"Soldier at Rest" ~ Palladium toned Kallitype

 This image was one of the more difficult images to print. The contrast was extreme, although looiing at the original image didn't show that to be the case. The light falling on the soldier's uniform is so much denser than the soldier's face, not the normal one-stop difference between skin tones at zone 6, and primary highlights at zone 7. There is a three stop difference in this imae. Not easy to  arrive at a good print. Well, to my liking anyway.

I continue to print on Hahnemuhle Platinum rag, developing in sodium citrate, toning in 5% palladium toning solution. That also included a smidgen of citric acid to said toning solution. I was able to get access to these characters, because I bivouacked with them for the full seven days of the reenactments, living right in their camp. Not much different when shooting wild animals, in that, once hung out all the time, before long they began to realize I didn't pose a threat. Instead, I befriended them, to 'capture' their character, and every single player there was in character, and never, ever, came out of character while there.

I photographed as they told me stories of their character, where she/he lived, family and what they would do after the war; click.

Palladium toned Kallitype

"Soldier at Rest"

Salem, Oregon 1990

"The Bugler's Mascot"

 The sixth print in the Civil War portfolio. This one, as the others, was extremely contrasty, from the original film negatives. I am able to mitigate a good deal of that contrast using the four basic density slides of Lightroom. The period images as they are, would lend themselves to some very contrasty images during the day, being during the civil war, only salted paper and carbon printing [gum dichromate today] were in use at the time, with the exception of wet plate photography. Timothy O'Sullivan's wet plate photographs of civil war images. Generals, troops formations, bivouac setups and after the battle scenes. Wet Plate inherently leaves a very contrasty image, with the blacks deep, sometimes little middle tones and high contrast to blown out whites and skies.

But then, I'm not competing with Timmy O'Sullivan here. These images are warmer toned than era photographs which were very black and white, not much in the middle. Palladium didn't arrive until mid 1870's, Kallitype in the 1890's. Think of what you do today for an image, and wet plate photography, when you had minutes to get the photo on the wet plate you just snapped had to get into a solution, in a wagon in the middle of a vast prairie. But I digress.

I'm keeping to the continuity of mostly warmer toned images, developed in sodium citrate, printed on Hahnemuhle Platinum rag, using a custom built UV printer [8 - 24" 20W white blacklight bulbs] with a print time of 10 minutes. Most of these prints are ten minutes prints, whereas, normally printing time is eight minutes. The task for this print was controlling the whites [zone 7] A good amount of the focus of the image are the whites. The task was keeping them at zone 7, The bit of zone 8 in the print is of the mascot's right sleeve, the hottest area of the print image. That, without darkening the background to obscurity. Comments are always welcome of course.

Palladium toned Kallitype

"The Bugler's Mascot"

Salem, Oregon 1990

"The Surgeon's Nurse" ~ Palladium toned Kallitype

 The fifth print in the Civil War portfolio, as the ones before it, was a difficult image to print. The images are copied from 35mm b&w film, shot thirty years ago. The scenes were shot mostly mid day, leaving very high contrast images on said negatives. Even for hand coated printing, these images remain very 'hot' for printing in Kallitype. Technically, these images are contrasty enough to better scale to salt-paper printing, which is a printing out format. The image can be seen as it prints in. That format uses much more silver than the Kallitype. An 8x10 Kallitype requires 24 drops of Silver Nitrate @ 10% solution, mixed equally with the same 24 drops of ferric oxalate at 20% solution. Roughly speaking, that about 2mls of solution; 18-24 drops = 1ml [give or take] The salted paper print of that size would require 8mls of silver nitrate solution; the 48drops for each coat, and salt paper requires a double coating for a fuller scaled image, not the reddish brown flat image when using a single coating.

Salt paper printing is a printing out method of printing. No developer needed. A straight forward rinsing in a wash tray is all that's needed for a finished print, before the fixing bath. Toning is highly recommended, but should b done before fixing, after rinsing, same as the Kallitype, for best results. For those that like to watch the progress of the printing, 'seeing' the final image before pulling it from the printing frame, this is the method. Fortunately, silver remains fairly affordable. 8mls of coating per print using palladium these days would cost roughly $80 a print, just for the palladium coating.

This print, as the rest, was printed on Hahnemuhle Platinum rag, developed in sodium citrate and cleared with EDTA 3% solution, before rinsing in a flowing water tray, then toned in a 5% palladium/citric acid solution for, usually, 8 minutes, sometimes 10 minutes. At that point, all the silver salts have been replaced with palladium salts, thereby being a true palladium print. Such prints have a long history, referred to as 'poor man's palladium' print.

Palladium toned Kallitype

"The Surgeon's Nurse" 11x14

Salem, Oregon 1990

 

"Soldier at Battlement" ~ Palladium toned Kallitype

 The fifth print in the portfolio, and it turned out as I had hoped. One of the dicey stages for me is getting a copy of the print with the fidelity of the print. The images in this portfolio derive from film, shot thirty years ago, on a very bright and contrasty day, with shadow and sunlit areas probably a four stop difference. Not east to bring the tonal range into a desirable printable relationship. But I try.

This print was developed in the sodium citrate developer for the warm tones it affords. A good many of the images in this portfolio will likely be developed in the warm toned citrate developer. Some will be like the two cannoneers images; both developed in sodium acetate, the cool toned developer, then toned. The base structure and underlying blacks can be readily been seen, whereas, the citrate developer doesn't render blacks as deeply. Much work was done on this image to make it printable.

Palladium toned Kallitype

"Soldier at Battlement"

Salem, Oregon 1990

 

"After the Battle" ~ Palladium toned Kallitype

 The fourth print in the Civil War portfolio has to do with after a battle, bodies strewn on the ground; gathering of troops, counting casualties. The intent of shooting these images was to document moments in the reenactors day to day living, including battles and casualties. Also bivouac camp images, tents, fife and drum team, mascots and soldiers behind the scenes. Actually, the job of the photojournalist. Capture a sequence of images that shows the fuller view of a subject or theme.

This image, as well as the first one, were developed in sodium citrate, for the warm tones afforded. Once the palladium toner does its work, there is a color shift, from very warm, almost Van Dyke Brown warm, to a much cooler, yet warmed tone image. Compared to a platinum or silver print developed in the cool tone acetate developer. Various combinations arrive at slightly different outcomes. These images are also printed on Hahnemuhle rag paper, as I'm finding this paper to my liking, after using Revere Platinum paper for some years now.

Palladium toned Kallitype

"After the Battle" 11"x14"

Salem, Oregon 1990

"Cannon Crew Break" ~ Palladium toned Kallitype

 I'm back from an out of state trip that was necessary. Back to working on the Civil War portfolio. I'm finding I like the print color of the sodium citrate developer, over the sodium acetate developer for most of these images. The end result after palladium toning fits the images better. These images were all shot on 35mm film; FP4. Considering the images have been enlarged to the current 11"x14"print, the images held up well.

I've have begun printing on Hahnemuhle rag printing paper. I'm coming to like this paper over the Revere platinum paper, which I ahve been using now for years. I am also finding out that the 11"x15" cut format is no longer available in most outlets. Now, apparently now the size is 11"x17", for digital format??

Palladium toned Kallitype

"Cannon Crew Break"

Salem, Oregon Circa 1990