[alt-photo] Palladium Failures

[eric nelson]

In my 20+ years of working with DOP palladium and platinum, I have never had
so many issues arising as I am now that I can't figure out.

My studio is in our basement, 4 steps down from ground level, and I have
been testing both Platine and Cot 320.  I have had a momentary success w/Cot
320 to get *one* print made with 1 neg, but now, w/new negs generated by the
same LVT and profile, I have had just about every kind of failure.

My previous working methods, (in my old studio that was above ground with no
humidity control), that were *perfect* years back with the 'old style'
Platine was to double coat with a tube, leaving the sensitizer to set for 10
minutes each time before drying w/a hot hair dryer.

Fast FWD to present day.. with early tests in my new studio that I assume is
more humid than my old one, tube coating didn't work well at all and the
images were slightly abraded looking on Cot 320 and even worse with
unevenness using Platine, so I switched to a hake brush and dismissed
Platine as unworkable.  Double coating on Cot 320 with a tube gave a grainy
ugly print.

Test prints on the Cot with a tube looked OK initially but when used for an
actual 16x20 print were uneven.  Another defect using the tube that I
thought would disappear with more sensitizer was the appearance of paper
fiber disturbances, i.e. those little dang hairs that one could spot out if
they were Lilliputian.

So yesterday's test prints showed solarization in the blacks.  I haven't had
that happen in 20 years!  This occurred with both Platine and Cot coating
with a brush.
I researched this online and found a posting that suggested using a cooler
setting on the dryer which I did today.
I coated 2 sheets taped together (edge to edge) which I then separated to
dry one immediately, and the other I dried 5 minutes later.
I could see immediately in the first one I dried that the coating had pulled
away in a round pattern despite using the brush to spread the sensitizer top
to bottom and left to right.
The 5 min. set time coating seemed a little better, but both, once
developed, had solarization in the shadows and unevenness.

Here's my procedure presently:

Single coat paper w/slightly damp hake brush (distilled water) with
paper lying on plexiglass.
Drop schedule for tests on paper 10"x12" 18-4-22Pd
Developed in ammonium citrate, rinsed, cleared in 4% citric, 5-10 min wash
then edta/sulfite bath and washed again.
Unevenness is showing up in the *printed out* image.
The prints are being exposed with 8 brand new 4 foot BL tubes for 18 mins.
which appears a little dark.

Here is a scan of my 2 latest tests. On the left is the 5 min set time and
the test on the right was dried immediately.  The scan exacerbated the
defects so FYI they do not look as bad as this.  Color is off too but I got
it as close as I could in a quick scan.
http://tinyurl.com/3m4grgf

This a sample of the same area of the *original* digital file.  The negative
I'm printing from was made with an LVT.
http://tinyurl.com/3lluzoz

I know I must be leaving something out in my descriptions so feel free to
ask for any clarifications.
Any suggestions are *greatly* appreciated.

Eric