The Target Negative ~ Straight Printing

The first successful photography business I ventured into was called Straight Photography. I was something of a purest at the time. As I noted more than once, my mentor in all t hings black and white photography was Alfred Stieglitz. And no, I didn't actually meet him, although... I was only two years off when he passed on. What he espoused and promoted a century ago remains pertinent today, and I believe any photographer today who fervently remains in the black and white camp, especially film shooters, are the choir of this position.

I might mention here that even the digital black and white photographers keep to traditional b&w values, applied using digital tools instead of chemistry. Good news for them is the new Piezographers who are replacing ink sets; both dye and pigment, with carbon based ink, applying it to black and white photography digitally with nine nozzles of black. Technology marches along as healthy as ever, while the beloved black and white realm of photography remains constant, albeit perhaps, less printers today, with so many other avenues now available. Perhaps too, I am wrong, with more interest in black and white photography today increasing, with the Millennials finding the artistic joy of this craft as inviting as screen based entertainment. I have grandsons who show me a lot of said pulse.

Having opened this post with Straight Photography, such a subjective position makes for a seeming conundrum, although I might argue otherwise. I refer to Stieglitz' "equivalence", in that the final print is what the photographer/printer deigns it to be through personalized treatment. As you know, from printing. The comparison between the Salted Silver and Kallitype image of the stagecoach was for exactly that reason. By altering the negative, I alter the print's outcome. Personally speaking, I am after something in between those two images, and I believe the new negatives I just printed up will do exactly that.

One of the negatives I just printed up is the image of "Horse Head", which I printed a couple of sessions ago. What I came to see of this print was that the density range was off, leaving the print lacking detail,  yet shorter print time which shifted the image much warmer, with the palladium toning moving things even further warm brown. The new negative should/will correct this, printing in the upper tonal ranges, which are important being the primary image, the horse, is white. That's working for a tonal range within a tonal range. Fine tuning.

This print is a salted silver (salt paper) print, on Revere Platinum paper, salted 2 1/2% ~ 13% Silver solution; Print time 8 minutes, toned in palladium toner 4 minutes. The new negative will bring down the highlight zones and fill in lower tonal zones, shortening the density range just enough that everything prints in as desired when Zone 7 fills in. This print is okay, but not what it could be.

Palladium toned Salted Silver Print

"Horse Head" ~ 8"x10"

Tombstone, Arizona

New Negatives Printing

The last print sessions were very instructive on how the green toned digital negatives respond to the two different silver processes, with the density range from the last printing batch. The negatives I will be printing tomorrow will be pretty much the sweet spot between the green toning, in conjunction with the shorter density range. I am also reworking the lower tonal ranges, adding densities in balance with the upper tonalities to end up with a print with a full tonal range, when it is desired.

As I noted in an earlier post I had been training my eye to see a density range from very thin to 'can't see through it' densities, using ink alone. Before coming across Dan Burkholder's spectral density procedure. That has helped immensely in this pursuit. Being I have been working towards an identifiable negative it was necessary to continue using the same images for comparative analysis. That has shown me how the print warms up or cools off depending on the contrast of the print, which is controlled by the density range of the negative; i.e., print time shaping the final image. More print time deepens blacks, Zone 1 & 2, also better separation between tonal ranges.

A shorter density range and reciprocal short(er) print time tends to warm the print, and showcase the toner as well. The two prints in yesterday's post demonstrate this quite nicely. Both prints were made from the same green toned digital negative. Both prints were toned in palladium toner. The first print was as made in the salt paper process and the second print is a Kallitype. Print time for the salt print was 26 minutes, with an 18 minute print time for the Kallitype, which would have been better served with another 3 minutes of print time to bring in the top tonal values; Zone 7 & 8. There's no real texture in those areas. The fuller explanation of print time/print color is encapsulated in yesterday's post.

The negatives I will be working with now will be quite a bit softer in the sense of comparing them to the negatives I began with. Much of that has to do with the spectral density. That has become a constant, with a known value that can be easily added to any image when the density range has been set. That, is an intuitive procedure through visually inspection, in setting the fuller tonal range of the image by using the controls in Lightroom. Those controls manipulate tonal areas, pretty much divided around Zone 5. Zones 1, 2, and 3 are one group, Zone 6, 7, and 8 are another. Then there is overall amount of density of the negative, and specific controls for blacks & whites.

This post is about negatives, and these will be printed tomorrow for the next print session. PJ's "Puddle Pusher" coating rod is absolutely wonderful by the way. I will actually be working with new images that haven't been seen before. What a concept. The print I posted earlier of "Sacred Dance" printed very nicely as a Kallitype, a 10 minute print time image that developed out as hoped. These following negatives will be set accordingly to that negative. Here is what that looks like.

"Indian Spirit Dance" ~ 8"x10"

Diffferences between Salt Paper & Kaliltype prints

The first run at printing this image as a Kallitype was mostly successful, being I ended up with a print that wasn't ugly, yet not where it needs to be yet. As noted in yesterday's article the salt paper and Kallitype are cousins using an iron component for the silver to work with. Being the Kallitype printing method is still new to me I continue to learn new things about it each printing session. One of those new insights was seen today, printing the Stagecoach image. I had been working with that image using the salt paper method, as it one I have a feel for from the earlier years working with it.

The Kallitype is quickly becoming my new printing thrill. I like the methodology, perhaps because it is a mirror to the Pt/Pd process, and can be swapped with the Kallitype with a small tweaking of the ferric oxalate. Same process. What I learned from this print is that the same negative is much more contrasty in Kallitype form, The reason is the difference in silver content.

