"Malecon de Progreso" ~ Palladium Print

A second print of the Mexico series. Same process as the first one, as are the next ones to come. I am working with the lighting of each print to get as close as possible to the feel of the original experience.

I have scaled up the negative size and begun printing to 11"x14" for these images. Something I have been wanting to do for awhile. When I scaled up with the palladium prints I also scaled up for the gum printing as well, and now print to 11"x14" in my gums, which I might add I just printed the final layer of colors this afternoon. That new gum is now done and ready for clearing tomorrow and final flatten. I am pretty happy with it, as I have not only scaled up the size but altered the printing approach altogether.

I am no longer interested in printing reality, in 'natural colors'. A gum dichromate (bichromate) print is a photographic watercolor. The principle is laying watercolor mixtures over each other using a clear substrata. The same as layering watercolor washes over each other, using the principle of subtractive color theory. Different from reflected color principles. Therefore I approach the process as a watercolor artist would, applying color(s) where needed. What I am after is something akin to Impressionism, not so much the stylistically applied but the overlapping of several colors to create a color scheme. The theory is replicating light as an "Impression" of the thing seen. Well, that takes time to get the hang of. My first attempt wasn't all that bad. I'm pretty happy with it. Did I already say that?

Palladium toned Kallitype ~ Unique
"Malecon de Progreso" ~ 11"x14"
Progreso, Yucatan

"Alchemist's Guide; to Printing in Palladium"

My book on printing in Palladium is finished and listed now. This book I had covered stock for the interior pages so the images would print well. The cost is double the printing costs of standard paper but worth the cost when showing such print work. This is the fourth book in the "Alchemist's Guide;" series. I am just beginning the fifth book on gum and gum over palladium printing. That will finish the series. It has taken a great deal of energy to get this far along. Worth every ounce of energy used.

"The Gringo's View"

I have put off adding posts to this blog site since I created my website, that includes a blog. Interesting enough, I continue to get more visitors here than I do there. So it seems only fitting I add some of the new work I've been doing since I last posted.

As noted in an earlier post I have an Epson 1430 printer now, used only to print on transparency film to make negatives. Nothing else touches that printer. It's the best printer I ever used and I intend on protecting it as long as I can. I've have arrived at a preparatory process for the color digital negatives I've been using to make the prints. I still use my Canon 20D, now almost twenty years old. In digital cameras, that's a grandpa camera.

I have worked on more gum over palladium prints over the past few months and will post some of them in later posts. For now the print series I'm working on now are images I brought back from a recent trip to Mexico, staying in Merida and Progreso, Yucatan. It has been a long time since I did any street shooting, that is photographing people without their knowledge, or consent. The point being not to have them know I was even taking photos. I keep it within the guidelines of "public" photography whereupon there is either more than one person in the shot, or, the shot is done such that the person can't be recognized or known.

I have to say I  did enjoy that work, which was quite easy in that setting as the people there are very casual and seriously friendly. In Progreso, the pace is very laid back and casual. A cruise ship docks at the end of their four mile long gery hefty concrete peer, busing in the tourista to visit the town for the day then scurrying back before 5pm, when the locals begin to gather all along the Malecon for strolling or playing on the beach with kids. The entire malecon is designed for the local families to use. Finding material to photograph wasn't so difficult.

There is a razor thin line between an image that could be called "Art", and a tourist's snap. I spend a good deal of time staring at any image I consider worthy of printing, going through several the conditions that might make an image worthy of printing as one's artwork. A strong image being one such element, and it should be such that the viewer shouldn't have to ask why they are looking at the image. I have attempted to capture people in their natural environment, in that moment when they are engaged as part of that environment. That golden moment when all the elements come together just right. That's the task for capturing the image. The second half of that is printing the image such that it captures the mood, the emotional connection I had pre-visualized, and intended, so that hopefully the viewer will have the same emotional  connection to the image. It will be up to the viewer to decide if I was successful.

These prints are all being processed the same. Only the negative image is altered by adding densities to the original b&w image. These prints are printed on Revere Platinum paper, developed in sodium acetate developer then toned in palladium toner for ten minutes, thus rendering them as true palladium prints, or the 'poor man's palladium' print. There are thousands of those still around from the early 20th century.

Palladium toned Kallitype ~ Unique
"The Gringo's View" ~ 11"x14"
Progreso, Yucatan

New 13"x19" Printer

There have been two elements plaguing the progress of the palladium portfolio. The more recent one being a rare spate of rain clouds hanging about like miscreants around the corner magazine shop. Until I can modify the UV printer, dropping the printing distance by six inches, I have gone back  to sun printing, which works for me. I've fabricated the translucent acrylic sheet to slip oer the print frame and stay in place rather nicely, now I await the sun for use.

The second, and more pressing and longer running problem has been printing negatives that can stand up to direct sunlight during printing, even with a defuser. By some stroke of luck, perhaps the Trickster was just in the right mood, perhaps it was simple karma, I found an Epson 1430 (13"x19" printer online for just over $400. Those printers have become rare and hard to locate and when you do they're $850 to $1000. Short of the story being it is now on its way to my house. My negatives will now not only be far superior to what I was getting but I will now be able to print 12"x19" negatives. Pictorico sells that size acetate. Now that  makes the printing juices flow freely.

