"Jars in the Window" ~ Faulty Print

The worst possible ending to any finished print, is to arrive at the final clearing, and simply not like what you see.  The gum work turned out mostly as planned, color wise. The problem with the print is in the original printing of the image. What I didn't detect at first was the change in the print shadows, showing a sort of bronzing effect, when there should have been no such effect. Testing of the chemicals involved in making the print showed the problem to be in the ferric oxalate. Fresh chemicals later showed a perfect print after a new print test.

What that all means is the print is junk. The upside of this is I have the road map of the printing sessions fulling described in my print book notes. Every print made has extensive notes on the procedural application, chemistry, print time, float time, colors used & how mixed and where placed, even the day printed. Just for this reason. First order of business for printing is, don't get in a hurry. I'm not broken hearted this printing wasn't to my liking, however I am rather annoyed I missed what was happening before I spent a week on the print. Paying attention with your head in the game is really important. The problem with the print is mostly in the shadows, which shows up a lot more in the print, than in the replication of the print. Now I begin again, from the beginning.

Gum over Palladium
"Jars in the Window" ~ not to be used

"Jars in the Window" ~ Gum Layer #4 ~ Split Colors

As I near the finish of the gum print the applied colors are more and more specifically target. My intent being enhancing the print image without altering the color scheme desired. I tend to balance the image with cool and warm tones playing off each other. That's just me. My interpretation of the scene. In this print image the warm toned portion of the print is in the inside foreground area, made up of wood. Outside the window is brilliant sunshine many stops over the inside, thus the printing has to address both density ranges.

A thin mixture of Raw Umber was brushed thinly over the inside of the window, much of which was manipulated off with warm water and stiff artist's brush after the rest of the print had been floated one minute ~ @ 65℉ ~ then the portions I wanted to thin out, which was the highlights within the wood area on the bottom and right side, respectively, was submerged in warmed water to approximately 80℉, for a few seconds before brushing the highlight areas I wanted to stay uncoated,  unaffected by the raw umber layer. This helped strengthen the image by separating the tones within the interior, and setting up for the final very sheer layer of quinacridone gold over that interior only, to brighten the highlights, darken the shadows. The area of the window and outside the window is finished, sans the final clearing bath in sodium bisulfite. That eliminates the yellow dichromate stain, which is masking the colors underneath. Blue is green before, green becomes darker, brown becomes deeper.

Knowing when to stop is more important than one might think. There are unlimited ways in which to influence the outcome of the print. Literally unlimited possibilities, only held back by the printer. I didn't post Layer #3 simply because it was a thin layer of ochre to further influence the interior and set up for the raw umber layer after that. For me, the only way to discern how to proceed in a gum printing is to study the image, get lost into the scene, "see" how it is to be, and only then is it possible to lay out a strategy for how to accomplish that, layer by layer.

Gum over Palladium
"Jars in the Window" ~ 8x10
Eugene, Oregon

Gum Printing ~ Knowing When to Stop

I laid another layer of color on the new print, Yellow Ochre to be precise, as this color is one of my go to colors in the color palette, being it is the "warm tone" color for a panchromatic image. It is the mixture intensity that has further control over adding 'color' to the image or simply shifting the light quality to a warmer tone. In this layer my intent was on the latter, shifting the overall image to a warmer tone. For my taste, using quinacridone gold would not be natural, in bright sunshine or dimly lit scene from direct sunlight. It is the late afternoon "golden glow" that the gold replicates.

I don't see the need for posting this layer as it will be indistinguishable from the last, being the layer I applied was sheer. At this stage the only means of knowing more exactly what colors remain can only be deciphered after clearing of the dichromate stain, otherwise, what is seen is a yellowish image. One of the most difficult decisions for a gum printer, after more fully understanding the controls and variables at the printer's disposal, is knowing when to stop. Once registration of the print has been mastered there is no end time to printing. One can continue on as far as desired. The all gum print I made of "The Flute Player" consisted of twenty-one print layers using thirty eight color mixtures. Very sheer color layers stacked in different order in different areas to arrive at a fully textured image with detail.

Gum over palladium, or silver or cyanotype or platinum or any other printed image is slightly different, as the textural detail, hopefully, is intact before any gum is added. The color mixtures therefore can be much heavier than in gum printing as said color layer won't cover over existing detail, it will only enhance it towards the color applied. Any gum added over a shadow area, regardless of the color, will strengthen the shadow(s). Contrast can be built this way, as long as the highlights are printed down too much. That comes under print time/float time controls. Secondary to this is water temperature. Knowing how to wield these variables to control the printing is what it's all about. That takes time.

