U of S | Mailing List Archive | alt-photo-process-l | Re: Salt Printing and Ocean Water

Re: Salt Printing and Ocean Water



Sea water is ~3.5% salt.  Most salted paper recipes I've seen call for between 1.5% - 2% salt,  so diluting sea water 1:1 with distilled water would bring it into the optimum range.  IIRC, higher salinity produces a great loss in sensitivity and maximum density.

Joe
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On May 7, 2008, at 11:41 PM, Zev Schmitz wrote:

Hello all!

Ive been getting into salt printing lately and have just two questions I cant seem to get answered. First, anything Ive read about using ocean water says to dilute it at least 1:1 with distilled water. Is this really necessary? What would happen if the salt solution was as high as %30 ? Also Ive been using gelatin with my salt solution but have seen recipes that are purely salt. Which papers are best for such solutions where no gelatin is used?

Thanks
-Zev