From: Joe (jportale@gci-net.com)
Date: 06/21/00-09:49:07 AM Z
Hello Sandy,
There is no "best" paper for salted paper. There are some papers to avoid.
You need a paper the will hold up well in water, preferably gelatin sized.
Cranes Plantino, Fabriano Uno, Artistico, Cottmans, Arches, Bristol Plate,
the list goes on and on. Salted paper prints are not as paper fussy as
Platinum/Palladium printing. The general rule of thumb is any premium
quality water color paper will work fine. I like hot pressed because the
smooth surface tends to hold detail better.
The salting solution can be made up several ways. Talbot's original formula
was 20 grams of common salt, 2 grams of gelatin and 1 liter of water. A
more modern version is 2 grams of gelatin, 6 grams sodium citrate, 6 grams
ammonium chloride all dissolved in 280 mls of water. The French used starch
instead of gelatin in their prints which had a tendency of giving more
chocolate brown colors.
The basic sensitizing solution, this is not an emulsion is 4 grams of silver
nitrate dissolved in 30 mls of water. A variation of this can be made by the
following 3 grams of silver nitrate, 0.3 mls of a 20% citric acid solution
all mixed in 20 mls of water. There are a bunch of sensitizing formulas.
Some specific tips would include, size your paper no matter what kind you
are using. The solutions are runny and will suck straight into the paper
without sizing. The resulting print will be blotchy and extremely flat
looking. Salting the paper does not have to be done by immersion as
suggested in Crawford and several other texts. You can brush or coating rod
the salting and sensitizing solutions on the paper. Make darn sure that the
salting solution is dry before coating with the silver nitrate solution. If
not, you may get strange markings on the paper.
During exposure, over expose at least one stop (a step wedge is a great tool
for estimating how much extra exposure you will need). The print will pull
back during the clearing wash. Use plenty of water when clearing. Keep
washing until all of the white milkiness is gone. Then tone immediately in a
gold chloride toner solution. The borax-gold solution as seen in Crawford
gives you the most variations in color as compared to sodium acetate or
theourea toners. You can really cheat and make up a palladium or platinum
toner that will be almost indistinguishable from a platino or palladio
print.
Use a plain 10% hypo fixer (sodium thiosulfate) after toning. I rinse the
toned print in a couple of changes of water before fixing. I don't know if
this helps or hurts. It is just something that I do.
If you do not tone your salted paper prints, they will turn an unpleasant
brick-mud red in the fixer.
Hope this helps. If you have any other questions, please feel free to drop
me a line.
Joe Portale
Tucson, AZ
>
> 1) best paper;
>
> 2) optimum salting formula, and method of salting;
>
> 3) best sensitizing emulsion for the above.
>
> I have already consulted Reilly, Crawford, Farber and Webb/Reed but am
> looking for some advice based on specific and individual experience.
>
> Sandy King
>
>
>
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : 07/14/00-09:46:45 AM Z CST