RE: Kallitype

Sandy,

Thanks for your reply. I don't dry the coated paper in the room light. I
have a light tight cabinet with screens. I mentioned the overhead
fluorescents because I thought I may have exposed my sensitizer for a few
seconds. I perform all procedures from coating to processing with a Kodak
red safelight. (I think its 1A). As for the potassium oxalate that comes
from the kit purchased from Photographers' Formulary. The developer is the
Rochelle salts, [potassium sodium tartrate] (part A) mixed with a solution
of borax (part B) in varying degrees for color control. Yes the exposed
image is well described as a "whisper". The image is clearly on the paper
with excellent detail only very subdued. It has a somewhat caramel color
running to yellows in the highlights. I really don't understand why your
sodium citrate developer is such a disaster for me. I am using lab grade
sodium citrate from the chem lab here at the university. 200g/liter of
distilled water. I truly believe the error is some where in the processing,
the "latent" images seem quite well formed. Maybe I will try the potassium
oxalate as developer and clear with citric acid.

Scott B. Weber
Associate Professor of Photography
Department of Fine Arts
Barry University
11300 NE 2nd Avenue
Miami Shores, Florida 33161
(305) 899 4922
 

-----Original Message-----
From: Sandy King [mailto:sanking@clemson.edu]
Sent: Tuesday, August 09, 2005 7:48 PM
To: alt-photo-process-l@sask.usask.ca
Subject: Re: Kallitype

Scott,

First, all fluorescent tubes put out some UV light so if you are
drying the sensitized paper in this light this could be part of your
problem. But it sounds like you have worse issues.

You really have me confused about the developers and clearing agents.
I have never used the Borax Rochelle salt developers so can not
comment but your clearing agent, potassium oxalate, is normally used
as a developer.

Finally, a real key to your problem is in how the image looks after
exposure. There should be kind of a "whisper" of an image after
exposure, just a bit more than with Pt./Pd. But by no means should it
look like a good print at this time. The print kind of appears
during development almost as soon as you pour in the developer.

Sandy

>OK here goes, I have made many successful cyanotypes, van dykes and salt
>prints so I decided to try kallitypes. I started with Photographers
>Formulary's kit. Ferric oxalate & silver nitrate for sensitizer, Rochelle
>salt (with some borax) for the developer. Potassium oxalate for the
clearing
>bath and hypo with ammonia for fix. I tried coating the papers with glass
>rod and foam brush. Using Cranes 90lb wove and Lanaquarell (sp) cold press.
>With both papers and both coating processes I get similar results. After 10
>to 30 minute exposures in a UV (fluorescent) light box the faint yet
>distinct image is sharp and clear. As soon as I put the print into the
>developer it turns "muddy" and "mottled". Some have come out better than
>others (the ones without borax) but the results are very disappointing.
>Today I tried Sandy King's method of using sodium citrate for developer and
>citric acid to clear. The results are WORSE. Either the print holds almost
>no image or they turned completely brown (faint image). Could I have
>accidentally exposed my sensitizer to room light. My dark room has
>fluorescent lights overhead. I don't understand why the image looks so good
>before development then turns to "you know what" in the developer. I even
do
>all of the processing with red safelights and overheads off. Any help will
>be appreciated.
>
>Scott B. Weber
>Associate Professor of Photography
>Department of Fine Arts
>Barry University
>11300 NE 2nd Avenue
>Miami Shores, Florida 33161
>(305) 899 4922
>
>
>
>
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>Barry University - Miami Shores, FL (http://www.barry.edu)
           
                       
                
The information transmitted is intended only for the person or entity to which it is addressed and may contain confidential, and/or privileged material. No confidentiality or privilege is waived or lost by any errant transmission. If you receive this message in error, please immediately delete it and all copies of it from your system and notify the sender. E-mail transmission cannot be guaranteed to be secure or error-free as information could be intercepted, corrupted, lost, destroyed, arrive late or incomplete, or contain viruses.
Barry University - Miami Shores, FL (http://www.barry.edu)
Received on Wed Aug 10 15:18:29 2005