There will be precious little printing until the new printer is functioning. What will get my focus until then is the book on palladium printing. There will be a section on lighting and how to best utilize it. The defuser is a very good way to print in full sun without having to have an extremely dense negative. One can use a negative of Log 1.2 and get very good results. Stay tuned.

 

"Datura Blooms" ~ Palladium Print

Some of the first prints to be made from digital negatives, printed with the new Epson 1430 printer, and the custom UV printer my old friend Harry helped me put together. There will be more palladium prints to come. This  print was printed on Revere Platinum paper.

Stay tuned.

Palladium Print
"Datura Blooms I" ~ 8"x10"

 

"Water Gourds" ~ Gum over Palladium Print

The new gum over palladium print is finished, finally. As time goes on I find myself taking more time with each gum print, with much thought going to tonal range, how far to print down, color choices for each layer, color values in the image, and several other variables and aesthetic factors that guide the choices all along the way. This print commanded over a week to make, as do most, and I am happy with it, overall. I would say the colors came out as planned, but the truth remains, I don't don't probably most of the colors in the print. Especially those in the lower light spectrum of reds, pinks, oranges and the like. That includes greens, being I'm mostly color blind to the red/green spectrum.

As I've noted on several occasions I print theoretically, using the principles of subtractive color theory. The stacking of sheer layers of watercolor(s), which then combine into different tones and shades of color, dependent upon the tonal range of the image. The middle tones of the image showcase color(s) more than shadow tones or black. Same with whites, which don't absorb any color, unless they are printed long enough to remain when floated. As always, one prints to zone 7, the textured whites, also the last tone to print in, first tone to float off, if done right.

The "highlights" of this image are of course the gourds, which are the focal point of the image, also the foreground of the image. The setting was under a thatched desert roof at Tumacacori Mission, south of Tucson, Arizona, in late morning sunlight. The overall setting is not dark, but soft lighting from the more brilliant sunlight outside the desert palapa style covering. No sides, just four sturdy posts holding up a thatched roof made of long limbs of Ocotillo. They are thorned of course. Desert. What I was after, ultimately, was the feeling and mood of a darkened area surrounded by sunlight, with the textures showing the effects of light. Brilliance I suppose. The color scheme I kept to what would be seen in that setting, of dobbed adobe, dirt, and one of the corner poles with the hanging gourds.

I applied most of the color layers locally, not the traditional method of adding one layer of color over the entire image, each printing. I began that way using CYMK printing, in variations of which color came on which printing, but still using those four colors. Now, I probably have two or three dozen tubes of watercolor I call upon as my palette of use.  Slowly I am moving away from "realism" as it were. Where I think I want to go is something akin to Impressionism, as much as that is possible in a photographic process, even hand coated. I simply can't fully imagine what that might look like, or how it would be accomplished. The shadow area in the print "The Portrait Stool" is an example of using several colors to represent one area.

Gum over Palladium Print
"The Water Gourds" ~ 8x10 ~ 1/3
Tumacacori Mission, Arizona

New Palladium Prints to Come

After two weeks of testing, making finished prints has begun. The variables for palladium printing allow for a lot of options. What can be controlled, using the same negative, is light source & light intensity, which controls the outlook of the tonal structure, the developer and developer temperature. Each of these variables alters the final image in different ways. What I was looking for was a warm toned palladium print of two Datura Blooms.

First test strips out were made using the UV printer, developed in ammonium citrate at 68-70 degrees. I moved to printing in sunshine, using north light, reflected light (off the house in full morning sunshine), and direct sunlight. I also began developing in potassium oxalate, the historically traditional developer. The oxalate is a warm toned developer and the citrate a cool toned developer for palladium prints. Temperature adds to the affects therein.

Ending up with over a dozen test strips in hand analyzing each one for quality of the white flowers, and the depth of the black background. I wanted the white flower blooms to show a tonal gradation from zone 6 right up to zone 8, on a couple small areas. Brilliance. I got that. Turns out the best tonal representation of that image was making the print in the UV printer for fifteen minutes. Developed in potassium oxalate, at 85+ degrees.

One of the characteristics of palladium printing is 'bronzing'. That occurs in the deeper shadows and outright blacks in the  image, whereupon the UV light upon those darker areas chemically begins to build up and reverse the blackening, beginning to appear to solarize, or 'bronze'. I have noticed it more using the potassium oxalate warmed over 80 degrees. What would be a deep dMax black if it were a platinum print, what is seen is more of a warm toned or soft black. The ammonium citrate at a cooler temperature isn't as visible, but there, none the less.

To correct for this bronzing, a couple drops of a diluted solution of sodium based platinum stops the bronzing, as well as deepening the black quite a bit. This process is referred to as the 'double sodium' process, otherwise known as the Na2 process. This was formulated by Dick Arentz and Richard Sullivan (Bostick & Sullivan) The testing also has to do with the fact that I am also writing a book on palladium printing; #4 in the Alchemist's Guild;" series. Knowing the process theoretically is not the way to write about it. I am printing a portfolio of palladium images, as well as platinum/palladium Na2 prints. I will be using some of the images for examples in the book.

I don't like to copy the fresh prints while they are wet, as they tend to dry down slightly differently. I was able to make two clean prints for the palladium portfolio, both Datura blooms. I will be posting an image of at least one of them tomorrow. I have also been making a gum over palladium print to add to the portfolio of studies. It is coming along nicely, and is ready for a final print layer before clearing and drying. I'll be posting a copy of that soon as well.