Oregon Scenic ~ Platinum/Palladim Print

I spent many hours along the banks of the Willamette River during the thirteen years I lived in Eugene, Oregon, as the images I'm posting exemplify. Being a single parent of two short people at the time, early morning shooting just wasn't in the stars, especially considering I also kept a commercial photo studio in business, after the gallery fire fiasco killed that earlier enterprise. Afternoon shooting was not only more easily fitted into my daily schedule, but also offered up the warm afternoon sunlight which I prefer to the cooler early morning sunlight. Shooting in the middle of the day works for some, depending on the subject matter and photographer's intent.

This image is one of those late afternoon shots, just before sunset when the sunlight is certainly in the warm spectrum. One of those scenes looking up river when all else is settling in for the evening, and only the sounds of buzzing insects permeate the scene. The negative of this image, and the rest of the Oregon and Arizona images at that time were all developed in the Windish pyro formula I re-jiggered to be a use and toss formula. This particular image was one of the earlier scenes I shot during that period, using the pyro/OH formula, and it was developed for a shorter time; 15 minutes. As can be seen below, all the other variables are roughly the same.

The Negative: Kodak Super XX (250)
Negative Developer; Pyro/hydroxide 15 minutes (Windish Pyro) reformulated
Paper; Revere Platinum
Print Developer; Ammonium Citrate (Bostick & Sullivan) pre-mix
Coating solution; (5x7) Palladium 12 drops (B&S pre-mix) ~ Ferric Oxalate (Part 1) 11 drops, platinum (sodium chloroplatinate) @ 2.5% (solution) 2 drops.

Platinum/Palladium Print
"Sunset Willamette" ~ 5x7 ~ 2/5
Eugene, Oregon

More Platinum/Palladium Prints

The long and painful wait for replacing the dying hard disk on my Mac Book has come and gone. What used to take three or more minutes to load Lightroom, now takes less than eight second. The personal joy felt about this goes without saying as it were. Although having just said it...

The printing has continued in the interim, with seven completed prints in the new portfolio of 5x7 platinum/palladium prints. There will be at least a dozen prints in this portfolio, for now. Once this portfolio is completed I will return to the 8x10 portfolio I began some weeks ago. At that time the plan was to print 8x10 gold toned Kallitype prints, with the intent of visually replicating a platinum influenced image, with the deep blacks and long tonal scales of gray. That was before realizing the (Na2) process of palladium printing.

That original portfolio plan will now in all likelihood now be printed in platinum/palladium, as the negatives to be used will all be digitally created. I have already tested one such print using a digital negative, with an added <curve> adjustment. Turns out, its density range was more than needed for printing in my UV printer. The 5x7 negatives are all being printed in direct sunlight, being their density range for many of the negatives are up into the log 1.8 density range. That translates to about a thirty minute or more print time, hence using the sun. The digital negatives I am aim for will be far closer to log 1.0. The (Na2) platinum solution at likely the 5% level will do the rest. I am working towards a print time of 8-10 minutes in the UV printer. My print time for the 5x7 negatives is between 8 and 20 minutes in full sun, with the final print of a Willamette River scene being the 20 minute print. That image below.

One of the things I tend to discuss at some point is print pricing, along with limited editions and presentation demands at a later time. One question being simply; does a platinum/palladium print have more "worth" than a gold or palladium toned Kallitype or salt paper print of the same size? You better believe I'm thinking about this issue as a printer, and soon to be gallery exhibitor asking money for my prints. I am not the greedy type, but I do believe an artist should be able to make some profit from their work, and knowledge. There will be more written on this in future articles, as that part of photographic art that gets little attention.

This image has long been the focus of my desire to print. I have that print in a portfolio of salted silver prints I made thirty years ago, just before my gallery was blown to pieces from water canons, from a grease fire in a restaurant below my gallery in an historical building; The Tiffany Building, Eugene, Oregon, 1987. The 'color' of the negative, and reciprocally the print, is to my color limited eye as a 'warm coppery' color, which I found to be most appealing to the eye. Well, my eye anyway.
I can only attribute this to the combination of the late afternoon sunlight and the pyro/OH developer that replicated the long tonal range of the scene. This negative was made to print on salted paper at the longer tonal scale end of that process. I used a 13% silver solution and 2 1/2% salted paper to achieve this. This is also the ideal printing range of palladium, and with the addition of (Na2) platinum in a 2.5% solution (2 drops~ 5x7) one ends up with a true platinum/palladium image.

The Negative: Kodak Super XX (250)
Negative Developer; Pyro/hydroxide 18 minutes (Windish Pyro) reformulated
Paper; Revere Platinum
Print Developer; Ammonium Citrate (Bostick & Sullivan) pre-mix
Coating solution; (5x7) Palladium 12 drops (B&S pre-mix) ~ Ferric Oxalate (Part 1) 11 drops, platinum (sodium chloroplatinate) @ 2.5% (solution) 2 drops.
All the above chemical mixtures for printing are from Bostick & Sullivan; palladium (15%), ferric oxalate Part 1 (27%), platinum (Na2) (20% ~ diluted with distilled water to make 2.5%) For the curious that would be 1ml platinum to 7ml distilled water. At 2 drops per print, that original 10ml of platinum will make more prints than you will likely have time to make.

