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
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