Alternative Process Prints

[Brian Bullen]

Thanks Vaughn.
I'm not sure what the lightening is from, could be a number of reasons. It might be light reflecting from where I was standing, the sun was shining directly in front of the foreground trees.
This is one of the first printed negs from a stand development experiment with x-ray film. So it's possible there is some sort of development problem.
Lastly, my scanner is great at adding unwanted contrast.

[Darryl Baird]

That's the problem with alt processes... every time I see a beautiful print I want to try that process and then I never do any of them... That's why I finally settled on argyrotype to start with - it's a simple enough process for me to perfect skills such as spreading the sensitizer and returns a print that has an appealing quality to me.

Processes that I want to try (so far):

Platinum/Palladium
Ziatype
Carbon
Kallitype
Gum Bichromate
Gumoil
Salt Printing

That's a very daunting list, you'll need several books in addition to the James' new edition. I'd recommend the Gum Printing book by Chris Anderson... available ot Photoeye.

btw, I've done a lot of Argyrotype and find the process very easy and particularly cheap if you're willing to precitate the silver-oxide from silver nitrate and buy the sulfamic acid from Home Depot (it's a tile cleaner... $6.00 per pound) That process is very paper sensitive - best choice (cheap) Cranes Cover 90 lb Natural White , followed by (expensive) Arches Platine.

[Darryl Baird]

Nice, Eric!

For something a little different, my first (and only so far) Salt Print.

PS...there is some mottling (blotches) in the sky in the right side...almost not visible when looking at the print, but very visible holding the print up against a light source. The print was made as part of a class I helped out with. The instructor said "Let's make salt prints on Friday!", with neither one of us ever having made them. The prints were made fast and dirty...lots of room for more control next time.

stunning print... such a smooth tonal range, I thought the process had more inherent contrast, but wow, Vaughn.

salt printing is (now) next on my list of processes to use, followed by albumen, followed by ...

[Colin Graham]

Darryl, that's gorgeous. Lovely work.

Carbon print on Lanaquarelle, from a digital negative. Still trying to get a handle on printer artifacts, but getting there.

[Vaughn]

stunning print... such a smooth tonal range, I thought the process had more inherent contrast...

The negative is what I would call "normal to medium high" contrast for silver gelatin printing...certainly not the higher contrast I would need for Platinum printing. It was also printed using sunlight...first in the shade, then in the direct sun (or was it the other way around? I'll have to think on that). By slowing down the exposure, the printing-out image has time to form (it does not form instantaneously) and allows for more self-masking...which in turn allows for lower contrast and a more even tonality.

If one is using an artificial UV light source, one might be able to duplicate this by making a partial exposure, letting the print rest for a few minutes, then continueing with the rest of the exposure.

I would think this would work for any process that self-masks, including cyanotypes and perhaps to a smaller degree, platinum and/or palladium prints.

Vaughn

PS...Colin, another stunning image!

[Benno Jones]

That's a very daunting list, you'll need several books in addition to the James' new edition. I'd recommend the Gum Printing book by Chris Anderson... available ot Photoeye.

btw, I've done a lot of Argyrotype and find the process very easy and particularly cheap if you're willing to precitate the silver-oxide from silver nitrate and buy the sulfamic acid from Home Depot (it's a tile cleaner... $6.00 per pound) That process is very paper sensitive - best choice (cheap) Cranes Cover 90 lb Natural White , followed by (expensive) Arches Platine.

Not being at home I can't look over and list all the books on my shelf, but I do have a good half-dozen Alt Proc books already.

The print I posted is on Cranes Cover. I tried another on some Arches Aquarelle that I had lying around and it bled like crazy in the toner. I may try another print on that paper and not tone it just to see how it looks dried down.

[Andrew ren]

Nice work Colin!
Just got my book(Digital Negatives by Ron Reeder + Brad Hinkel) ordered in and started to read it.

[PViapiano]

Great image Darryl...

Benno, here's one of my results from yesterday on Arches Aquarelle. The photoflo (substituting for Tween) makes all the difference. I may try humidifying the paper to see if I can get more Dmax but it's a good start.

Disclaimer: It's an enlarged neg (4x5) from a 35mm neg ;-)



More info here...

[Benno Jones]

PViapiano - just out of curiosity, how does one measure 1/2 drop of photoflo?

[PViapiano]

I knew someone would ask that!

I diluted the photoflo 1:9 in distilled water and used 1 drop per ml of sensitizer, so since I used .4 -.5 ml of coating material...

I've read that photoflo can be diluted down to a 2% solution for use as a Tween substitute.

My other prints of the day were on Arches Cover cream and BFK Heavyweight giving two totally different colors to the final print, with paper base skewing the result as well. As I mentioned I may try humidification and double coating to see what would happen.