"Jars in the Window" ~ Layer 2 ~ Split Colors

This second layer of gum was targeted. The difference between the densities outside the window and inside the window are about five, perhaps six stops apart. That creates a more complex printing than one without such differences. I came to understand how to make this possible when I made the gum print, and am merely carrying that over to the gum over palladium printing. The controls for this being; print time, float time and water temperature. Print time has to do with the tonal value one is printing to, and the float time, and temperature defines the tonal range of gum being floated off, and how fast. It's up to the printer to know when to stop floating.

I have come to embrace the deeper shadows of the image, whereas in my early years I favored texture and detail when shooting and developing. Tastes and preferences can change over time, which is probably a healthy. My application(s) of the gum color(s) follows the Makeup Rule; the effect of the color should be seen, to influence the image, but not applied such that it becomes garish, with a saturated appearance. The image shouldn't look like a neon sign. The final image should woo the viewer, to peer into the image, not grab them using bright colors. But that's just me. As always, a bit of yellow must be subtracted from the image for better color observation.

Gum over Palladium ~ Layer 2 ~ Split colors, locally applied
"Jars in the Window" ~ 8x10
Eugene, Oregon

"Jars in the Window" ~ Gum over Palladium

I am doing something I have never contemplated before. I will be reprinting an image from one medium to another, and being all my gum prints are unique, destroying the first print. I had printed "Jars in the Window" a few months ago as a gum print. That was before I came to realize the direction I wanted to go was with gum over palladium printing. Not that I will cease printing gums. I will be selecting an image that fits a gum print better than a gum over palladium version.

One of the advantages of making unique prints is that there is only the one print image to make, flawlessly. The print isn't finished until it is flawless, defined as a printed image that meets all of the expected elements and qualities the printer wanted, as pre-visualized before the printing. This isn't a science so there are caveats to this. Altering plans when there is a better direction realized during the printing process. One of those realizations, for me, is the contrast issue. There was a time when I was after texture and detail above all else. Now, I'm finding I like the deeper shadows of an image.

Being that the control of shadow detail, or lack thereof, is all about the negative, and its contrast index curve. Not to be confused with density range of the negative. The CI shape controls for the contrast of the image, the density range has to do with how long the tonal scale is in densities. They are intertwined however, one tends to beget the other. It is much easier to control for these factors in digital negatives, where it is possible to drop out the lower tonal range without influencing the upper tonal range and highlights. The inverse of this is also true. Using an adjustment <curve> is a global movement of densities, targeting specific tonalities allows for much greater creative control over the image. I only apply an adjustment <curve> when printing with metallic salts; i.e. silver, palladium or platinum/palladium. The density range for these mediums can range from Log 1.2 to 1.8 for optimal results, depending on which medium.

Gum printing doesn't need extra density to print well. When I began making gum prints I was using paper negatives, and they do not have what might be referred to as a long tonal scale. Do not believe, however, that gum prints can't be made with a negative scaled to Log 1.4, as I have made more than one gum or gum over print using such a negative. What that demands though,  is understanding the print time to different densities, with commensurate float times, at a specific temperature. Few understand this concept.

I haven't posted the original palladium print as it is but the base image. The example posted today is the palladium print with a base layer of gum over the image; Yellow Ochre. Remember to subtract some yellow from the image to compensate for the dichromate stain. This image was taken circa 1982, before I built in the carport, into a home studio, with the back space walled off into a darkroom; no windows. This was taken before the conversion, when this area was a barbecue pit area.

Gum over Palladium
"Jars in the Window" ~ 8x10
Eugene, Oregon

"Adley on the Stump II" ~ Final Print

The fourth and final gum color layer was applied this morning. Again, this was a split color print layer. The final two colors were Cadmium Yellow and Quinacridone Gold. The yellow was applied only on the orange that was on her basket and the piece Adley was eating, A sheer layer of yellow not to disturb the texture. The final color added was the gold, which was meant to show the late afternoon warm sunlight in the background area with the grasses and most notably on the stump on which Adley was seated, as it showed that warm color most.

Probably the biggest problem I have with color here is the fidelity of the digital replication of the original print. Being I don't see all the colors in the print, is the clue that I might not see a color shift, affecting hue, or color temperature say. I do my best though, and if I'm not at least fairly certain the colors do match between original print and what I am posting, I call in my color guru for confirmation. That be my sweet wife who's a painter. She sees the full spectrum.

