The Kallitype Thread

[sanking]

I'm not certain but I think solid Gold Chloride is deliquescent. IIRC, the solid form in the capsule in the Nelson's Gold Toner kit I ordered from the Formulary had liquified when I opened it.

Thomas

Gold chloride in the 1 gram solid form is usually sold in small glass vials that are sealed to prevent moisture from getting to the gold. However, if you just put the vials away moisture will eventually get in and form a liquid with the gold solid.

In practice, what I do is place the vials in water as soon as I get them from the supplier, and break the seal under water, then add water to 100 ml to make the 1% solution.

Even if moisture has entered the vial and formed a liquid with the gold, it should still work as a toner, though it may be weaker than if you had made up the solution with the dry powder.

That said, I have to admit that working with gold solutions can be very frustrating because of the deliquescent nature of the substance. You can follow the exact instructions used two or six months ago in mixing a gold toner solution, but the results may be totally different. I love the bluish/black look of kallitypes and vandyke prints toner to completion in gold toner, but gold is a fickle lover so beware.



Sandy

[Andrew O'Neill]

Damn! A sheet of Arches Platinum from that awful bad batch got mixed in with the good batch! Once I've used up the few remaining sheets it's on to Hahnemuel (spelling?)

[Andrew O'Neill]

Not sure why the image appears twice...

[terra_monk]

falling in love with 5x7 size !!! looks just right for intimate view and quite easy to handle in the field.

Wet wood alongside Beaver Dam Creek, Ontario
Kallitype from in-camera 5x7 negative on Hahnemühle Platinum. This version with a drop of dichromate appears more snappy without blowing the highs ...
Gold-Thiourea toned, finished with a touch of selenium
Ilford FP4+ in Pyro-HD, pushed quite a bit.

[SMBooth]

looks stunning

[tgtaylor]

Here's another negative that I shot earlier in the year, developed, and then forgot about. I printed it yesterday thinking that the sun would be out as advertised but ended-up exposing it for 18.5 minutes in a heavy oversast.

http://spiritsofsilver.com/yahoo_sit...2927_large.jpg

Palladium-toned Kallitype on Hahn Platinum Rag. Toyo 810 MII with 5x7 reducing back and 120mm Nikkor Lens.

Thomas

[Barry Kirsten]

Stunning, Thomas. Bravo!

[Andrew O'Neill]

For the last few prints that I made, I've been adding a few drops of 1% gold chloride to the sensitiser. I'm liking what I'm seeing. I may go this route as it should be more economical... but, still early days. Thoughts? Anyone else doing this?

[terra_monk]

Andrew, I am in the very beginning of Kallitype explorations.... Once I've established a basic repeatable workflow the first observation was a somewhat flat image no matter what I tried. Apart from color shift the use of Gold toner before fixing improved the fading issue during fixation. I suspect using Gold only as an additive to sensitizer is different and would not yield d-max and permanence improvements.

Thomas, nice image!. I'd love to see different variations of toning for Kallitypes.

[tgtaylor]

Thanks Barry, terra!

I just finished my first or second package of 8x10 Platinum Rag and this is a really good paper although with its own idiosyncrasies. I'll explain: Thee dmax and color slowly improves over several days. I noticed this on the second to last image I posted above. Immediately upon drying I didn't care for the color but after several days of being propped-up on the microwave I came to like the color. On the last image posted above while in the developer I thought that I hadn't given it quiet enough exposure due to the overcast. Thee toner bleached it back but it almost came all the way back in the fix. Out of the wash it had a yucky poo-po brown color that was unappealing but after drying 16 or so hours overnight the color and dmax strengthened. It actually looks better right now than when I scanned it this morning.

I decided to reprint it this morning but was out of ammonium citrate and instead mixed-up fresh a sodium citrate developer instead of the ammonium citrate and sodium acetate developer I had been using. Today's exposure was 15 minutes instead of yesterday's 18.5 minutes as today's overcast wasn't as bad. As luck would have it, the sun had disappeared while the paper was drying. I again toned it with palladium as I would like to see how it looks using a different developer. Everything went the same as yesterday and I can't wait to see the color tomorrow.

Thomas