"Woman Selling Baskets" ~ Gum Dichromate Print

 Being a blog, I feel all elements of printing should be offered up for examination, even when it isn't pretty. This image is one that has cost me more time and print runs, in gum, than any other image I've ever printed. This print is the seventh printing of this image; same 8x10 digital negative, from an Epson 1430 printer. A truly beautiful piece of work itself.

As noted earlier, the passing of my wife didn't enduce the creative spirit, on top of my attention and focus was off, allowing mistakes to take place. Any blemish on the paper, any miscalculation or wrong appliation and the print is junk, like the first six attempts. Preparing the paper for making a g um print takes five days. Each color layer printed is another day and this print needed seven color printing, with two split colors added simultaneously, there nine colors on seven printings.

What captures my eye today is not that much different from my earlier work. My first photographs, with a photo series of my little sister hitching up a Beagle to a wagon, wearing a newly acquired cowgirl outfit, replete with twin cap pistols. That was in 1963, two years after I got my first [knock off] Brownie camera. This image was taken while visiting La Paloma, Mexico a couple years ago, a sleepy little border town directly south of Deming, New Mexico, a route taken by Poncho Villa in the early 20th century. That is also a photographer's cornucopia of shots during reenactments of that famous ride. Lots of Caballos and Caballeros in full regalia of riding outfits of that time, and full Gracheros sombreros.

The woman in this image was with another woman, sitting on the street selling Baskets and wares. I ask her permission to take the shots of them both, one at a time. Something of a coup. It is good to carry a few five dollar bills, in earnest payment for taking someone's photograph in a foreign country.

This is a seven layer gum dichromate print, using nine separate colors. I began with a basic CYMK run but in KCYM order, then began coaint the different tonal zones, requiring different print times. The woman's face being one zone, needing the least amount of print time. The blouse was next in tonal density, with the background being needing the most print time to retain color. The point of the printing was all about the light. I not longer care all that much for tonalities. What I'm after now, is capturing the light on a subject.

Gum Dichromate Print ~ Unique

"Woman Selling Baskets" ~ 8x10

La Paloma, Mexico

"Two Ponies Wild" ~ Gum over Gold toned Kallitype

    I have begun printing again, after a lengthy hiatus, the passing of my wife, and the two gum prints I had near finish, yet lost focus and ended up tossing them both, with them not what I had in mind. This is the first of the fresh prints, a four color gum run over a gold toned Kallitype. I base the process to be used, gum, or gum over, dependent on the image, how each process would likelyrepresent the image. For these horses, I chose gum over. I also printed the image in socium acetate, for a cool black image, instead of the warm browner image of developing in sodium citrate.

I based the gum over colors to a basic CYMK, with the toned b&w image as the K run, as base coat, then followed by cadmium yellow, then quinacridone magenta, and finally turquoise. To accommodate the various tonal ranges, best suited for each color applied, I used print time. The longest print time being for the sky, at nine minutes, leaving the soft blue as the dominant color. The ponies were in a print range of seven minutes or less, needing less light for permanence. 

Gum over Gold toned Kallitype

"Two Ponies Wild" ~ 8x10

Open Range, Eastern Arizona

 

"View from the Sunset Spot" ~ Gum Dichromate Print

 I was able to get back to this gum print recently, applying the final layers of color. One of the primary influences of any gum print is simply the color choices, layering order and print time to control the final image. I didn't want the sky in this print to be dark, with a multitude of reds, oranges, yellows and other sunset colors. I wanted the late afternoon sky, with clouds, and the glow of the low setting sun on the desert flora. Interpretations are everything.

I made this print on Revere Platinum paper, which, when sized correctly for a gum print, works nicely. The drawback to this paper, with the multiple wetting from floating each print layer, this paper curls a bit, needing to be flattened after dry down. What I do for that is use a piece of mat board with a window cut out just larger than the bum printed area. I lay this over the gum print while it is wet, lay it in a screen dryer, with thin wooden slats on all sides, such that the screen lid holds the print flat during drying. Works well. However, the Hahnemuhle paper doesn't do this. It stays pretty much flat when hung on a line with clothespins. No wrinkling or curling.

This print consisted of twelve print layers, using sixteen color mixtures. For my eye, it could have used a bit more orange/red in the sky. I've been trying to be careful with the reds spectrum and green spectrum colors, being I don't see much of them, until the color is so saturated everyone else sees neon colors. This sky seems to my eye, slightly weak of color. Perhaps for those viewers who see color, it doesn't. Personal tastes steer that.

Gum Dichromate Print

"View from the Sunset Spot" ~ 8"x10"

Avra Valley, Arizona

"Tombstone Marshals" ~ Gold toned Kallitype

 I don't normally bring my personal life into the blog forum, but things have been altered forever for me. My wife spent the last two months in a hospital, from complications. She passed on October 15. One of the few solaces I have at my disposal is my darkroom; my printing. I keep printing because I know that is what my sweet woman would have wanted me to do.

As I noted in an earlier post, I have begun toning my prints in Gold, instead of palladium, which now costs the same as platinum. I am happy with the toning results, as I continue to use the gold/thiourea 1% colution; with .5gm of tartaric acid, which makes a liter of toner. I use 50ml of toning solution for an 11x14 print, which adds up to 20 11x14 prints for the liter; almost 40 prints for 8x10 prints. That makes gold affordable, offering archival print longevity of up to 200-300 years. The thiourea formula is an 'all at once' toner, affecting the lower tones at the same time as the higher tones. It is also said to be the one gold toning formula that replaces much of the silver salts, instead of coating the silver, metallic silver on the finished print. The 5% gold chloride formula is a top-down toner, starting with the highlights, working down to the shadows and blacks.

The difference I have found between a palladium toner and this gold/thiourea formula is how they affect the print image. Palladium, is a top down toner, tending to 'open up' the middle tones, and deepen shadows and blacks. It is also considered a 'warm toned' developer, being it makes a warm toned print, compared to platinum. The thiourea toner appears to affect the whites, pushing them from a low zone-8, not much texture, to a nice zone 7, showing the texture in the whites. It also deepens the dark areas, zone-4 and zone-3, as well as deepens the blacks. I didn't notice a lot of change to the middle tones, zones 5 and 6.