I am happy with the finished print, having guided it to its final color version. When I began making gum prints and gum over silver prints thirty five years ago I was much heavier handed with the pigments. I was also printing from paper negatives, which have a much shorter density range than what can be done with film or digital acetate sheets. I keep a very light touch with pigment use, preferring too thin over too much, not only for textural qualities but for subtlety of use; the Makeup Rule.

What the viewer takes away from the image is not necessarily having anything to do with the intent of the printer. In this instance, the warmth of the sunshine, from low in the sky lit up certain elements of the scene, although the subject was wearing bluish gray clothing. A play on cool and warm tones, which I tend to focus on as one element of the print's intent. The use of color to separate elements in the image. Obviously, this is my take on that. I only hope the fidelity of the digital image matches the original.

Gum over Palladium Print
"Adley on the Stump II" ~ 8x10 ~ Unique
Eugene, Oregon (back yard portrait spot)

"Adley on the Stump II" ~ Layer 3

The final split layer of color has been added. The treatment was to further separate the image into cool and warm toned colors, as well as intensify the image by increasing contrast through adding to the lower tonal range while holding the highlights at their current level, while adding subtle color(s).  All elements of the image have been covered more than once, using very sheer layers of color. The intent is to subtly influence the image from the pigment without being able to see the pigment. The "Makeup" rule. The Corollary to this rule is: "It takes teenage girls two years to learn the "Makeup" rule.

This print is nearing completion now. The primary layout of color applications have done their job. A good amount of the actual colors are too subtle for me to actually see them. What I can see are the differences between the warm and cool tones, being I put them there and at least know what I'm looking for. There is 'skin tone' on Adley, hopefully ending in a suntan sort of way. All of these colors are currently being heavily influenced by a predominant yellow color, which is the dichromate stain. To 'see' the colors at this time one must be able to subtract yellow from what is being seen. The clearing bath at the end clears that stain out nicely though.

Layer #4: Split color

Adley on the Stump II ~ Print Layer 2

This second gum layer was a split color application. This is where the colors begin to play off each other, warm and cool tones, as well further separation between highlights and shadows. Each new application of gum darkens the area covered, even if slightly, with the most noticeable darkening in the lower tonal range, deepening shadows, separating further from lighted areas and even mid tones. The printing control is focused exclusively on the highlights, most specifically, zone 7. That is the print time point.

Once the printer finds that print time point, for that negative, with the corresponding preferred float time, that controls the highlights, just as development time controls the negative densities representing the highlights. Same principle. Once the highlights are reached, all the zones/tonal ranges below are pretty much permanent. That is not to say that one isn't able to work backwards several tonal ranges of gum removal. It can be done, by increasing water temperature, length of float time, even begin physical removal with a brush or stream of water. Unless one is saving the image from an ill conceived application, wanting to rid as much as possible, such removal techniques are destructive to an otherwise fine image.

I have had to resort to extended techniques of gum removal, but it was not for enhancement, it was therapeutic, having seen a line of gum color migration over an lighter area not intending to receive any of that color, when it was almost too late. As mentioned before I fail to see red/green unless it is real obvious. Subtle shades mixed within other colors and lots of gray and colors disappear, falling into a sort of neutral gradient. I saw the color run only because it was across a lighter area, and I see patterns and shades well enough. The object was to get that streak removed. When you heat the water sufficiently to do such a job, it would be somewhere over 80 F to 90F, and retain any control over removal, as at that temperature the entire matrice of gum layers begin to soften, any gum not fully dried before would begin to loosen, over the entire image area.

I used a small tipped artist's brush and water at about 80 F and daubed the water over the run until it was soft, then used another smaller and stiffer brush to wipe back and forth over the run until it was gone. And that is why I keep my float temperature below 68 F, preferrably around 65 F. In doing this, the floating affect on the gum is slowed to a crawl, thus allowing me more control. The object of each print layer is to print up to the desired tonal range. That demands the printer knows the print time to reach, and go just beyond zone 7, to float the gum back to a desired point in zone 7. If warm water is used, the entire gum layer is affected a lot. When cold water is used, it stiffens the gum, holding it in place without floating away, so during the floating, the majority of gum floated off is strictly at the highlights. The maneuver is to float just enough away to show zone 7 fully. Zone 7 is the 'top' print point. This negative needed a twelve minute palladium print time, the zone 7 print point for me then is 15 minutes, which proved to be true. With a one minute float time in 65 F water, the gum is just beginning to come off zone 7. A two minute float time would remove even more of zone 7, leaving the color beneath it, which is what I did with this print.

