Re: palladium drydown and developer

Clay

 I appreciate that the yellowing point was a question. It was a question we
had to ask ourselves as, at one stage, we thought of abandoning albumen as a
size because of the yellowing. I fully accept that many early albumen prints
appear yellow due to inadequate processing. My suspician is that the yellowing
has a lot to with residual sodium thiosulphate in silver albumen prints

 JMC herself was a very messy worker but the prints of hers I have seen at
the Watts Gallery and those in the RPS collection and at Bradford, did not
register with me as being particularly yellow. In fact,
I was going to suggest that anyone who had not seen original prints should do
their utmost to do so in London, Rochester, Bradford, Paris and Santa Monica
or wherever. It could be worthwhile to get hold of a copy of Colin Ford's
catalogue resume of all her prints. Incidentally we had a great conference last
yerar at Dimbola on JMC at which I tried to demonstrate whether she could have
learned, as she claimed, to take photographs on wet collodion and made her
first successful albumen print in less than a month without help.

As to the albumen, I assume that you denatured it first..

As for the collodion, it is nasty stuff. I would never take up wet collodion
to make negatives. After I had worked on the Dimbola project I had a hangover
that lasted for weeks. It was so bad that one day I opened Yellow Pages to
look up funeral directors ! But now you do not have to mix your own. I am told
that you can buy it in a bottle from Dick Sullivan. You just need some vodka to
dilute it.

Terry

In a message dated 21/07/2006 13:49:40 GMT Daylight Time, wcharmon@wt.net
writes:

>
> Terry,
>
>
> First, the yellowing 'surmise' was intended as merely a question, not a
> statement of fact or experience. You have to admit that most (although exceptions
> I am sure exist) older albumen prints have yellowing that occurs in the
> highlights. The extensive Julia Margaret Cameron collection at the Eastman house,
> for instance, has yellowed significantly. As you are alluding, the commonly
> accepted chemical reason for this is the formation of silver albumate, which
> would not be a factor I suppose if you put platinum or palladium in it.
>
> I have made a fair number of albumen prints, so I am familiar with how to
> coat the paper and so forth. And it sounds like the key for you was in the
> dilution, which I indeed suspected after trying it myself with some albumen I had
> on hand. I kept diluting it in a serial fashion, but perhaps did not go far
> enough.
>
>
> Regards,
>
>
> Clay
>
Received on 07/21/06-07:29:54 AM Z