How to get very dense negatives for Salt printing

[Greg]

Want to shoot some negatives and make salt prints with. Printed some salt prints for our town's museum from some circa 1900 glass plates that had a D-max of around 3.0 and very minimal base + fog (essentially density of the glass)

Am using Ilford FP-4 Plus.

Have considered the following:

Rodinal 1:25
HC-110 dilution A
Photographers' Formulary Substitute for D-19 Black & White Film Developer

Anyone out there have any recommendations? or another direction to go?

[Vaughn]

I use FP-4+ for carbon prints and platinum. I usually about double the normal development times. But it all depends on the SBR. If there is not much to begin with, one has to work harder to get there. Staining developers can give you a boost, too.

[sepiareverb]

Do a test neg by only partially removing the dark slide, 1x, pull the slide some more! 2x, pull the slid some mor, 3x, etc. Process normally and do a test print.

[greginpa]

The rodinal has worked for me in the past. Also PMK 1:2:50 works nicely. 7 minutes at 72º.

[Michael W]

With FP4 I would start by giving it one stop more exposure than for a normal neg and increase dev time by 50%.

[koraks]

Try a staining developer as Vaughn suggests. I'm having a blast making negatives for VdB using pyrocat HD.

[Fr. Mark]

+1 for Pyrocat HD. I have made nice cyanotypes with 2:2:100 and XRay film.

[Greg]

Test results so far....

shot some FP-4 PLUS rating the film at ASA 50. Processed in Rodinal 1:25 for 15 minutes at 70 degrees with continuous agitation. Was really impressed by the results.

Base & Fog density only 0.11
Zone VIII density 2.11
Zone X density 2.34
Shadow detail just where I want it to be.

From previously Salt printing circa 1900 glass plates, now just need a bit more D-Max. Increasing the processing time to 20 minutes should be right on. Should be Salt printing once again by the end of the week...

[interneg]

PQ Universal 1+9 - Ilford gives times here: http://www.ilfordphoto.com/Webfiles/2011427123181979.pdf - see p.4.