Zone 7 print time is 15 minutes on this image, and for this color layer I didn't want to cover over the ochre color underneath the raw umber color I was applying. The print time I used this layer was 12 minutes. Enough time to print up to the highlights but not remain during the float time. All the darker tones beneath zone 7 get the benefit of this new color layer. Another benefit of the colder water, as noted earlier keeps the gum from running, due to very soft gum. Water temperature is one of the control variables at hand.

Gum Layer #2 ~ Split color ~ Pthalo Blue and Raw Umber
The gum was applied locally for deepening the shadows, coloring the  mid-tones and increasing separation between tonal values in foreground to background.
* Note: The prevailing yellowish color over the image is the dichromate stain.

Adley on the Stump II ~ Yellow Ochre layer

There is probably little need for showing each layer of gum as it is applied, being so much of what is happening is lost in the viewing, unless one knows the color layer that will go on top of the one being seen. Sometimes even I don't know what the next color will be until it shows itself. Before I begin working with any colors, I set the print in the coating plate (artist's clipboard of Masonite) and tape it in place, then set it upright, then just sit there and stare into the scene for awhile and color choices begin to show themselves, and it is from there that I begin plotting the color layers and what that will mean in the end, where to apply the colors, and how thickly, all of which ultimately is determined by the tonal layer the color is on, the print time, the float time and the float water temperature.

This is an art, not a scientific experiment. I studies Experimental Design, I know how that works. It's good when dealing with the chemistry portion, but a lousy guide for the aesthetics of printing. Colors are a personal choice. The gum printing process follows the rules of watercolors, subtractive color theory. Using that as a guide, the colors are stacked in printed layers, each adding an affect on the color below them. A layer of Yellow Ochre, followed by a layer of Pthalo Blue becomes green(ish) with the value from a China blue/green to a slightly bluish green, depending on which color is over and the density of the two mixtures. This is done using an artist's color pallet, mixing colors to the artist's liking. There is no measurements in mixing or formulas for order of color. There is artistic expression at ever step.

The first color layer is Yellow Ochre, a 'medium' mix. About the point when the light showing through is dim. It was brushed on the entire image, soon followed by local applications on the darker foliage, but not the lighter area in the background, setting up for the next color layer of Pthalo Blue, mixed slightly lighter, leaving it sheer, then applied only on the darker foliage, over the thickened Ochre, with the intent of arriving at a recognizable green, of some tone and hue. A comparison of prints shows a bit of shift on the highlights on the stump, and on Adley's clothes. That will get bolstered in subsequent layers.

Gum over Palladium ~ Layer #1 ~ Yellow Ochre
"Adley on the Stump" ~ 8x10

Adley on the Stump ~ Palladium Base Print

The new palladium base print to become a gum over palladium print when finished. I began the discussion in yesterday's post about altering the print negatives for this process. I would continue that discussion by noting that the negative densities are reliant upon the light source used for printing. As the light source intensity increases, so should the density range of the negative. Roughly speaking. There is a direct correlation between density and light intensity. As I've noted before I designed and built my UV printer with 160W of power, using (8) 18" UV bulbs in a 20"x24" printer bed, with the lights being 12" from the table top. Hence, the optimal density range for that printer, with a print time between 10 and 12 minutes for a full scaled image.

The image here was printed as a Kallitype, developed in sodium acetate and toned in palladium (5ml/liter). It is now a palladium print. I began yesterday's post by noting that I have gone from salt paper to Kallitype processing because of more control over the print color, and, I don't need the negatives scaled as high. The Kallitype process is basically identical to palladium printing. Same processing procedure, same order and same chemistry, with exception to printing with palladium or silver, then toned palladium, if that's one's choice, otherwise a gold toner makes the blacks much deeper and richer. Gold, however generally doesn't fully replace the silver salts, with an exception, normally gold coats the silver salts.

In both processes, the clearing agent used is EDTA, with a slightly different mixing for palladium than used in silver. Palladium doesn't use a fixer, but does have a sort hypo clearing back using sodium sulfite, much like silver. There are several developers for the Kallitype, each bringing out a different print color, from a reddish color, sepia, purplish, brown and black. The temperature of the developing bath also shifts color, another variable to use. Due to these similarities, and being I also print directly with palladium, and platinum/palladium (Na2) process, keeping the development as constant as possible is most helpful.

This image was taken with a Century Graflex 6x9 (cm) format camera. The first shot I took is now a platinum/palladium print in an edition of 5. I knew this young girl wasn't going to stay on that stump very long, and just as I had pulled out the cut film holder after the first shot, flipped it over and reinserted it and pulled out the dark slide I saw her lift up the basket with her arm and begin to jump down. I just grabbed the shutter release cord and squeezed. After I stare at the image long enough the treatment I'll use and the colors selected will come to me.

