sodium citrate, ammonium citrate, bleeding of borders

Well, a kiss for Bob Kiss--
I tried the sodium citrate and presto, no bleeding of borders.

However, since I ran out of Platine and my order isn't coming thru for a
week, I had switched to Cranes Cover/Platinotype. Therefore, I wondered if
the reason for no bleedoff was the paper and not the developer.

I decided to be fair to am citrate and bit the bullet, mixed 'em both up and
today printed side by side 12 prints, half developed in sodium citrate and
half in ammonium citrate. These are all my results for anyone who cares,
and I would LOVE if anyone chimed in with different results before I go and
accept it as gospel:

As I think Eric and Sam said sodium is warmer than ammonium--it has a
yellower tone to it than ammonium which is redder. Hard to see unless side
by side and you scrutinize.

Sodium is a titch less contrasty, too.

Ammonium is a bit faster--printing less than 1/3 stop faster, though,
probably 1/6-1/4 stop by my eyeball calcs--in other words, on a 31 step
tablet it wasn't a full step.

NOW (ta da) about the bleeding of borders, My am citrate is always darkened
with metal; since it was all I used I didn't think anything of it. HOWEVER,
when I developed all these prints today in sodium citrate, the developer
stayed clear. No bleeding of borders. And the Cranes Cover prints that I
developed in ammonium citrate did bleed slightly (not like Platine) in the
developer, so my conclusion is the bleeding is both paper and developer
related, and maybe another reason in there, too. But it was enough of a
revelation to want to stick with sodium citrate, frankly.

That's it for today!
Chris
CZAphotography.com
Received on 07/23/06-09:10:15 PM Z