There is also further control over the print image, using two different developers; a cool toned, real black & white developer, using a 10% sodium acetate solution + 3gms tartaric acid/liter. It sort of mimics the platinum look, with rich blacks, although platinum has a sort of bluish black in the middle tones, the Kallitype is more of a neutral black. A combination of an acetate print toned in gold leaves a very nice color to the print. The tonal range is left to the printer. Some images are full range prints, with 8 distinct tonalities. Some, perhaps three or four tonalities, demonstrating a different feel, such as the range on a white flour, snow or fog. The blacks will be nice when you need them. For the photographers that shoot on the toe, like W. Eugene  Smith, with lots of deep blacks from shadows, this formula is the one.

The second formula I use is a sodium citrate developer; sodium citrate at 20%/liter. This one is a warm toned developer, and for my eye, mimics a palladium print. Palladium printing also has two developers to choose from, a warm toned, potassium oxalate, and the cooler toned ammonium citrate. The palladium and Kallitype processes are almost identical, with a couple exceptions. One, being no need for fixer or hypo for palladium. Both use ferric oxalate for the iron binder, with the difference being palladium uses the oxalate at 27% [Bostick & Sullivan's 25%] and the Kallitype uses oxalate at 20%.

For those hand printers who work with the Kallitype, and gold toning, the prints can be made to have the tonality and gradation of the platinum, or, palladium, or platinum/palladium print, by choosing one of the two developers mentioned, and set the density range desired for the image to be printed. When I began printing, forty years ago, the grail of printing was arriving at the full tonal range of any print image. I'm not beholden to that at this point in my printing. I am now more interesting in the light within the image. Replicating the light of the scene, what I believe to be the emotional connection to any print; the light.

This print was developed in the citrate developer and toned for eight minutes in the 1% gold/thiourea toning formula. The warmth of the middle tones remain, even after toning. The portfolios I have of palladium toned Kallitype prints would be indistinguishable to most viewers, as the 'color' of the warm tones are evident in both processes.

Gold toned Kallitype

"Tombstone Marshals" 11x14

Tombstone, Arizona

Vase and Shadow ~ Reprint ~ 2/2

 The first print of this edition has gone to an appreciator of my work, actively collecting prints; this being one. The was 1/2 for the edition. The print just completed goes into the portfolio case; 2/2. There is one artist's proof that can be printed; all disclosed on the Certificate of Authenticity issued with each print I make. There is a slight shift in print color with this second print, from the first. The first print has a slight warm toned color. This second print, no warm color, as would be expected from a Kallitype print, developed in sodium acetate [not sodium citrate ~ warm toned developer], then toned in Gold toner, the 1% gold chloride with thiourea, the 'all at once gold toner'.

There is always slight changes, sometimes, with hand coated prints, but usually, said variations have to do with print time, developer and toner having influence on the print. These two prints were made with the same paper, same bottles of silver & ferric oxalate, same developer, same everything. The color shift isn't huge, really, but enough to  pick up the difference. I had though perhaps I had copied the print poorly, but holding the prints side by side shows the variation. Theoretically, the only possible difference could, possibly, be I mistakenly pulled out the palladium toner bottle, instead of the gold toner bottle. That would explain the difference. I just can't confirm that. Not sure it matters The person who has the first copy is thrilled with it, so there's that.

As the first print, this one was printed on Revere Platinum paper, developed in sodium acetate and toned in the gold/thiourea toner for ten minutes. This is the toner said to replace much of the silver salts with gold.

Gold toned Kallitype

"Vase and Shadow" ~ 8x10

Merida, Yucatan, Mexico

"Vase and Shadow" ~ Gold toned Kallitype

 I have been printing mostly warm toned images since I began printing again five years ago; give or take. I have long held a preference for warm toned prints, as I simply found them more aesthetically pleasing; to my eye anyway. The palladium printing feel into that catagory, as do the palladium toned Kallitype prints I've been making. I will say here that one of the impetuses for shifting to a cool toned print is becoming ever more desirable with the price of palladium now basically equal to platinum, which comes out to $10/ml, which equates to an expensive printing cost, being I have been mostly making 11"x14" and 11"x17" prints.

I have also made another slight shift with the printing of the digital negatives. I have historically altered the RGB color image to 'black & white film" through Paintshop Pro x9, a long naturalistic looking black & white tonal structure, from a color image. Doing this, still leaves the image an RGB image as far as the printer sees it. The digital negative is printed as an RGB image, using the color inks, but not the black. Bad habit to just let it go at that. This image was printed on Arista II 7 mil OHC clear film, on an Epson 1430 with the printing to be done using the 'Black & Gray' ink setting, using only the black ink cartridge. The tonality and density range of the finished negative printed the same as the multi-color version, making up the negative, as black & white.

I should also mention, that adding the color green to the image before printing it, leaves a green toned negative image, and that increases the output density range of the image; a lot.  I used Lightroom 6 to do the work, shifting the 'hue' slider left, into the green side to a -40 value, pretty green. That negative was then printed in full sunlight, for 10 minutes for a great finished print. Equal to my 5x7 film negatives with a density range of Log 1.8, which also print in direct sunlight for 10 minutes. For my UV printer that I built, with 160@ of white blacklight, at 6" from the table top, the density <curve> ["Color adjustment Curve~ Paintshop] I created for making platinum/palladium [Na2 prints] is labeled as the Na2 <curve> which makes a very nice print at 8 minutes, each time. With exceptions, for very contrasty images need to be flattened a bit before any <curve> is added, for best results.

This image was printed on Revere Platinum paper and toned in Gold toner; 1 % gold chloride and thiourea, the all at once toner. It is also touted as replacing most of the  silver salts in the print, leaving it mostly gold, after toning, fixing & clearing. I have found it to my liking over the 5% Ag toning solution. but that's just me.

Gold toned Kallitype

"Vase and Shadow" ~ 8"x10"

Merida, Mexico

"Old Jerome Ghost" ~ Pallaium toned Kallitype

 This third image of the Jerome series was one of the old, original buildings still standing. As can be seen, this one didn't last past the early 20th century. It is also not one to get a lot of visitor attention or be photographed much. This hotel was well used in its day, during the late 19th century when Jerome was a booming copper town, and Jenny Jerome walked Main Street. It also sits just a short step below "Husband's Alley" that led from said hotel, The House of Joy, and other evening activity establishments of the time.

