Salt Print.

[Keith Tapscott.]

This is my first salt print and the best of three attempts, so I will need to practice some more.
I found it very enjoyable, so I will try some more soon.
Comments from experienced salt printers welcome as I want to improve.

[Vaughn]

Nice...it is a fun process! Is the contrast where you want it?

I have a three-print project I would like to do (of my triplets -- each one photographed with an 8x10 on X-ray film -- I have the negs, I have the gelatin and salt treated paper...just need to do it!)

My only Salt print, 5x7 (it has some problems in the upper right -- some sort of staining in the paper -- not on the paper). One can see it when backlit.

Vaughn

[Keith Tapscott.]

Nice...it is fun, I need to do more!

My only Salt print:
Thanks Vaughn, that`s a nice image you have there, so I will need to practice a bit more after seeing that. May be I will try doing a cyanotype soon as well.
This alternative-processing malarkey could become addictive. :D

[Keith Tapscott.]

Nice...it is a fun process! Is the contrast where you want it?

VaughnNot quite, it could do with a bit more contrast, but it`s a start.

[Lenny Eiger]

Not quite, it could do with a bit more contrast, but it`s a start.

I wouldn't change a thing. I think it's beautiful... nice job.

Lenny

[Keith Tapscott.]

I wouldn't change a thing. I think it's beautiful... nice job.

LennyThanks Lenny. I did this shot with Sue Janes, a photographer who lives near by who studied salt printing and lith printing at college.
It was a lot of fun to do, so I will probably order some chemicals and papers to have another go soon. It was easier than I thought it would be.

[JR Steel]

Thanks Lenny. I did this shot with Sue Janes, a photographer who lives near by who studied salt printing and lith printing at college.
It was a lot of fun to do, so I will probably order some chemicals and papers to have another go soon. It was easier than I thought it would be.

Wonderful tonal rendition Keith. What paper is this printed on?

[Vick Vickery]

Gotta show my ignorance...been playing with cameras for over 50 years and I've never run into the term "salt print" before! :( What is this lovely process???

[Vaughn]

Very basic description:

"Salt" some paper with salt (by coating or soaking it with solution of gelatin and salt). Allow to dry. Coat paper with diluted solution (10 to 20%) of silver nitrate. Dry, and then contact print with neg under UV light. "Develop" in a 3% salt solution, fix in plain hypo, clear in HCA, wash.

This was one of the very first photo processes.

[Robert Hughes]

William Henry Fox Talbot was an Englishman, a friend of the great scientist Herschel, and one of the first photograpers. He printed using a salt - silver nitrate combination on paper: "...he found that a sheet of fine writing paper, coated with salt and brushed with a solution of silver nitrate, darkened in the sun, and that a second coating of salt impeded further darkening or fading." Later on, after consulting with Herschel, he substituted sodium hyposulfite for the second salting, and improved the longevity of his prints.

[csant]

A lot of info about albumen and salt paper can be found here (http://albumen.conservation-us.org/library/monographs/reilly/).

[Keith Tapscott.]

Wonderful tonal rendition Keith. What paper is this printed on?It was Winsor & Newton, Bockingford water-colour paper. It needs to be sized in a salt solution and dried before coating.

There is a description of salt printing here. http://www.alternativephotography.com/process_saltprints.html

I will point out that there was some gelatin added to the salting solution of my print before coating. I bought my contact printing frame from the Photographers Formulary over in Montana.

[Vick Vickery]

Thanks for the explanation, y'all...very interesting! :)

[Lenny Eiger]

Thanks Lenny. I did this shot with Sue Janes, a photographer who lives near by who studied salt printing and lith printing at college.
It was a lot of fun to do, so I will probably order some chemicals and papers to have another go soon. It was easier than I thought it would be.

Your tag says you're from England. You have such a rich history over there. We've had some hot photographers, Walker Evens, Robert Frank and a pile more. But you've had Sutcliffe, Frederick Evans, Emerson and so many of the members of the Royal, and other Societies in the British isles...

I learned to print from those guys. I used to go to the auctions and hold up these prints a few inches from my face (back in the days when they would let you) and try and understand how they got so much atmosphere and delicacy into a print using albumen and some of the other early processes.

I saw a Sutcliffe recently and it took my breath away... I didn't have $4500 to buy it. Maybe one of these days I'll win the lottery. Our world has gotten so far turned toward the shocking, and hot blacks and hot whites that I think we have lost something - this sense of delicate light. When things are all shock and awe (altho' there is a place for it) we lose subtlety and nuance.

Whether or not you continue in that vein, it's nice to see someone working in the softer tones for a change....

Best,

Lenny

[csant]

Our world has gotten so far turned toward the shocking, and hot blacks and hot whites that I think we have lost something - this sense of delicate light. When things are all shock and awe (altho' there is a place for it) we lose subtlety and nuance.

Whether or not you continue in that vein, it's nice to see someone working in the softer tones for a change....

Those qualities are exactly what draws me personally towards albumen printing - and that is also the exact feeling why I really liked the salt print posted in the first post: indeed it is nice to see somebody work in those soft, subtly nuanced tones. Well done, Keith!

[Keith Tapscott.]

Those qualities are exactly what draws me personally towards albumen printing - and that is also the exact feeling why I really liked the salt print posted in the first post: indeed it is nice to see somebody work in those soft, subtly nuanced tones. Well done, Keith!
Thanks for all the kind comments. As Lenny has mentioned Sutcliffe, I too admire the photographs of Frank Meadow-Sutcliffe and it would be nice to know the emulsion formulae he used to coat his glass-plate negatives and photo-papers with, just to get away from the look of modern films and materials once in a while. There is a certain beauty in looking at those old photographs.

http://www.sutcliffe-gallery.co.uk/

[David de Gruyl]

Just to be sure I am understanding: salt prints and albumen prints are essentially the same thing: salt is laid down (either in the paper, in a gelatin sizing, or in an albumen emulsion) and then sensitized with silver nitrate (which makes this a printing out paper) and fixed with hypo, then washed.

So, other than the egg whites, is there really any difference chemically? How about esthetically?

[csant]

You pointed out the difference correctly. Chemically there is no substantial difference. Of course this gives a very different look, and the glossy surface the albumen could achieve was liked a lot better than the matte "plain" salted paper - and albumen quickly became THE way of printing. The Albumen & Salted Paper Book I linked to above also gives a nice historical overview.

[Pete Watkins]

Looking at the work of FM Sutcliffe was one of the reasons that I took up LF. Looking at the dates though I doubt if he ever used the Wet Plate process. I've certainly never read anything that would indicate that he did.
Pete.