Re: palladium bleeding still

Really weird. I have never seen this problem to this degree in my
darkroom. On question: What is your ambient humdity? The reason I ask
is that I observed the same thing happen at a workshop at the
Formulary in August many years back. And I know it is more arid
there, than say, Houston in August (Otherwise know as Dhaka-on-the-Gulf.

Clay
On Aug 12, 2006, at 12:22 AM, Christina Z. Anderson wrote:

> Good evening dear all,
>
> One benefit of living in the same state as Photographer's Formulary
> is occasionally a visiting dignitary will pass through town and
> grace me with his/her presence, which was the case today. Mark
> Nelson is here on his way to do a workshop up there, and I roped
> him into coming over to my house to observe said platinum/palladium
> bleeding problem.
>
> Sure enough, I printed 6 tonal palettes and had him watch my every
> move, from coating to drying to exposing to developing. It was a
> very tense moment of performance anxiety when the first tonal
> palette did not bleed and I thought he would think I was making it
> all up for a little list activity, but lo and behold, the next 5
> did and really impressed Mark (as in "Holy S--t!). He had not seen
> that before.
>
> I used both Arches Platine and Crane's Cover, and used THREE
> developers this time--sodium citrate, ammonium citrate, and brand
> new fresh Potassium Oxalate (hence eliminating the acid/alkaline
> issue). Platine bled like a banshee in all developers, even the
> sodium this time. I printed on the back/bumpy side of Platine and
> still it bled. Cranes bled much less but did bleed minimally.
>
> I have more things Mark said to try: dilute the mix half with
> water and do 2 coats, try Cot 320 with my usual practice, change to
> a fresh ferric oxalate (mine was only a couple months old tho),
> test to see if I am losing density in the highlights as well as the
> shadows, and as two have told me offlist, reduce my palladium
> salts. Actually I will next try this last first (whoa dudette--
> weird sentence there).
>
> That's all for now folks!
> Chris
> CZAphotography.com
>
>
>
>
Received on 08/13/06-08:02:18 PM Z