New Palladium Print

After a year of all out efforts to secure a full logistical system capable of scanning positives & negatives both roll film and large format, for re-scaling to 8"x10" negatives printed on acetate film, with the ultimate intent of making 8"x10" hand coated prints. The narrative of that adventure reads like a Dave Berry story. The irony of it all being I am currently making 5x7 palladium prints using the negatives I had hoped to scan. For now, they do just fine at their current size.

Being relatively new to palladium printing, I am finding it to be to my liking. A great deal of the liking part. Thirty years ago when I was making salted silver prints I was dreaming of making palladium prints. I am in the testing phase of palladium printing, learning the subtle differences related to Kallitype printing, which for all practical purposes is the very same process using different metal salts. The process and development procedures are identical. As is the relationship of the density range of the negative to the visual cues of the image appearing, during printing. That "whisper" spoken of in platinum/palladium printing, is a description of a softer negative. Using a negative with a density range up around log 1.8, that "whisper" becomes more akin to the "vague image" of a Kallitype, during the printing. The more density range, the more of the image can be seen during printing. I am finding my negatives are very close to 1.8, and I want to see the image up to about zone 4, at least, with the fuller image just beginning to form up nicely.

Another subtle difference between Kallitype & palladium printing is the Kallitype image is literally instantaneous when the developer is poured over the print. A palladium image is almost instant, with a slower uptake of the image, say a few seconds. I am currently using the ammonium citrate developer, as it is touted to render the image more of a neutral black, than the warmer image derived from the more traditional potassium oxalate developer. The image is still a 'warm' image. Just not as brownish.

This image was printed 6 1/2 minutes; full sun (It's monsoon here so there is little 'pure sun', usually always a bit of wispy clouds.) Predicting exact print times isn't a mathematical formulation, but an intuitive one, mostly by visual inspection of the image during printing. That of course demands trial and error until one gets the connection between the density range of the negative, and the how much of the image appears during said visual inspection. This is why it is so important to know your negatives, the density range, and assuming the negative development is constant, then the density range should be sufficiently constant for successful printing.

As the previous image, developed in Windish pyro/OH, this negative also was developed in this formula. Being a fully compensating developer, there is detail and texture in the lower tones in the image, deep shadow detail, as well as texture in the extreme highlights around the window and door of the bar image. There was a five stop different between zone 3 and what I wanted to be zone 7. Being the negative was to be printed in the salt paper process I didn't do a compaction of the shot, but instead developed it for the normal time, the pyro held back what would normally have become blank white area near the window, to a textured zone 7. I would like to add perhaps one minute to the print time of this image, just to bring the highlights down slightly.

Printed on Revere Platinum paper ~ 6 1/2 minutes ~ Full sun
Developed in ammonium citrate

Palladium Print
"Paul & Jerry's" ~ 5x7 ~ 3/5
Jerome, Arizona