"The Stone House" ~ Palladium toned Kallitype

 The last post I made was when I had finished a gum print, and had begun preparing the paper for another, which was finished with final touches, today. Three weeks to create that print, which will be posted tomorrow. While it was knowingly finished, I took the liberty to make a palladium print of the Stone House at the Grand Canyon, Arizona, during a visit there in June. A regular focus of photographers who come there, even a watercolor painting my wife painted some years ago.

This print continues the 11"x17" format printings, using digital images I captured on my Canon 20D over the years. Still around and working as designed, although, now, a great-grandpa of cameras. Like me. I have spent so many years editing the image as I capture it, exactly what I want, corner to corner, there is no nice way of making an 11x14 out of it, or other standard size, without losing the image intended. I have attempted to correct for this, using a quick re-edit pull-back of about 10% wider, to accommodate for the area lost when cropping back to an 11x14 format. Don't like that though. Just not normal.

This print was shot in RGB color, of course, with a pre-negative printing adjustments to include one of the few 'apps' that comes with Print Shop Pro; The Time Machine; the black & white negative, leaving a long scale tonal range, just like in a black & white negative. Not doing so, leaves intact the RGB information, and colors on the negative. That has an affect on printing. Green inhibits printing in the upper tonal range, and can be laid over a negative image, in a layer over the image, and that is the same as adding a density curve to the negative. Works quite well. Assign a -40 value in the hue bar, shifting it green, and that negative can be printing in sunlight.

As I have been doing more recently, I am making "poor man's palladium prints". That is, toning a silver image in a palladium toner. The more noble metal [palladium] completely replaces all the silver salts in the image, leaving only metallic palladium, instead of metallic silver to look at. A process with long historical roots, dating back to the turn of the 20th century. It's an honorable way to make palladium, or platinum prints, without the cost of printing in platinum, or palladium today. To keep it honorable, I always disclose on the Certificate of Authenticity of it's providence being a palladium toned Kallitype. The prices of each have sky rocketed in the past couple years.  I made this print on the Revere Platinum paper I have been using for years now. Really like that paper. For me, it is equal to Arches Platine paper. Perhaps that's just me.

Palladium toned Kallitype

"The Stone House" ~ 11"x17"

Grand Canyon, Arizona

 

"Morning Ritual Pair" ~ Gum Dichromate Print

This particular gum print was made strictly for my wife. The original "Morning Ritual" print was a beloved female cat named Zoey. These two monkeys, in kitty suits, are brother and sister, taking over the morning ritual, when the weather permits. 

My recent gum prints have been very light handed, as I refer to it. Falling just slightly into the paper, as a softer image, compared ot a more boldly printed image. The early morning light was what I was after when making this print, always printing for the reciprocal density zone of the negative; for print time. I find my printing is affected by my take on the image to be printed. Each image having some sort of emotional connection to the printer, which can be said to be why it was chosen. The soft touch images have their place, but I find myself wanting a richer depth of color, something I will be working on with the two images I am working on now. Each one has its own challenges.

This gum has eight print layers, using thirteen colors. More than two weeks in the making, including paper preparations, of five days. After years of printing gums, there are still things to be learned. The only boundaries of this process, are within the printer.

Gum Dichromate Print

"Morning Ritual Pair" 8"x10"

 

"Arizona Scenic #1 ~ Gum Dichromate Print

This print is the third iteration of the image. The thing with working with gum is that the choices one makes each and ever layer of color lain onto the print, shapes the image in different ways. Getting well into the printing, sometimes at what was planned as the finish; it isn't what you wanted. Better said, the final image isn't what it could be. The corollary of this, is knowing when ti stop printing.

This print is one of a number of Arizona scenic images I have, ready for printing. A good many are sunset shots, being that's where the real color is, the thing gum printing is all about. My printing method uses a single b&w negative, these days, a digital image prepared to make a digital negative, printed on my Epson 1430 13"x19" printer. A very, very fine printer for this work. These days I mostly make gum prints, both in 8"x10" or 11"x14", depending on the image.

