Beginning New Gum over Palladium Print

Changing over my negative printing system was not done lightly, nor all that easily. Changing to a laser printer instead of an inkjet printer changes the printable part of the density range through  the print  time. Having acquired a simple densitometer from an old photography friend helps immensely with standardizing the densities to a visual degree. What once would have been a bit flat for my tastes in a palladium print is now to become the standard. There are a couple of reasons for this actually.

Experience has demonstrated that the layers of gum color printed over the palladium print show up almost exclusively in the middle tones from about zone 3 through zone 6 (max). The tonal ranges below zone 3 are black, for the most part, and the added gum layers deepen that black, bolster it, make it almost appear the black is gaining depth. The highlights, for me, have to  do with zone 7, and sometimes, just a touch of zone 8 in small amounts, as reflective highlights, like bright light on a drop of water. The gum color gets floated off. The only way to adhere the color to a zone 7 tone is to print just beyond zone seven, perhaps a minute or two more print time, then do a very slow float.

When I say slow float, that refers to water temperature, one of the variables at the printer's disposal. Float water controls the speed at which gum is softened and 'floated away', beginning with the highest tonal range of the image, zone 8, then zone 7, then zone 6. With a controlled float, which in my mind is optimally around two minutes, the printer has the ability to slowly float away each layer, slow enough to be able to see the progress over the course of those two minutes. That is not a sacrosanct number. Float time could be four or five minutes for cautious floating. Adding print time to the image acts the same as it would in a conventional print on commercial silver gelatin paper, with exception that the silver gel print will darken as print time is added. The gum print 'hardens' in those areas most affected by the UV light during printing. The print 'hardens' proportionately to the density range of the negative, with most hardening at the lower densities/tonal ranges first, then each density above that hardens next, the same order as negatives develop densities in the developer.

For the best relationship with the gum layers I have rejiggered the negatives to a density range of roughly .8-.9. A snappy print image on a grade 2 commercial silver gelatin paper, as opposed to a log 1.4 I was using for palladium printing alone. This certainly softened the tonal scale and kept the upper tonal ranges, well within zone 7 as I have been working towards. I want the high key light of the direct sunshine to be evident, while holding in the textural detail of the violins which both had reflections (reflective light), hence become part of the highlights. I will be able to print to that light (tonal range) and will do so at the end, using a color layer to represent the 'golden glow' of late afternoon sunlight, as it was here. To make this print work right will demand several color layers, some applied locally for enhancement of that area or texture.

Gum over Palladium Print ~ Base palladium image
"The Fiddlers" ~ 8x10 ~ *Will be Unique
Eugene, Oregon (Russian Emigrants)  Dimitri & Son