Negs for Platinum

[bwaysteve]

After many years of trial ,error,and personal testing I feel my Tri-X negs will pretty much print themselves in silver.Lots of detail in shadows and highlights.Good contrast on #2.Skin tone is most important.Usually I expose @iso 200 and pull development.
I am starting to use 8x10 for a portrait project for contact printing.
The main use will be platinum.
Since my negs are IMO perfect for silver, I know I need more denisty for platinum.
Do I need to make a dupe(either digital or film)to save my original for future silver printing, or can I develop a bit longer and still have a decent original.What happens to that 8x10 tonality in second generation if a copy is made?
Obviously it would be great to stay with the original with the cost of an 8x10 scan.

[D. Bryant]

After many years of trial ,error,and personal testing I feel my Tri-X negs will pretty much print themselves in silver.Lots of detail in shadows and highlights.Good contrast on #2.Skin tone is most important.Usually I expose @iso 200 and pull development.
I am starting to use 8x10 for a portrait project for contact printing.
The main use will be platinum.
Since my negs are IMO perfect for silver, I know I need more denisty for platinum.
Do I need to make a dupe(either digital or film)to save my original for future silver printing, or can I develop a bit longer and still have a decent original.What happens to that 8x10 tonality in second generation if a copy is made?
Obviously it would be great to stay with the original with the cost of an 8x10 scan.
A simple and quick answer is that you can create dual purposed negatives if you use staining developers.

Don Bryant

[steve simmons]

Your negs might be just fine. I would not change anything without trying them first.

You might want to try ziatype printing. This is a p/p like process that works much the same way. Contact Bostick and Sullivan and talk to them and/or read Eric Biggerstaff's articles in the March 08 View Camera and the one coming in the May issue.

steve simmons

[bwaysteve]

Thanks Don and Steve ,These are both great suggestions.The Ziatype looks really unique and of course I have seen prints from Pyro negs.
If I did want to do a scan and enlarged neg what can I expect to happen to tonality or grain in going from 8x10 to 16x20 or 20x24? I know years ago copy negs always blocked up the shadows and blew out the highlights.With a digital neg this is less of a problem I suppose.Thanks ,Steve

[sanking]

After many years of trial ,error,and personal testing I feel my Tri-X negs will pretty much print themselves in silver.Lots of detail in shadows and highlights.Good contrast on #2.Skin tone is most important.Usually I expose @iso 200 and pull development.
I am starting to use 8x10 for a portrait project for contact printing.
The main use will be platinum.
Since my negs are IMO perfect for silver, I know I need more denisty for platinum.
Do I need to make a dupe(either digital or film)to save my original for future silver printing, or can I develop a bit longer and still have a decent original.What happens to that 8x10 tonality in second generation if a copy is made?
Obviously it would be great to stay with the original with the cost of an 8x10 scan.


You should be able to print pt./pd. with the so-called Na2 method that is promoted by Bostick and Sullivan. With this method of contrast control it is possible to print negatives in pt./pd. that were originally developed for silver printing.

For your future negatives, do as Don Bryant suggests and switch to a pyro staining developer. That will give you a negative with different effective printing contrast, one contrast for silver, another for pt./pd.

Another option is to scan your B&W negatives and make digital negatives for printing pt./pd. That is the procedure that is being followed today by many of the top pt/pd printers.

Sandy King

[Vaughn]

Another option is to take two negs per set-up...expose and develop one for silver printing and the for platinum printing. I do this for making negs for both platinum and carbon printing, but then I am an analog sort of guy.

Vaughn

[Dave Wooten]

Another option is to take two negs per set-up...expose and develop one for silver printing and the for platinum printing. I do this for making negs for both platinum and carbon printing, but then I am an analog sort of guy.

Vaughn

Vaughn, could you give a same scene examle of this 2 neg exposure process?

a. exposure and develope for silver

b. exposure and develope for platinum


Thanks

[Vaughn]

Vaughn, could you give a same scene examle of this 2 neg exposure process?

a. exposure and develope for silver

b. exposure and develope for platinum

Thanks

I actually do not expose/develop negs for silver printing anymore...it has been almost 10 years.

But if I have a scene with 7 or 8 stops of light measured (say, on my Pentax spot meter the reading go from 3 to 10), I would expose at 5 and might use Ilford's Universal PQ developer at a dilution of 40:960 at 68F for 6 minutes for a platinum neg. For the same scene I might use 60:940 at 70F for 6 to 8 minutes for a carbon negative.

The odd looking dilutions are just my way of figuring things out to have a liter of working solution for 5 negs in my Jobo 3005 Expert Drum. I am afraid I do not have a rigid exposure/development method based on testing. I tend to just hold a finger in the air and check the wind, and go for it based on previous negs and printing experiences. Works for me most of the time. But I usually do not recommend others basing their development using my times.

I "never" use contrast agents for my platinum/palladium prints -- and if the neg has too much contrast for pt/pd, then they'll make great negs for my way of making carbon prints.

Vaughn

[Dave Wooten]

Thanks

[tom north]

I think that the type of enlarger you develop your negs for will make a difference. I have a friend who uses a diffussion enlarger that require denser negatives. His negs produce great silver and platinum prints. I use a condenser enlarger so I end up taking 2 different negs if I want the choice to print with silver or platinum. I also agree with everyones assessment on Pryo, I started using it about 15 years ago and will never go back.

Best

Tom North

[Matt Magruder]

Steve, I believe you and I exchanged emails yesterday/today.
In regards to printing your 8x10 negs I imagine you will find that you'll be able to manage using the Palladium+Na2 rather well. Ive been able to get fairly nice looking pt/pd prints from negs with minimal density ranges. Have even used it when printing some old 4x5/8x10 negs dev in everything from Rodinal to Tmax to DDX to D76. May end up using a fairly large (relatively speaking) amount of Na2 but you should be able to work with them as is.
Personally, I wouldnt worry with duping until after you've tried your hand at printing a few of them to see how they look.

The general rule I've experienced is that the rare instances when I have a perfect pt/pd neg, it would print at Grade #0, or so I've heard.... as I've yet to create a perfect pt/pd neg :)