Palladium Print
"Adley on the Stump" ~ 8x10
Eugene, Oregon (back yard portrait area)

New Gum over Palladium Print Beginning

The lengthy hiatus since the last posting of "Two Friends" is most regrettable, as I try hard to keep the momentum moving along just so there aren't long blank periods. Truth be told I was working on a home project, long promised to my sweet wife, finally done. We live in the desert whereupon a yard here is covered in two inches of river rock, or more. I just shoveled and moved 14 yards/tons of said river rock, spreading it over an eighth of an acre, in the desert heat. Such is life.

I have had to adapt my normal negative printing setup, to gum over printing demands, which calls for a different density range for the negative. This new arrangement begins in conjunction with also altering how the negatives are printed. Whereas I have always printed my own negatives on inkjet printers, being I am one that wants full control over the process, for obvious reasons. The advancement of inkjet printers continues with the focus on making finished prints on art papers. That direction improves the outcome of the prints on paper, using ever more ink cartridges with wider array of colors. My one and only use of an inkjet printer is making a negative. Using a new Epson or Canon printer to make my negatives would cost me ten times what I pay to have a laser negative printed onto acetate, at 600dpi, not 300dpi. I'm quite happy with the results. My task was to set the density range of the negatives to match the laser printer being used, which is entirely different than inkjet printers, and no two laser printers are set the same, as they can be adjusted for output density onto acetate.

The new print is drying as I write this. I will copy it once it has dried down, for tomorrow's post. It is the base image for the new gum over print to come. For now, I am working with the "poor man's" palladium print. It is said that one century ago there were likely more "poor man's" platinum's than printed platinum's. As most photographers know, platinum is rather expensive, many times more than palladium and probably a hundred times more than silver. When a silver image is toned in platinum, or palladium, the more nobler metal totally replaces the silver salts with the Pt/Pd salt, thereby making the print a Pt or Pd print. If you make a mistake or there is any flaw in a printed platinum image, of course it doesn't get sold or used, and that means throwing away a bunch of money. If you print the image in silver, then tone in platinum, you have a platinum to show. I do this with palladium.

Any silver print can be toned to a palladium print. Thirty five years ago when I worked gum over printing I printed over salted silver prints; salt paper process. I still have them. Today I prefer to make Kallitype prints. One of the reasons is the ability to control the print color, by developers and developing temperature. The Kallitype process is the same process as modern platinum or palladium printing, for the most part. There are caveats with platinum and the developers. Palladium has a much longer tonal range potential than platinum. Palladium can handle the full scale of a salted silver print, which can print an image using a negative of Log 1.8, or higher. Platinum would not respond well to such a negative, but palladium would.

The negatives I am using now for gum over printing are, for all practical purposes, the densities I would use for a grade two silver gelatin paper; Log .8 to .9. I know this because I now have a densitometer, and I've been doing much comparison to other negatives and their reciprocal prints. I would not have believed it if I didn't have prints right in front of me demonstrating that fact rather nicely. Dry down is important so I won't be posting the image here. What I would like to mention is that for whatever reason, I happened to check the "Stats" section under the posting icon, to find two dozen visits with over eighty page clicks, all from Russia. I must say I feel very honored by that.

If one of those visitors was Maria V. Vinogradova I would be a lot more honored. It wasn't until very recently that I came to find two other gum over printers, one of them being Maria V. Vinogradova, who lives in Moscow, and makes some very beautiful gum over cyanotype prints. Her technique is flawless, her images glow. I should also mention the other gum over printer I know, out of fairness, and that would be Diana Bloomfield, of North Carolina. As it turns out, Diana was in Tucson very recently giving a workshop in gum over palladium printing. Kudos to that.

Since this has morphed into a short ramble, I would mention a thought I have held since I began printing again. In the late 1980's I was one of the founding members of the Eugene/Irkutsk Sister City Committee, and as a board member I chaired the committee newsletter and did the photographic recording of events and people. At that time I had a commercial photographic/video production studio. It was through this that a Russian/American photographer exchange was devised and planned, with several Russian photographers being part of it. Many of those photographs hung on my studio walls, as can be seen in the photo. I'm the one pointing towards Russian version of the Welcome signs. While I was setting up the formal group photograph, in a studio full of photographers, this shot was taken. It is my hope that some day, once again photographers from both countries will share their images.
Eugene/Irkutsk Sister City Committee Photographers Exchange; 1990