Again, this print is a palladium toned Kallitype. The price of palladium is now very close to the same price of platinum. From $3/ml to $10/ml from a year ago. This is not the first time the cost of platinum & palladium has been beyond many printers, and that, begat the "poor man's platinum/palladium"; take your pick. Coating a large sheet of paper with pure platinum, then lose the print from a printing error, meant losing a lot of money. In today's price of platinum, now palladium as well, making even an 8"x10" print costs $10, for the coating, plus paper & chemicals. Make a mistake and it's junk, or something to give away, or keep in a drawer as a memorial to mistakes. A "poor man's platinum/palladium, is a silver print toned in platinum or palladium, or a combination of both. The potassium based platinum, not the sodium based Na2 version, which works beautifully in combination with palladium, but bleaches prints as a toner. If you make a mistake with silver, the cost is less than a dollar, even for 11"x17" prints. Palladium, being a more noble metal than silver, replaces all the silver salts [in metallic silver form] with palladium, thereby becoming a true palladium print, indistinguishable from a print, printed with palladium.

I have been using mostly Revere Platinum rag paper for my silver/palladium prints, as I have found it to be a very nice printing paper, pretty much identical to Arches Platine paper. I also use Hahnemuhle paper from time to time, as I also like that paper a lot. I've been developing these images in sodium citrate, giving the image a warm look. The palladium toner shifts the the 'brownish' warm tones much cooler overall. The toner also opens up middle tones nicely, with downward toning, from highlights to deep shadows, leaving a very nice, deep D-Max black. I also use a density curve that I manually set, for platinum/palladium [Na2-double sodium] printing. it is shorter than the palladium curve I created, for printing with palladium, which tends to need a bit longer curve for a full range print.

The most difficult task in posting images is arriving at the same light qualities of the original print. The digital copy usually never tends to be a visually appreciative and bright as the original. My apologies for that.

Palladium toned Kallitype

"Old Jerome Ghost" ~ 11"x17"

Jerome, Arizona 1985

"The House of Joy" ~ Palladium toned Kallitype

 The House of Joy was around when Jenny Jerome walked Main street. Near this establishment is the "Husband's Alley", where said husbands slipped behind Main Street to where the evening establishments once stoop. House of Joy being the last of that breed, kept up over time. The palladium printing actually shows off the place about as nicely as the original color image, shot with an old Canon QT - 35mm camera, using color film, to capture the colors of the buildings, and surroundings.

The color images are converted to "black & white film" filter, rendering the original color image into a very long scale b&w image, same as if I shot the image using FP4, developing in Beutler 105. This print also was printed to a digital negative using the Na2 <curve>, to keep all the middle tones and textural detail intact An 8 minute print in my custom UV printer. I have a 16"x20" print frame that just fits inside, with the flip up loading door closed. The print is 'brighter' than the digital copy shown here.

Palladium toned Kallitype

"House of Joy" ~ 11"x14"

Jerome, Arizona

"Paul & Jerry's" ~ Palladium toned Kallitype

The time away has been focused on caregiving. A wife that has had surgery, mid August, and still in the hospital. There are days I am able to print, recently. The focus has been printing a series of images of Jerome, Arizona, a town I lived in fifty years ago. Now, quite different, yet, still Jerome. In the late sixties, early seventies, Jerome was a hippie town, with the shops and restaurants owned by granola types, getting away from the city life.

Most of the images are of the historic buildings, most of which date to late 19th century days, when Jerome was a copper mining town. Something like a billion dollars was  mined in that town over its lifetime, when Jenny Jerome was the name of two women; Sir Winston Churchill's mother, and Jenny Jerome the Madame, the richest person on Main street,  Wasn't around to capture that, although, I certainly would have, had I been around back then.

The prints in this series will all be palladium toned Kallitype prints; 11"x14" and 11"x17" respectively, depending on whether the image was captured using my Burke & James 5x7 view camera, or my Canon 20D, with the longer format. I have always framed my shots as I want them to print, edge to edge. No cropping intended. Unfortunately, the longer format images simply can't be edited down without losing the fuller essence of the image as a whole.

I use two density <curves> that I made using Paintshop Pro X9; Photoshop for digital photography. All the same tool, plus some special features. The shorter <curve> was made for printing platinum/palladium Na2 prints, and the longer density range <curve> was made for straight palladium printing, or Kallitypes. The print times between the two are approximately 8 minutes for the shorter <curve> and 14 minutes for the longer density <curve>. They end up very close to being the same. Very close but not the same. The longer <curve> creates a print with deeper blacks [D-Max] and less shadow detail. The shorter <curve> is slightly flatter print image, showing good middle tones, with good blacks, just not quite as deep. I print for the highlights, zone 7, so that remains a constant. This print was made using the shorter Na2 <curve> for better detail in a dark interior.

This image was taken in 1985, and those at the bar are the "old timers" of Jerome, the bartender known by everyone in town.

Palladium toned Kallitype

"Paul & Jerry's" 11"x17"

Jerome, Arizona

Short Break

 My apologies for another dead zone period. My wife had major surgery and remains in the hospital, for more than a week now. Hence, my absence from posting. I have a new Arizona Scenic print in the early stages of printing.

Thank you for visiting.

 

"The Stone House II" ~ Palladium toned Kallitype

 In between working with the gum prints, I have once again begun working with the palladium toned Kallitypes again. Palladium, now more than three times more expensive these days, leaves me with using palladium for toning, only. Today, palladium costs the same as what platinum used to cost, two years ago. Now, palladium is at $10/ml. It takes 1ml for an 8"x10" print. It takes 2 1/4ml for an 11"x14" and 2 1/2ml for an 11"x17". Making an "11x14" print would cost  $25. Not on my budget.