Platinum/Palladium Print
"Willamette Afternoon" ~ 5x7 ~ 2/5
Eugene, Oregon

Downtime ~ New Solid State Hard Disk

The Mac Book Pro I use for this enterprise is old. Like me. The hard disk is all but limping along, with data speeds like a 286. Many of you won't know what that is... The brilliant young men at my neighborhood computer store will be pulling out the old hard drive and installing a nice new 480 gig solid state HD. That is touted to be ten times faster than the old 7200rpm spin up models of yesteryear. There was a time when a 7200rpm HD was smokin' fast, but that's not for here....

Tomorrow is a printing day, after dropping off my laptop. I will have new platinum/palladium images to show when the laptop returns. These will be Oregon scenics. Stay tuned.

Platinum/Palladium Print

I spent many hours on the banks of the Willamette River, as it meandered through Eugene, Oregon. Some very nice walking/bike paths ran along the western bank of that river, usually with sumptuous blackberries growing wild in bushes four feet wide along those banks. The light during the spring and summer months was very conducive to black and white photography.

Most of the images I captured along the river were usually late afternoon and sunset shots, as the light tended to create the 'golden glow' most of the time, and that, was when I was set up and ready. This image was shot where the river widened, and became much shallower, creating the shallow rapids in the image, along with the still pools beside them. It was late afternoon with the sun creating a soft glow on the vegetation on the banks.

Platinum/Palladium Print
"Looking up River" ~ 5x7 ~ 2.5
Eugene, Oregon

Continued Platinum/Palladium Printing

I am finally making some progress with what is becoming Portfolio II. Getting the momentum moving once again after so many interruptions and obstacles. The more simplified the process the better results. Basically, as it has always been, before technology became more important than the results. I confess to have been swayed by the lure of digital technology, and the cool stuff that can be done therein. Just doing black and white photography isn't cheap, for the most part.

I do not spend the time necessary to keep a blog moving along for money or fame. I do it for the love of black and white photography in general, and hand coated processes in particular. Passing along the knowledge of the craft is simply giving back, helping in small ways in keeping the energy flowing to those who find this craft worth pursuing. I see the historical hand coated photographic processes as photographic printmaking. Not so different from the original Intaglio method using ink and a press, which technically describes a photogravure. The battle of whether black and white photography is a fine art, or even Art, has been settled, and what remains is mastering a printing medium to demonstrate the Art form. Be an artist.

That's the other side of the technical issues of black and white photography. What's the point and what are you going to do with the prints you make. That's an easy 250 word ramble. Here, though, I stick to the most recent print. Truth be told, this is the same image I printed very recently in Palladium. It printed just fine. The reason for the reprinting is simply because the platinum arrived, and this is the perfect image to try it out on, as this is likely the most perfect negative I ever created, technically. I wanted to see the difference between the two versions, side by side. I was impressed actually. What was said of the Na2 method of printing a palladium print; adding platinum, is now right in front of me.

Quick rehash; using the platinum keeps any reticulation in the image from occurring, due to using the chelated ferric oxalate (Part B), and, it also keeps any 'bronzing' in the lower tonal range of the palladium print. The point of the addition of the platinum is for contrast control. The above benefits come with the platinum use as a contrast control. The thinner the negative, the more concentrate the platinum solution needed, up to the original 20% solution. The negative for this print is roughly log 1.8 so no contrast boost is needed. I still get the added benefits of the platinum as noted above, as well as another note spoken of by the creators of this method; that there is better tonal separation and detail enhancement with the use of the platinum. That is exactly what I saw when putting the two prints side by side.

Also note, that the addition of platinum to the palladium necessitates for print time, as the platinum is slower than palladium. The platinum basically slows down the printing by blocking the highlight more than the lower tonal range, thereby holding back printing in of those upper densities, and that, increases printing time. The holding back of whites, and the increased print time to print them down, effectively increases the tonal range of the print. I also have negatives that have a much shorter density range that I will be printing. To keep them bright as the more contrasty negatives, I will add two drops of either a 5% or 10% platinum solution to the sensitizing solution; palladium/ferric oxalate. So, it would look like this;

5"x7" print ~ palladium 12 drops ~ ferric oxalate 11 drops ~ platinum solution (2.5%) 2 drops

I use a "Puddle Pusher" for coating the paper, which doesn't waste a drop of solution like a Hake brush will. The difference between the two might be equivalent to about four drops or so. What that means is that I was able to cut back on the above formula and still get very good results.

5"7" print ~ palladium 10 drops ~ ferric oxalate 9 drops ~ platinum solution (2.5%) 2 drops
There is still plenty of solution to coat the paper and reap a fine print. You just don't use the extra donated to the brush. Another advantage of this is that by reducing the primary sensitizing solution and keeping the platinum constant, means that the ratio of platinum to palladium is increased. Deeper blacks and more of them.
A reprint of the same image, printed in palladium (two posts back)

Platinum/Palladium Print
"Jerome House" ~ 5x7 ~ 3/5
Eugene, Oregon