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)