As a reminder to those not familiar with working with precious metals is that the noble ones, replace the lessor ones, completely. Meaning, a silver based Kallitype, when cleared, then toned in a 5% palladium toning solution, the palladium metal salts completely replace the silver salts in the print, leaving only palladium, as metallic palladium. A palladium print; known as "the poor man's palladium", which, I might add, has a long and storied past, mostly after the turn of the 20th century, when platinum and palladium printing was quite popular, used a lot in portraiture. Platinum and palladium prints have a archival lifespan of 500 years.

The prints I consider for the 11"x17" format were all digitally captured, mostly with my Canon 20D. It's been a good companion for twenty years. I have not found a way to convert an digital length image, from a 2/3 CMOS image, which is slightly longer than the older standard of 11"x14". I edit what I want in the photograph, and from what angle and h eight, so cropping simply ruins the image, for what was intended to be seen. Altering the image through Paintshop Pro X9, merely distorts it, enough, that I wouldn't print it and put it with my artwork. So, I've succumbed to simply printing  the full length, which simply means using more of the Arista II 7mm film I print my negatives on. That OHC transparency film comes in 11"x17", making it pretty ideal for printing digital images.

This print was printed on Revere Platinum paper [140lb/sq ft-320g/sq m] A very fine paper for making hand coated prints.  It was developed in sodium citrate 20%, then cleared in EDTA 3%, before rinsed and toned in a palladium toning solution 5%, for 9 minutes. It is a top-down toner, with blacks last.

Palladium toned Kallitype

"The Stone House II" ~ 11"x17"

South Rim, Grand Canyon, Arizona

"The Quiet Pond" ~ Gum Dichromate Print

 This print is of an earlier era of my gum printing; from 1983. The gum prints I made nearly forty years ago, were not the same as the prints I make today. They were all full layer coating, using the basic CYMK printing format, using a single b&w negative, same process I use today. The defining change came with this print. This print began as a CYMK four layer print, before adding locally applied color(s). The trees in the background are not layers of colors. The numerous colors were applied using a very small, pointed brush, dotting the colors on individual leaves on the trees, using a magnifying loop.

The final touch, was using a very shear mixture quinacridone gold, the color of sunlight, brushed over the center of the image, including mostly the pond area, where the light was falling, to accentuate the effect. I knew the variables of control for gum printing at the time, but just the straight forward, historical application. This print was a test. A sticking your neck out, try it and hope for the best, being the risk was worth the reward, if I didn't make a mistake. That print took thirteen print layers and over twenty color mixes before it was finished. And yes, my inspiration for this derives of my love of Impressionism. That has been the goal since I began printing. This print was the first attempt at that technique.

The printing paper I used back in those days was Arches Hot Press watercolor paper, sizing the paper with two dips in a 2 1/2% gelatin solution. Back then I didn't preshrink the paper. Most of the early prints were simple four print layers using CYMK colors. They were also 5"x7" prints on 8"x10" sheets of rag paper, so there was little, to no shrinking, interfering with the printed image. The negatives went through a Burke & James 5x7 view camera. These days, the digital negatives I make, print 11"x14" gums on 15"x19 1/2" sheets of Fabriano Artistico rag paper, and that does shrink, about 1mm-2mm after several applications in water. I preshrink the rag paper three times, fully drying overnight, then put them through two submersion dips in Know Gelatin 2 1/2%, which sizes the paper at the right level for applying a 50% mixture of gum/dichromate mixture. Commercial, premixed gum, is 14 Baum, approximately a 37% mixture. One dip in 5% gelatin, is not the same as two dips in 2 1/2%. The sizing needs to match the gum mixture.

The gum printing I do today, continues the work I did with this print, using the same techniques. The thirty years in between printing back then, and now, hasn't lessened my passion for this process. Gum printing remains the rarest of all photographic printing processes being done today. Along with that, all my gum prints are unique, no copies, no artist's proof. Just the one print image. For me, that makes them more inviting for serious collectors. Being gum prints can last up to a thousand years, there be plenty of time for that to happen, regardless of who owns the prints in the meantime.

Gum Dichromate Print

"The Quiet Pond" ~ 5"x7"

Eugene, Oregon 1983

"Native Dancers" ~ Gum Dichromate Print

 This gum print was a very complex image to print, outside the CYMK format, using full coating layers. Any gum printer will see immediately that full layer coating, stacked however many times, cannot separate colors in such a way. As I've noted many  times, I am effectively color blind to red/green, as are the majority of men, to some degree. I make gum print theoretically, according to subtractive color theory; based upon a CYMK format for many of the images in the beginning, branching off to work with isolated sections to enhance, or alter the color to something desired.

I began preparing the paper for the print on July 1st, clearing the print, before drying, on the 30th. I will say this about making gum prints of this complexity; not sure I would attempt it again, unless it be an image really dear to my heart. This print is the second print of a three print series of the Native Dancers. I have to say, I find the first print, a gum over palladium version, to be more to my liking. That print was about a dozen posts past. The final one will be the same.

As I've also noted, probably enough to annoy, is that gum printing is no different from other artistic formats, painting, in oil, acrylic or watercolor. Especially watercolor, being it is also based upon the subtractive color theory. A gum print is a photographic watercolor. The print image is formed and shaped by the color palette chosen, and all the other critical steps that shape the finished print. There being eight factors that controls and shapes gum printing. Listed below;

The Paper, sizing, density range of the negative, color layering format [color choices each layer], density of the color/gum mixture, and, amount of gum-mix laid on the paper, printing time, floating time, and water temperature. There are actually more, but not primary variables. Each of these variables can be controlled to the printer's advantage. The process is well  known; mix a color in the gum, mix that equally with potassium dichromate [some use ammonium dichromate as it's more sensitive; 'faster'] print under a negative the size of the desired image, then float on water until the gum not affected by the UV light, has floated away, leaving the rest of the print intact.

Technique; is coming to understand the controls of the process, using them to shape the printing through each step, to realizethe pre-visualized image intended. When I read a take on gum printing, with the theme being; "try this out, and see what happens, one never knows what you might get". Do not believe that. That derives of a  person who has attempted gum printing, learning the basic process, without understanding the variables that control said process. I won't mention from where I saw the instructions for gum printing,  that were so ludicrous, so outside actual gum printing I really couldn't believe it derived of a academic institution with alternative photography classes. It was disheartening.

