"Tammy's Rose" ~ Gum over Palladium ~ Base Print

I have begun printing again, after a family visit and holiday expectations. One test strip verified the density range of the negative was spot on, and the base print to follow turned out as desired. I also have learned some additional subtle influences of palladium toner having to do with solution %. As I noted in an earlier post, reducing the % solution of palladium tends to warm the print image. That would be a reduction from a stock solution of  (Pd) 5ml to 1000ml DH2O ~ reduced to half that or less. Simply accomplished by adding more DH2O. I tend to mix 20ml (stock) with 30ml DH2O for a warmer tone. Also know that that the % solution also controls how much bleach back there is on the print image. The stronger % the more bleach back. Being a top down toner, this bleaching affect is first seen in the highlights, moving down the tonal values over time. The point of control for this is print time, to set up the right tonal scale before toning.

This photograph was taken circa 1984, for a developer test. I was learning photo chemistry at the time and had already begun mixing my own developers and other baths. This was a test for a non-M/Q developer; Beutler 105, which for me, remains one of the best developers ever created. It is a semi-compensating developer, with the compensation affecting highlights but not shadows, as pyro would, being a fully compensating developer. What I was after was full control of zone 7, holding what would otherwise run into zone 8, without texture. This was the shot that showed me it could be done. The image is of my daughter, Tammy, with the light blonde hair in full sunlight.

This is the base image that I will begin applying gum over. As the other gum over palladium prints, this is printed on pre-shrunk Hahnemühle paper, which is a very fine printing paper for this technique, with the multi-wet processing runs. The palladium print was made as a Kallitype, developed in sodium citrate, toned in palladium. Hence the 'poor man's palladium'. I do also print in palladium, and platinum/palladium (Na2), but find this combination to be more controllable for print color and tonal range. The most important element of the print is holding the subject's hair and dress just reaching zone 7. That's where the light is. The long creamy skin tones derived from the Beutler development mimics pyro portrait formulas, with both accelerators; sodium carbonate and hydroxide. Hydroxide just affords so much more acutance.

Palladium toned Kallitype ~ Base print for gum over palladium
"Tammy's Rose" ~ 8x10 ~ digital negative
Eugene, Oregon circa 1984

Dead Air Time ~ Apologies

One of the benefits of being old(er)(ish) comes from the slack one gets for moving slower than the crowd, and the times when their's dead spots along the line of continuity. Not that I'm using that card at this time, just saying. Although the olderish thingy is true. My wife's daughter and grandson came to the desert for a visit. The Old West part of Tucson does have its draw for mid-westerners. Nine days in the desert is the title of our time together, and it was quite enjoyable.

Those nine days spent on the road as guide precluded any darkroom time, painful as that was. Perhaps this missive would have been far better received had it been written on the first day. My apologies and regret for that slight. There are negatives waiting their turn in the printer, so it shouldn't be long before I have an image to show.

Every print is your best one ever

Gum over Gold Toned Kallitype ~ Girl with Flower

This print is a re-print of an earlier attempt, which in the end I didn't like. I knew I could do better. I did. I could see that many of the textural qualities were being lost, a slightly too heavy hand. I kept the gum layers sheer, only to enhance what was already there, without making the image look like the colors had been painted on, with a house painter's brush. The more I print the more I come to realize that the lighter hand is always preferable to a heavy handed attempt.

The primary objective of making prints, for me, is capturing the light, or more specifically capturing the light as it reflects off objects in the image, including people. That's my objective. Bright sunlight can be seen reflecting off trees, people's clothes, rocks and dried grasses. Capturing that light is reflected in the correct negative densities to begin with, then reciprocally printed to reflects them in the print image. I would tell you that to be zone 7, relative to the density range of the negative. Zone 7 on a negative isn't one density. I can be any density chosen. It is the relationship of the densities below the highest density on the negative, down to zone 1. If the relationship between zone 3 (shadow textural density) and zone 7 (white with full detail ~ highlights) then the negative will print well, as a Kallitype, platinum, salt paper, print(s). As always, one prints to zone 7.

This print was printed on Hahnemuhle 320/gm, pre-shrunk in water at 120 degs or more, for 1 minute. That is all that is necessary as the printed Kallitype image becomes the base of the gum layers, just as a good sizing would. This print entailed three gum print layers, with the middle layer entailing three colors, each applied locally.

Gum over Gold toned Kallitype
"Girl with Flower" ~ 8x8 ~ Unique
Eugene, Oregon ~ 1983

"Jars in the Window" ~ Final Version

I just did something I have never had to do before. Reprint a gum image, three times before I liked what I had done. All of it in public view. First iteration of this image was a gum print, ten print layers and probably two dozen colors, to realize in the end that I simply didn't like what I did. The underlying application theory worked, in the sense of color selection and print times, etc, yet the finished image always turned out dull, no life, no light. Making any black and white print is all about printing with, and for, the light quality of the image. Without light in an image, there is but tonalities, and colors, but no life. That has been the grail of printing for me for thirty five years of learning just how to control for that.

I attribute some of my failing to see the deterioration of the print image quality over several layers is simply crappy eyesight. Being blind in one eye and color blind to red/green has it's drawbacks when working with colors of any kind. I take humble color advice from my color guru wife, an artist that sees the fuller spectrum of human color sight. This print arrives at what I had wanted to represent a moment of my past as I saw it then, and wanted to recreate. A simple comparison of the last version and the final one is a good example of light quality. The first version simply lacks the light quality of the second. Each print teaches the printer a little more.

This is what I had in mind

Gum over Palladium
"Jars in the Window" ~ 8x10 ~ Unique
Eugene, Oregon

"Jars in the Window" ~ Faulty Print

The worst possible ending to any finished print, is to arrive at the final clearing, and simply not like what you see.  The gum work turned out mostly as planned, color wise. The problem with the print is in the original printing of the image. What I didn't detect at first was the change in the print shadows, showing a sort of bronzing effect, when there should have been no such effect. Testing of the chemicals involved in making the print showed the problem to be in the ferric oxalate. Fresh chemicals later showed a perfect print after a new print test.

What that all means is the print is junk. The upside of this is I have the road map of the printing sessions fulling described in my print book notes. Every print made has extensive notes on the procedural application, chemistry, print time, float time, colors used & how mixed and where placed, even the day printed. Just for this reason. First order of business for printing is, don't get in a hurry. I'm not broken hearted this printing wasn't to my liking, however I am rather annoyed I missed what was happening before I spent a week on the print. Paying attention with your head in the game is really important. The problem with the print is mostly in the shadows, which shows up a lot more in the print, than in the replication of the print. Now I begin again, from the beginning.

Gum over Palladium
"Jars in the Window" ~ not to be used