This print turned out to be a six print layer print. It was a simpler image to work with than the last one, which was quite complex. What I was after in this print was the soft look of a late afternoon in the desert valley where this image was photographed, being above a western slope, all in shade. That was what I was after. As most of my 8x10 prints, I use Hahnemuhle paper, as it weathers the multi-dipping of the process well, not contorting, buckling and twisting. Where this effect is most prominent is when only local areas of the print image are coated, then floated. The more of these local applications, especially repeated over the same areas, due to expansion/contraction separating areas. Care must be taken when this begins to happen, to keep the image intact, and staying registered.

 Gum Dichromate Print

"Arizona Scenic #1"

Avra Valley, Arizona

"Building Storm" ~ Gum Dichromate Print

 It has been some time since my last post, with a number of things getting in between my desire to get to my darkroom, and the reality at hand. Reality won out. I was able to put the final layers of color on the print I've been working on. A photo taken from the dinner table at Eladios Restaurant in Progresso, Yucatan, Mexico. Highly recommended restaurant. The larger section of the main dining area is a Pallapa style design, with viewing all around. This restaurant sits right next to the Malacón, with early evening activities, observable from the tables. This particular late afternoon, a squall was building in the distance, off shore. The wind was up, yet the activity along the Malacón was unaffected, casual as usual in that town.

This print was amazingly complex to make. I wanted soft colors representing the image, not bright, brilliant colors normally seen in many Mexican towns. What caught my eye was the color of the sky, warm toned, slightly ominous, and the activity on the Malecón, with pastel colors, light up from stray sunshine. This was a turn in your chair, frame and snap, image. Not tripod setup, calculated exposures and timeless waiting for the exact right moment. Sometimes it just works out all of its own.

This image derives from the Progresso Portfolio, of palladium prints. This image was meant for gum printing, to achieve the mood of that moment This gum was an eleven print layer print. One of the reasons it took so long to complete. I spent much time analysing the image, working out the color to be used, and in which order they would be printed, how shear to make them, and all the other considerations made during the gum printing process. My biggest consideration is getting the colors right, being I'm all but color blind to red/green, which makes printing colors a bit dicey for me. Overall, I'm happy with the outcome. The original is a bit richer than the digital copy. A casualty of copying the print with a 20 year old digital camera.

Gum Dichromate Print ~ Unique

“Building Storm” ~ 11”x14”

Progresso, Yucatan, Mexico

 

Completing the Print

 This past year, my printing efforts have been run over by home demands and a pandemic. Not that I have been idle altogether. A good portion of my efforts over the past weeks have been focused on the printing itself. I began making gum prints in 1982. I've had a process that worked well for me. A really good process is like a really bad habit. You don't want to give it up. The weeks of testing had to do with finding a printing paper that fit my needs, now. I now use two papers; one for 8x10 gums and another for 11x14 gums. Both do well with multiple soakings without a lot of curling and warping. Turns out, Hahnemuhle Platinum and Fabriano Artistico are the two choices, respectively.

With the paper comes the sizing needs, for the look I am after. There is a delicate balance between having the image remain on the surface sufficiently to show textural detail, and, an image that falls into the paper, fading, without strong edges. That took a couple weeks, testing variations upon the theme. Turns out, the setting I was looking for was for two, one-minute soakings, in a bath of 2 1/2% gelatin sizing. That, after three pre-shrinking dips of a minute or so, at 110º-115ºF, before hanging up to dry, or lay in a drying tray.Altogether that totals to five days of paper preparation before being ready to print. Dedication.

There is a print I am currently working on. An 11x14 gum print "Native Dancers", Arizona tribes dancing at a Pow Wow. This one a second print of the three I have in this series. The first print of the native dancers was a gum over palladium print. The gum print is more complex and trickier to print, than the gum over palladium.