I have created a "page" on this blog, laying out the process of Kallitype printing, and Salt Paper printing. I have considered doing the same for gum printing, but have hesitated, simply because there are no real boundaries, nor "this is how you do it" beyond how to mix the gum/color/dichromate and brush it on paper. The printing approaches and possibilities are literally endless, and come of artistic expression. This,  is why a gum printer is unique. No two printers are alike, leaving a recognizable image of the printer, due to 'technique'. Even attempting to explain the fuller controls of the eight variables would take, well, 91 pages, which is the length of the book I wrote on gum printing. The fifth is the series on photographic processes; The Alchemist's Guide series. Yes, that was a shameless plug, but I am slowly learning if you can't find your horn to toot on once in a while, no one can find your work.

This print was made on Fabriano Artistico 140-lb Hot Press watercolor paper. It consits of twenty-two printing layers using over thirty color mixes. It was printed in the UV printer I designed and built. It has eight 24" T12 20W UV white blacklight tubes. Those are no longer made. Now the T-8 is standard. The defuser sheet is 1 1/2" below the tubes, and the defuser sheet is 6" from the table top. The digital print negative was printed on the Epson 1430 [13"x19"] using a density <curve> I use for Kallitype printing. It was snappy, with a print time of 15-17 minutes, depending on the highlights being printed, using 68ºF-floating water. Normally, I use a shallower <curve> with a print time of eight minutes.

Gum Dichromate Print

"Native Dancers" ~ 11"x14"

Tucson, Arizona

 

"The Stone House" ~ Palladium toned Kallitype

 The last post I made was when I had finished a gum print, and had begun preparing the paper for another, which was finished with final touches, today. Three weeks to create that print, which will be posted tomorrow. While it was knowingly finished, I took the liberty to make a palladium print of the Stone House at the Grand Canyon, Arizona, during a visit there in June. A regular focus of photographers who come there, even a watercolor painting my wife painted some years ago.

This print continues the 11"x17" format printings, using digital images I captured on my Canon 20D over the years. Still around and working as designed, although, now, a great-grandpa of cameras. Like me. I have spent so many years editing the image as I capture it, exactly what I want, corner to corner, there is no nice way of making an 11x14 out of it, or other standard size, without losing the image intended. I have attempted to correct for this, using a quick re-edit pull-back of about 10% wider, to accommodate for the area lost when cropping back to an 11x14 format. Don't like that though. Just not normal.

This print was shot in RGB color, of course, with a pre-negative printing adjustments to include one of the few 'apps' that comes with Print Shop Pro; The Time Machine; the black & white negative, leaving a long scale tonal range, just like in a black & white negative. Not doing so, leaves intact the RGB information, and colors on the negative. That has an affect on printing. Green inhibits printing in the upper tonal range, and can be laid over a negative image, in a layer over the image, and that is the same as adding a density curve to the negative. Works quite well. Assign a -40 value in the hue bar, shifting it green, and that negative can be printing in sunlight.

As I have been doing more recently, I am making "poor man's palladium prints". That is, toning a silver image in a palladium toner. The more noble metal [palladium] completely replaces all the silver salts in the image, leaving only metallic palladium, instead of metallic silver to look at. A process with long historical roots, dating back to the turn of the 20th century. It's an honorable way to make palladium, or platinum prints, without the cost of printing in platinum, or palladium today. To keep it honorable, I always disclose on the Certificate of Authenticity of it's providence being a palladium toned Kallitype. The prices of each have sky rocketed in the past couple years.  I made this print on the Revere Platinum paper I have been using for years now. Really like that paper. For me, it is equal to Arches Platine paper. Perhaps that's just me.

Palladium toned Kallitype

"The Stone House" ~ 11"x17"

Grand Canyon, Arizona

 

"Morning Ritual Pair" ~ Gum Dichromate Print

This particular gum print was made strictly for my wife. The original "Morning Ritual" print was a beloved female cat named Zoey. These two monkeys, in kitty suits, are brother and sister, taking over the morning ritual, when the weather permits. 

My recent gum prints have been very light handed, as I refer to it. Falling just slightly into the paper, as a softer image, compared ot a more boldly printed image. The early morning light was what I was after when making this print, always printing for the reciprocal density zone of the negative; for print time. I find my printing is affected by my take on the image to be printed. Each image having some sort of emotional connection to the printer, which can be said to be why it was chosen. The soft touch images have their place, but I find myself wanting a richer depth of color, something I will be working on with the two images I am working on now. Each one has its own challenges.

This gum has eight print layers, using thirteen colors. More than two weeks in the making, including paper preparations, of five days. After years of printing gums, there are still things to be learned. The only boundaries of this process, are within the printer.

Gum Dichromate Print

"Morning Ritual Pair" 8"x10"

 

"Arizona Scenic #1 ~ Gum Dichromate Print

This print is the third iteration of the image. The thing with working with gum is that the choices one makes each and ever layer of color lain onto the print, shapes the image in different ways. Getting well into the printing, sometimes at what was planned as the finish; it isn't what you wanted. Better said, the final image isn't what it could be. The corollary of this, is knowing when ti stop printing.

This print is one of a number of Arizona scenic images I have, ready for printing. A good many are sunset shots, being that's where the real color is, the thing gum printing is all about. My printing method uses a single b&w negative, these days, a digital image prepared to make a digital negative, printed on my Epson 1430 13"x19" printer. A very, very fine printer for this work. These days I mostly make gum prints, both in 8"x10" or 11"x14", depending on the image.

This print turned out to be a six print layer print. It was a simpler image to work with than the last one, which was quite complex. What I was after in this print was the soft look of a late afternoon in the desert valley where this image was photographed, being above a western slope, all in shade. That was what I was after. As most of my 8x10 prints, I use Hahnemuhle paper, as it weathers the multi-dipping of the process well, not contorting, buckling and twisting. Where this effect is most prominent is when only local areas of the print image are coated, then floated. The more of these local applications, especially repeated over the same areas, due to expansion/contraction separating areas. Care must be taken when this begins to happen, to keep the image intact, and staying registered.

