Re: Silver Nitrate in Albumen Printing... Concentration Question

I always followed Reilly's rule of thumb below
following sensitization of a number of prints.

"Replenish the lost volume with a silver nitrate
solution twice as strong as the original bath. For
example, if the original strength and volume were 1
liter of 12% silver solution and after a printing
session only 850 ml remained, replenish with 150 ml of
24% silver solution. This should restore the silver
bath to the original strength and volume. If citric
acid is used in the sensitizing solution, it is
replenished strictly on the basis of volume lost from
the solution. For example, if the liter of sensitizing
solution had originally contained 5% citric acid
(i.e., 50 g) and 850 ml was left after a printing
session, then the missing 15% of the original volume
of 1 liter represents a loss of 15% (i.e., 7.5 g) of
citric acid. Thus the 150 ml of replenisher would
contain 7.5 g citric acid in addition to the required
amount of silver nitrate."

Also because of the organic albumen & salt getting
into the silvering solution, the solution will start
to turn dark and start causing problems in
sensitization and the resulting prints. By adding
kaolin powder (active ingredient in Keopectate® =D )
and shaking the solution, and allowing the kaolin to
settle overnight, the organic contaminants are
removed.

You can find all the specifics here
http://albumen.stanford.edu/library/monographs/reilly/index.html
Eric
http://www.eman-photo.com/

--- "Adam. Waterson" <artistboi@speakeasy.net> wrote:
> Ey y'all
>
> I'm working with Albumen printing and am coming
> across a bit of a
> difficulty with my sensitizing material. I was
> wondering if any of you
> had a good "recipe" for the amount of Silver Nitrate
> to Water. I know
> there is a threshold at which too much Silver
> Nitrate makes the print
> weaker, not stronger. Was just wondering anyone had
> a really good
> concentration worked out, I know it has to
> correspond to the pH of the
> Albumen you're using, but I was just hoping for a
> point to start
> experimenting more heavily off of.
>
>
> ALSO... Where do people get Silver Nitrate from? It
> is out of stock at
> TriEss, and I don't buy from photographers
> formulary, it is far too
> expensive through them. So anyone know other
> chemical dealerships?
> Thanks!
> Adam.
>

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Received on Sun Feb 8 15:59:46 2004