RE: Albumen sensitiser question
Title: RE: Albumen sensitiser question
Hi John,
If you are able to do a proper brush coating, (never tried it myself, only floating) that is the way to go for consistency in the amount of silver. It is indeed a bit of a hassle to maintain a silver bath for albumen printing. For wet plate, it's indeed a bit of an academic discussion (which I find interesting, but you knew that already..;-)..), but OTOH all these old manuals mention different strengths of silver baths for different collodion/salt mixtures. And as you know that proper maintance of your silver bath is very important in WPC work.
Best,
Cor
-----Original Message-----
From: John Brewer [mailto:john@johnbrewerphotography.com]
Sent: Sat 07/02/2009 16:17
To: alt-photo-process-l@usask.ca
Subject: RE: Albumen sensitiser question
Hi Cor
Thanks for the info and offer of help. For the moment I'll stick with brush
coating thus elimination the need for titration. With wetplate I'm not sure
you need to measure the silver bath, I think the method on Quinn's board is
more academic interest.
Thanks
John.
From: C.Breukel@lumc.nl [mailto:C.Breukel@lumc.nl]
Sent: 03 February 2009 11:55
To: alt-photo-process-l@usask.ca
Subject: RE: Albumen sensitiser question
Hi John,
I have posted the titration method as mentioned by Reilly on Quinn's wet
plate forum recently..;-)..
(http://albumen.stanford.edu/library/monographs/reilly/app-b.html )
It is not that horrible to do, I actually think it's fun...;-).. It does
require a buret and some new chemistry (AmmoniumFerricSulphate).
Unfortunately the titration method does for some reason not working for the
WPC silver bath, I am trying to get that figured out. You could also use
Scott's (Strochem) simplified titration method with AgCl, mentioned in the
same thread.
You can always PM if you need further information or help,
Best,
Cor
_____
From: John Brewer [mailto:john@johnbrewerphotography.com]
Sent: dinsdag 3 februari 2009 2:58
To: alt-photo-process-l@usask.ca
Subject: RE: Albumen sensitiser question
Hi Eric
Thanks for your input. The recipe I'm following comes from Christopher James
book http://www.christopherjames-studio.com/build/thebookreviews.html .
Lots of questions I'm afraid!
I'm interested in the way you maintain you AgNO3 bath with kaolin, that
sounds like it will save me a lot of agro. I practice wetplate photography
and maintain meticulously a silver bath for that. It's wetplate negs I'm
albumen printing. How do you maintain you bath? What is your recipe
AgNO3/H20/kaolin/anything else? I understand why you use the kaolin but how
do you measure the AgNO3 depletion? Is this by throughput, specific gravity
and pH or by feeling/experience/sense? Can the same sensitiser be used for
salt printing?
J.
From: eric nelson [mailto:emanphoto@gmail.com]
Sent: 02 February 2009 23:22
To: alt-photo-process-l@usask.ca
Subject: Re: Albumen sensitiser question
I wouldn't know if there are crystals at the bottom of my agno3 as there is
a layer of kaolin at the bottom. You will need that too if floating your
sheets on the agno3 surface to sensitize. This is because the organic
materials in the paper and albumen will darken the solution over time and
lower it's effectiveness. After the solution begins to darken, shake the
bottle and let the kaolin settle overnight taking the discoloration with it.
Reilly has a historical illustration of how to set up a siphon for that and
mine is nearly identical except that I used a glass milk bottle. :)
When you say James, do you mean Reilly?
Since it takes 2-3 minutes of floating the paper on the agno3 solution to
properly sensitize albumen, brush or rod coating would be a very uneven
coating. I tried brush coating only once with inferior results UNLESS one
wants that kind of look, which could be cool. But for straight
printing/imaging floating gives the best results.
Eric
On Sun, Feb 1, 2009 at 4:54 PM, John Brewer <john@johnbrewerphotography.com>
wrote:
Hi folks
I made up some silver nitrate sensitiser according to James p 471, that is
15% silver nitrate plus 5% citric acid in distilled water.
I see there is now some crystals at the bottom of the bottle. They weren't
there when I made the solution up and sensitised some paper. I can't seem to
dissolve them, even with heat and vigorous shaking. What are they? Are they
anything to worry about? Can I filter or decant them out?
One other thing, James says that coating with a rod is possible. This would
be preferable for me at this moment. As the sensitiser is clear, coating
under safelights is tricky to say the least. Can I do it under low ambient
light as I do quite safely with gum? If not any tips or tricks would be most
welcome.
Thanks,
John.