 Gum Dichromate Print

"Arizona Scenic #1"

Avra Valley, Arizona

"Building Storm" ~ Gum Dichromate Print

 It has been some time since my last post, with a number of things getting in between my desire to get to my darkroom, and the reality at hand. Reality won out. I was able to put the final layers of color on the print I've been working on. A photo taken from the dinner table at Eladios Restaurant in Progresso, Yucatan, Mexico. Highly recommended restaurant. The larger section of the main dining area is a Pallapa style design, with viewing all around. This restaurant sits right next to the Malacón, with early evening activities, observable from the tables. This particular late afternoon, a squall was building in the distance, off shore. The wind was up, yet the activity along the Malacón was unaffected, casual as usual in that town.

This print was amazingly complex to make. I wanted soft colors representing the image, not bright, brilliant colors normally seen in many Mexican towns. What caught my eye was the color of the sky, warm toned, slightly ominous, and the activity on the Malecón, with pastel colors, light up from stray sunshine. This was a turn in your chair, frame and snap, image. Not tripod setup, calculated exposures and timeless waiting for the exact right moment. Sometimes it just works out all of its own.

This image derives from the Progresso Portfolio, of palladium prints. This image was meant for gum printing, to achieve the mood of that moment This gum was an eleven print layer print. One of the reasons it took so long to complete. I spent much time analysing the image, working out the color to be used, and in which order they would be printed, how shear to make them, and all the other considerations made during the gum printing process. My biggest consideration is getting the colors right, being I'm all but color blind to red/green, which makes printing colors a bit dicey for me. Overall, I'm happy with the outcome. The original is a bit richer than the digital copy. A casualty of copying the print with a 20 year old digital camera.

Gum Dichromate Print ~ Unique

“Building Storm” ~ 11”x14”

Progresso, Yucatan, Mexico

 

Completing the Print

 This past year, my printing efforts have been run over by home demands and a pandemic. Not that I have been idle altogether. A good portion of my efforts over the past weeks have been focused on the printing itself. I began making gum prints in 1982. I've had a process that worked well for me. A really good process is like a really bad habit. You don't want to give it up. The weeks of testing had to do with finding a printing paper that fit my needs, now. I now use two papers; one for 8x10 gums and another for 11x14 gums. Both do well with multiple soakings without a lot of curling and warping. Turns out, Hahnemuhle Platinum and Fabriano Artistico are the two choices, respectively.

With the paper comes the sizing needs, for the look I am after. There is a delicate balance between having the image remain on the surface sufficiently to show textural detail, and, an image that falls into the paper, fading, without strong edges. That took a couple weeks, testing variations upon the theme. Turns out, the setting I was looking for was for two, one-minute soakings, in a bath of 2 1/2% gelatin sizing. That, after three pre-shrinking dips of a minute or so, at 110º-115ºF, before hanging up to dry, or lay in a drying tray.Altogether that totals to five days of paper preparation before being ready to print. Dedication.

There is a print I am currently working on. An 11x14 gum print "Native Dancers", Arizona tribes dancing at a Pow Wow. This one a second print of the three I have in this series. The first print of the native dancers was a gum over palladium print. The gum print is more complex and trickier to print, than the gum over palladium.

"The Blue Goose" ~ Gum Dichromate Print

 I have  posted this image already. An earlier print I made of this train. I didn't like it. I just knew it wasn't what I had set out to do. That doesn't sit well, over time. This print was made from a modified digital negative, shortening the density range slightly, with the sky with the highest densities, much of which were clouds. Clouds tend to be white, but not blank white. This much improved the image.

The second change to this print was the order and selection of colors used. I reversed the order of the printing; from KCYMC to CYMKC. I know, seems senseless, however, it does make a difference, slight as it may be. There are also infinite iterations on the gum mixtures as well. How much of each color to use on each layer, alters the cumulative stack of color(s) The idea is to use the colors to enhance one or more of the color combinations for a particular tonal range of the image, as that also affects the print time. Printing is done to a tonality or tonal range, as it a bright sky or area of near white, or a pare of bluejeans in shade. The print time for a zone three shadow or darker color, is less than printing for the highlights; zone 7. Doesn't matter the color. Print time is predicated on the zone you are printing to.

This print was of nine print layers, using as many colors, some applied locally, as in the sky, and the tree, the train engine, and the passenger cars. The focus of the print image was the train engine, out front and center. The sky as well as the foreground are softer than the engine, bringing the engine out even more, visually. Well, that is my interpretation of the image as I perceived it. That is all the printer can do. Make it their own and accept the repercussions.

CYMK printing tends to show a longer tonal range of color, with deeper blacks and shadows, compared to RGB printing, which tends to look more like 50's color print images, softer, more pastel. RGB adds up to white; CYMK adds up to black. You get the idea. As my printing continued to demonstrate, my printing continues to change. My images are a bit softer these days, more.... pastel. But I'm liking it. I would attribute this to something that is a driving force in my printing. Each and every image has a look, a feel, from whatever emotional connection the printer, and even the viewer may get from seeing how it is presented. That, for me, is the Pictorial Effect the printer creates, using shadow and lighting effects during the creation of the negative, then the printing.  That, is the printer's Hand, recognizable over time. I'm fairly happy with this one, as I got what I had set out to do, represent the elements in such a way as to make the train be the visual point.

Gum Dichromate Print                                                                                                                           "The Blue Goose" ~ 8"x10"                                                                                                            Florence, Oregon

"Capt Jack" ~ Gum Dichromate Print

 At long last, Capt Jack is finally a finished print. Fourth iteration of printing. Because of the coating & layering approach I had to take to arrive at this finished version, A problem I had to work with was colors running while still wet, hung up. Normally, this isn't a major problem, with a bit of vigilance; assuming one 'sees' said color(s) in the first place. As noted before, I am 95% color blind to red/green. I basically see those colors as they come out of the tube, and even in mixture. It's when a shear layer of red, migrates over into another color while drying down, that, I tend to miss. When a print takes two or more weeks to produce in the first place, tossing a print, near completion, is painful. Doing it three times tests one's commitment to printing.

