[alt-photo] Re: salt prints

[O Brien Moran Photography]

Hi,
Thanks for that I think perhaps the problem was the washing, the paper was fairly heavy weight.
All the best
Margaret
--- On Mon, 7/5/10, etienne garbaux <photographeur at nerdshack.com> wrote:

> From: etienne garbaux <photographeur at nerdshack.com>
> Subject: [alt-photo] Re: salt prints
> To: "The alternative photographic processes mailing list" <alt-photo-process-list at lists.altphotolist.org>
> Date: Monday, July 5, 2010, 1:32 PM
> Margaret wrote:
> 
> > I am having some trouble with salt prints I made about
> 4 years ago, some of them are starting to lose detail, for
> example the faces in one portrait are starting to disappear,
> not fading exactly just loosing detail.
> > Does anyone have any idea what might be causing the
> problem.
> 
> You do not mention whether the prints were toned.  If
> they were not, the most likely causes would be not having
> fully fixed the prints and/or not having fully washed out
> the fixer.  People often fix too little, because the
> fixer tends to bleach salt prints due to the extremely fine
> grains of silver produced, so prints are snatched from the
> fixer early.  Thorough washing can be very difficult,
> due to the fragility of the paper substrate (compared to
> silver gelatin photo paper).
> 
> Next would be atmospheric degradation and/or bleaching from
> exposure to light.  Again, because of the extremely
> fine grains of silver in a salt print (and also the lack of
> a protective medium such as gelatin), the image is very
> fragile.  Four years strikes me as a bit soon for
> atmospheric degradation, though, unless you live in a
> horribly polluted metropolis, so I'd be more inclined to
> suspect improper fixing and/or washing.
> 
> People who are serious about the longevity of salt prints
> tone them in Pt and/or Au (early practitioners sometimes
> used sulfide toning, and modern printers sometimes use these
> or Se toners), which also minimizes density lost in the
> fixer (toning is typically done before fixing).  Some
> also finish them with a gelatin or lacquer protective layer
> in the hope of delaying atmospheric degradation.
> 
> An excellent reference (Reilly's The Albumen and Salted
> Paper Book) is available on-line at:
> 
> http://albumen.conservation-us.org/library/monographs/reilly/
> 
> Best regards,
> 
> etienne
> 
> 
> 
> 
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