an image. What I have detected is the color change after ten minutes. The yellow gives way to a soft tan, with some darkening in areas outside the image. After ten minutes I could see Zone 1 and a smidgen of Zone 2 showing up, so I gave it another 5 minutes. The results, as closely replicated from the original print as I am able to muster digitally; below. For whatever reason I didn't crop off the coating edges. I'm still not happy with the image as it is, so there will be further printings after I can print a new negative.

Palladium toned Kallitype
"Miller's Store" ~ 8x10 ~ 1/5
Tombstone, Arizona