There is another variable at play  with this print, being a paper and sizing trials, variations upon the theme. This print was made on Fabriano Artistico hot press watercolor paper; 140lb. I began printing gums using Arches hot press watercolor paper; sizing with Know gelatin @ 2.5%, paper soaked twice. This print was made on the Fabriano paper using one clear layer of gum/dichromate, printed 5-minutes, then cleared. This version of sizing actually works fairly well, although there is more 'paper bleed' than would be the case with the two dips in gelatin sizing. Along with this test was another one using one layer of Knox gelatin; @ 2% solution. This version is very much like the single printed clear gum layer. 

There are several more versions of sizing papers, as well as many potential papers to use for gum printing. When I make Kallitype or Palladium prints, I use Revere Platinum paper, as it just works so well and gives such a beautiful, rich finish to the metal based prints. One thing I found it not to be all that suited for is repeated dipping in water after repeated coating and printing exposures. The paper tends to warp and curl more than the Fabriano. I will say here that I have yet to try the double soaking with gelatin sizing at 2.5%. I used the single coating. A second aspect of the Revere paper, is the smooth surface of the printing side. Very desirable for palladium prints, workable for gums. The Fabriano paper has more 'tooth'. Not so much 'roughness', like cold pressed, but a 'woven' feel to it, and the gum layers work very well in concert with that surface tooth. The Fabriano paper also doesn't curl much, with very little assistance, saying almost flat.

I use the Fabriano paper for the 11"x14" gum prints, buying the sheets in the full size; 22"x30", then cut them in half and trim, to fit the paper mask that hosts the negative, same size as the print paper; 15"x19 1/2". I simply use the Strathmore Sketch Pad paper; 16"x20". I made mask of the first sheet, then mark through the window the corner points before tearing off the marked sheet and cutting out the  window for the negative. These two sheets; mask & printing paper, are to be the same size, then get "Married" before being registered and set to the pins taped to the printing frame I made for gum printing. Not to make a pitch here, but the details of the connection between the gum and paper, and the controls for that are my fifth book, on gum printing.

The basic relationship between paper sizing and gum application, has to do with the amount of color that can be mixed in the gum, second only to the viscosity of the gum. Pre-mixed commercial is sold at 14 balm, which equates roughly to a 37% mixture. For me, that's a bit thin. I mix my own gum, at 50% solution. That allows for more color that can be added to the gum to begin with, and the gum/color mixture is then mated to the paper/sizing, with the intended results of printing the least amount of gum color needed to represent each color layer with intended fidelity. Less sizing, more 'open paper', the more the color will soak into the paper, sort of 'fading' upon dry down. Too much sizing, as well as too much gum color, finds the gum & color building up onto the surface, usually ending up cracking, and or flaking if way too much is used.

This version of the print is a softer, dreamier sort of image. I got the dreamier part from my wife's take on it. She's my color guru for gum printing. She's a watercolor painter and sees the full color spectrum. At first I was not fully on board with the softer, dreamier part. I have worked for years to make the images on the surface and "strong', printed bold. And that, is one of the hallmarks of gum printing. The ability for almost endless variations upon the theme; making the image your own. The printer's "hand". This one is mine.

Gum Dichromate Print  ~ Unique                                                                                                                  "Capt Jack" ~ `11"x14"

"The Blue Goose" ~ Gum Dichromate Print

This past hiatus from posting derives from a list of challenges I've been entertaining. The other half of my life, outside of printing, and writing. In that recent period I have been experimenting with a different printing paper for gums, as well as the sizing. Not all of that presented good things. Within that experimentation were three print iterations of Capt Jack. None to my liking. I am now four  color layers into the fourth print of Capt Jack. I've narrowed the useful portions of the process and finding the current relationship workable.

When I began printing gums forty years ago, I had far fewer choices for printing papers. I settled on Arches hot press watercolor paper, sizing it with two soakings of a 2 1/2% Knox gelatin solution. That paper worked well, then. I have come to find papers more to my liking more recently. One of those papers is Fabriano Artistico hot press watercolor paper. I like the feel of the surface, and the tooth of the paper. This paper is also sized in the interior and exterior, however, it really needs further sizing for finer gum work.

There is a balance between the paper sizing, gum viscosity and amount of color added, that, when in balance keeps the printed image on the surface of the paper sufficiently for good textural detail. If the sizing isn't sufficient, the gum too thin or the added color too much for the first two elements, the image falls into the paper, disappearing as it dries. Too much sizing with thick gum and a lot of color creates an image that more resembles garish acrylic painting work. There is no 'right' amount, or balance. There is but the visual effect the printer finds to their liking. As I have noted before, I mix my gum at 50% solution for printing. So, for me, a single sizing can work, but will require just a little heavier watercolor mixture  works best for each color layer.

The recent tests reveal that two soakings of gelatin sizing at 2% solution works very much the same as a single clear gum coating, printed then cleared. Each of those sizing treatments leave a slightly different visual feel to the image, how much textural detail is shown, how much paper texture is seen. Getting the color mixtures right makes all the difference in the final  print. It not only has everything to do with how many color layers are needed for a finished print, but also how much textural detail, and smoothness of the coated image is left. There are no 'boundaries' in gum printing. Just personal tastes.

Because of the paper/sizing arrangement of this print, it required ten printed color layers to arrive at a suitable interpretation of the image as I planned. I am no longer interested in replicating a realistic interpretation of the scene. What I want out of the image is my own interpretation of how it is to look. That, is the point of the gum printer. Showing the printer's 'hand', or 'gesture'. I haven't seen any other gum printer, few as there are, to print like me, or each other. Each printer is unique.

Gum Dichromate Print                                                                                                                                 "The Glue Goose" ~ 8"x10"                                                                                                                          Florence, Oregon

 

"Yellow Rose" ~ Gum Dichromate Print

The "Yellow Rose" print is finally finished. That had to wait until the Rose Bu\d print was finished, to use the printing board. The digital copy of the print falls short of the much richer yellow color of the petals that are lit up by the sun.  The brilliance of the sun on the petals that was the focus of the printing. There is also just a bit of visual penetration to the background, like a zone 2 shadow, where there is no texture or detail but it  an be seen that something is there. In the  digital copy the background just went dark. A failure in copying, not the print.

