Polaroid Type 55 negatives and the Kallitype process

[David R Munson]

So I've decided I love kallitypes and want to use the process in a portrait project I'm about to start. What I'd like to do is shoot the images on Polaroid 55 p/n and contact print the negatives using the Kallitype proces. At this point I'm just wondering if the contrast range of the Polaroid negative would be suitable for this application. Any thoughts? Thanks.

[Joakim Ahnfelt]

Personally I don't have the slightest idea what contrast range you would need for kallitypes but you might want to check out http://www.georgedewolfe.com/ and download the free tutorial PDF. It has a chapter on N- & N+ for Polaroid 55.

[clay harmon]

You can increase the contrast of type 55 by soaking your cleared, and briefly washed negative in selenium toner at 1:3 for about 5 minutes. This will add about 0.3 density to the highlight areas of the negative. Another approach is to bleach in ferricyanide and redevelop in a pyro staining developer such as rollo pyro or pyrocat. This will give you a degree of actinic filtering that acts as effective printing density and will help get your negative to the density range you need. According to Sandy King, a negative with a density range of 1.7 to 1.9 (or about 1.3 visual DR for stained negs) is ideal for Kalllitype (and palladium). Check out his article on www.unblinkingeye.com on kalliytpes.