"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.