 This is the second flower print of what will become a portfolio of such prints. More roses, both red and yellow to print  for the rest of my life, as well as desert flowers, singly, close up, as this one, and some of a field of flowers.  I will be treating the different flower prints in different ways, some, holding to the original colors and some will be shaped in ways to enhance the print image. Two prints in process is The Blue Goose, an historic train that was still active when the image was taken, in 1982, and Capt Jack, the first print I have begun altering, to be something that would never be seen in reality. Stayed tune for that one.

 "Gum Dichromate Print ~ Unique                                                                                                                  8"x10" ~ Fabriano Artistica 140lb hot press watercolor paper

"Rose Bud #1" Gum Dichromate Print

 Best laid plans and all, then, Things Happen comes along and changes that. The Yellow Rose print remains nearly finished. Last minute decision to reprint a layer or two derives after clearing the print of the dichromate stain. Remove yellow from a print, with the subject primarily yellow, dins the depth of the color, making it pale, much less than can be done.

The hiatus from printing, at all, added to the time since last making a gum print, leaves prints not quite what had been expected. The nuances of color layering with the many variables affecting the print, all along the way, including the clearing when it is thought to be finished. Besides the Yellow Rose print, I have two other prints currently in some stage of printing. Not flowers. The two flower prints honed the instinctive touch, rendering ever finer prints. Like learning a language, printing comes under 'use it or lose it' of efficiency therein. One doesn't forget how to do it. The intuitive nature, inducing the finer nuances of the process 'get rusty'. Even after forty years of making gums.

This print consists of eighteen layers, using over twenty colors. That is because I was far too stingy with the mixtures, and likely just shy of print time needed. Too cautious. As always, the gum/color mixture opacity,  the print time, and the float time are the three variables controlling the print's primary characteristics. Keeping the negative constant. The printing is for the highlights, no different from any other printing process; for the vast majority of hand coated printing formats. Printing for the highlights. All the tones beneath the highlights fall into place, according to the contrast index and density range of the negative.

The opacity of the color influences how much color affect each layer will be upon existing colors, all stacked, one over the other as the printing proceeds. The color theory for gums is the same as watercolors; a subtractive color theory. The color layers adding up to a given color range and appeal when finished. The RGB gum color combination, especially when using color separations of the negative, is a soft pastel like colors, much like color film in the fifties. The CYMK printing format also realizes a very good representation of a color scene; this process has the black layer. The closer to full opacity of a color, when wiped over a clear material, into the light. I use a one ounce, 30cc medicine pill dispenser, as it is soft plastic and cleans well. It also allows the mixed gum with watercolor mixed in, to be wiped over the side of the vessel while looking into the light, showing how much light is coming through, and that, indicates how much the color layer is going to affect the colors below, as they are added up, divided by the light penetration.

The print time dictates how much of the gum will be soft enough to float off, during the floating on water. The more light upon the gum/colloid mixture, the more of it becomes permanent, impervious to any water application. Too little light and too much gum washes off during floating. These are of course the extremes, used as examples. There is a sort of hand shake between the print time ~ float time. One complements the other. What should dictates the print time is the negative, printing for the highlights. A simple test strip will show exactly this ratio. The sample that floats away just the right amount of gum that you wanted, happened within three minutes. On average.

The final part to play is the water temperature.  The warmer the water, the more area of the coated area will become soft, likely to float away. An overall removal of gum over the entire print area, which would affect about 50% of the tonal range, as the lower tones, zone 1, 2, and 3, representing black and dark shadow, will unlikely be affected by the floating. The upper tonal range can and will be affected by warm water. A finer control is using the float water at 65℉-68℉. This cools and firms up the gum at the lower tonal ranges, leaving zone 7 to be floated first, which should be times to below three minutes. I personally like that to happen between 1-2 minutes. These variables allow for a wide range of color achievement and color affect. The idea, in my mind, is doing so in a way the viewer can relate with, a sort of emotional attachment, because of the way the printer arrived at the finished print. That's the task.

This print is one which is not exactly as I had previsualized before I began. It did, arrive at an acceptable ending. After several weeks. For me, it is a bit heavy handed. Also printed on paper that tends to be a bit tricky to work with, from warping and twisting. I've settled on using only Hahnemuhle paper for the 8"x10" gum prints, and the Fabriano Artistico 140lb Hot Pressed watercolor paper for the 11"x14" gum prints. As I progress with printing the flowers, I may reprint this and destroy the old print.

Gum Dichromate Print

"Rose Bud" ~ Unique

"Yellow Rose" in Progress

 If things can happen, they will. Usually Always. This past year, now behind us, blessedly, has been crammed with demands for my time and attention. Pandemic, building projects on our house, wife's medical condition, and all the things tucked in between. Realizing a blog is to be written in a continual manner, such that the viewer has a reason to return. Shows you what kind of blogger I am. Plus I'm old, so there's that. I'm not much of an IT person; although, there was a \time.

That said, I have been working on new gum prints. I have shifted my printing attention to gums, for now. I have also begun printing flowers, beginning with images of roses I took a number of years ago. Those images have been patiently awaiting my getting to them. Gum printing takes a great deal of patience, and perseverance. That doesn't include the unexplainable things that take place, basically making the print junk. I've floated the print, hung it up to slough off the water, with a clean print finish. Then return the next morning to find a dot of dark color over a light, continuous tone area. Really! A drop, like a drip, but.... there was no chance for any such thing to take place. I have two junk prints of Capt Jack now. Both times it was the black run that made it so. Perfect while standing in front of it, then return to drips and spatters that simply cannot be explained. One would think they had pretty much seen most things gum printing ion forty years. One would be wrong about that.

"Yellow Rose" was shot in bright sunlight, and I want to keep the brilliance of the sunlight on the upper petals. The print, for all practical purposes, is finished. As originally planned. The thing buggering that up, currently, is an editorial one. The Pictorial Effect, altering the print image to arrive at "the strongest way of seeing", as Weston was noted as saying, often. The idea is to create a visual effect that elicits an emotional connection by the viewer. Dicey business, that. One person's interpretation is likely to another's annoyance. I used to worry about that. Later I put time pondering that relationship, ultimately coming to more fully realize that such a relationship can only function if the artist/printer stays true to their own vision, leaving the viewer to see what they are able.

The print will be finished, soon enough, if, I don't make a mistake in the interim.