For now I am single coating the paper with the Kallitype process as it offers a good rich look and can handle the longer scale negatives. And there is where the contrast is showing up. In the salt paper print the silver is at 13% and the paper is coated twice. That's 1 ml each coat for 2 ml of 13% silver. The Kallitype uses 10% silver solution; and a single coat. That's a lot of difference in silver content in a print. The Kallitype is going to be more contrasty of an image than the salt paper print counterpart, using the same negative.

That showed up quickly today. That negative printed 18 minutes today, the salt paper print time was 26 minutes. That was the second lesson. The more contrasty the negative, the more print time can be given a Kallitype before it just turns dark. The Kallitype 18 minute print time difference is roughly 60% to the Salt Paper 26 minutes, and still the top highlights were not quite printed it. The print time will be adjusted to 21 minutes (a + 3 minute adjustment)

As with the other images the paper remains Revere Platinum

Palladium toned Kallitype
"Stagecoach on Main Street" 8x10"
Tombstone, Arizona
Kallitype ~ 18 minute print time ~ same negative both prints

Salt Paper Print ~ 26 minute print time

What also shows up is the print 'color'. The Kallitype is a cooler toned print, even though it was toned with the same palladium toner. Printing the image in tends to warm the print. Also the silver you are seeing in the salt paper is over four times richer than the Kallitype, well, originally, as the palladium replaces the silver in the paper and becomes a palladium print. What I will be looking for is any advantage to super soaking the paper with silver to make it very silver rich, if it is to become a palladium in the end. The question remains, does that structurally or aesthetically add to the image?

Print Day

A fairly decent return on the day's printing. The focus was on Kallitype printing. There are differences in how the final print looks, between the salt paper version and Kallitype. One of the variables at work here being the level of saturation of the silver solution in conjunction with the density range of the negative. With contrast being somewhat inversely proportional to silver saturation; that being, as the silver solution decreases the contrast increases with the density range of the negative remaining constant. The printing formula I use for the salt paper print is a saturated solution (13%) of silver nitrate, then two coat the salted paper. That allows for the longest possible density range of a negative. Perhaps it could be increases slightly by increasing the salt percentage from the 2 1/2% solution as I use, to 3% salt solution. After that, you're in uncharted territory.

PJ's "Puddle Pusher" coating rod arrived in time to be used today and I give it twelve stars our of five. It has all the advantages of using a glass rod without the necessity of having to use something equal to a Bunsen burner to bend it for the handle areas, etc. This plexi type tube comes with a rectangle handle that makes it all amazingly easy for coating the paper. No streaks, do uneven coating, just back and forth until the wall of silver ceases to be enough to move. Thanks to Photographer's Formulary for that wonderful little device.

I worked on two prints today. The first, of the dancing Native American Indians I've printed before,  using a different negative. The negative I used today had a longer density range and I believe printed in more to how I had envisioned it. It is from this negative I am redoing my other negatives. My eye now can look at the negative image and know if it will print well and for roughly how long, in our UV printer anyway. I will post the second image in another post as there is enough to discuss on the changes to the final image it is worth separating.

I am still printing on Revere Platinum paper, 300 g/M2 weight (approx 140lb) and I find it to my liking possibly just a tab bit more than the Platine paper. Both are high quality. Both come pre-sized as well. They both work well with and hand coating processes. This print was more contrasty than the print before it, and this shows up not only in saturation of the lower tonal values but also in the color shift in the final print; from the warmer toned print of the flatter negative/darker print. The print today is cooler toned, yet printed longer, as it had a longer density range.

Palladium toned Kallitype
"Sacred Dance" ~ 8"x10
Tucson, Arizona

Back in Printing Wonderland

The journey through Florida over the past almost two weeks was most enjoyable, as expected, with the view to view coverage of thick green, and water, lots and lots of water. The simple of it was six days in our favorite little town of Gulfport, Florida, the spit of land at the edge of St Petersberg, on the water. Our spot was on Madeira Island, one long, powder soft, white sand beach stretching for miles, uninterrupted along the waterline. Sand Pipers, White Egrets, Blue Herons, Pelicans, Gulls.... all diving and weaving and running about the shoreline eating along the way.

I did of course collect images. Lots of images of beaches and palm trees and funky structures still intact from times way before me, and well, beautifully funky. Doesn't fit well with the thread of this blog. No need to tell photographers the shooting gallery of images available the lens at any given time. For the flat field shooting of snapping a view, it's hard to beat the digital automatic form now. One of the ones I take with me is a Nikon 20meg 50X lens setup that is something like 75% or 80% efficient to grab a desired shot before it gets away. That's figuring in turn on time, hold shutter button for the metering/focusing function before capture. If it's a Dolphin all of a sudden leaping out of the water... don't even try. But if the shot is down an historical street or building, that's what it's good at, with exception to the normal parallax issues.

Which takes the issue back to an earlier post concerning the wonders of digital negatives. The photographic input can come from film or digital recording. It all goes through digital manipulation before final output onto the acetate sheet. PJ informs me his Fomapan 4x5 sheet film is on the way, as is the Inkpress acetate sheets, and Revere printing paper. Having stocked up on silver, palladium and supporting chemistry recently, it is printing time. There could be a time when I will call upon the images from the Florida trip, working on a beachy type portfolio. But for now, I have at least one portfolio worth of images of historical sites and activities from the Old West, sans any (almost) modernity showing, and worthy of being candidates to become a palladium print. Coming soon.