"The Cannoneers" ~ Pallsdium Toned Kallitype

 This was actually the first print I made from the Civil War Reenactment portfolio. I knew what I wanted for the 'look', the color, rich blacks, deep shadows with some detail. It took several iterations of the process to finally arrive at the final print. That meant creating a new density <curve> to handle the high contrast of the original image; scanned from a 35mm negative, shot in 1990.

As for the color of the image, there are two primary colors working in this print. The sodium acetate developer [cool black tones] followed by a palladium toning of 8-minutes, of course, rendered the print a palladium print when completed. That palladium toning, not only replaces all the silver salts in the print, but leaves a warm tone. Those two together are very, very close to a palladium printed image developed in  potassium oxalate.

The previous image "Assembly at the Battlement" was developed in sodium citrate [warm toned developer] followed by a palladium toning of the same time. Those two in concert, leaves the overall print image much warmer overall, much like a palladium print developed in ammonium citrate, at 95ºF, rendering a very warm toned image, very close to a Van Dyke Brown. Using combinations of developer and toner, there are a number of outcomes available. An example being; using sodium acetate developer on the Kallitype, followed by toning in a Gold toner; gold chloride 1% equal with Thiourea 1%. This gold toner is an 'all at once' toner, instead of the normal top-down toner as most are, even palladium is a top down toner. That combination would leave an image very close to what a platinum print would  look like, the long scale and rich blacks. A trained eye would see the difference, maybe, in the middle tones, as platinum prints have a sort of smokey blue hue to the middle tones.

I have to say I'm happy with the finished print. It represents the image I had in mine and pre-visualized. The key, hanging on the canon's center support brace, in zone 2 shadow. One of the things I was working  on for the final print. More of the portfolio coming soon.

Palladium toned Kallitype

"The Cannoneers" ~ 11"x14"

Salem , Oregon 1990