Contributions of the group alternate prints

Ragle Oaks

nobody@ipernity.com (Ned) — Mon, 05 Feb 2018 04:47:19 +0000

Ned has posted:

Oaks at Ragle Ranch Park in Sonoma County, California.
Printed 3 February 2018

Salted paper print of a calotype.
7x11 inch image on 9x13 Strathmore 500 drawing paper.

Toned in gold borax and platinum. Sorry I can't get the color right... it's subtle and nice: midtones remind me of the color with vinegar instead of citric acid in the silver nitrate. The darkest shadows were just starting to turn a sooty black when I stopped the toning.

Marshall Gulch

nobody@ipernity.com (Ned) — Thu, 01 Feb 2018 04:12:19 +0000

Ned has posted:

Salted paper print of a calotype.

Printed 28 January 2018
7x11 inch image on 9x13 Strathmore 500 drawing paper, plate finish

Started exposure facing East away from the sun with a paper diffuser, my daughter and I went to the beach and when we got home the sun was setting. I finished it with 5 minutes under BLB but it didn't print deeply enough to tone well. Toned in gold thiocyanate for over an hour, it did not shift the color much but it did increase contrast and brighten the water a bit. It has a kind of soft light look that reminds me of that morning. I thought I was going to need to re-print it, but I like it just the way it is.

Hovedøya Kloster (cloister) II

nobody@ipernity.com (Ned) — Thu, 07 Sep 2017 20:02:00 +0000

Ned has posted:

Salted paper print of a calotype. Printed 8 October 2017.

Strathmore 500 plate finish drawing paper
1% kosher salt, 1% NH4Cl, 0.6% gelatin, 0.5% CA.
Sensitized w/ 8% CA, 12% AgNO3.
Toned with gold borax and SCN.

I asked my daughter to do like Greenlaw* and she is in the window. Also some children were playing hide and seek and ran through the scene, leaving some "human fog" in the gap to the left of the tower.. you can mouse over the note to see it a little better.

The only technical differences between this one and "Hovedøya I" are: f/5.6 instead of f/4.8, and 3 minutes instead of 2.5 minutes. But the character of the highlights and soft focus areas are remarkably different... this lens has great potential and will take practice.

* Many believe that it is Colonel Alexander Greenlaw sitting in the window in this calotype.

Vidar's Sunlight

nobody@ipernity.com (Ned) — Thu, 14 Sep 2017 04:09:07 +0000

Ned has posted:

Salt print made from calotype.
Printed 7 October 2017

Strathmore 500 plate finish drawing paper
1% kosher salt, 1% NH4Cl, 0.6% gelatin, 0.5% CA.
Sensitized w/ 8% CA, 12% AgNO3.
Toned with gold borax and SCN.

Carlevaro Beach Salt Print

nobody@ipernity.com (Ned) — Mon, 19 Sep 2016 00:26:26 +0000

Ned has posted:

This is a salted paper print made from a calotype.
Printed 17 September 2016.

I wish I could get the color right so that you could see it. I fussed around for quite a while but just could not get it to look like the print. The print has a slightly peachy-pink cast and a nice soft light look...nothing harsh at all. I'm afraid it this image does not even hint at the tones in the print.

Lana Aquarelle paper, 2% Hawaiian alaea salt, 0.5% citric acid, 0.5% sodium citrate, 1% "superclear" pigskin gelatin. I have a batch of different papers salted with this combination, and every print before this one had some problem with fog.

For this print I added more citric acid to the sensitizer and it solved the fog problem, but it did also slow down the printing a bit. It was coated with 12% AgNO3, 10% CA.

2 hours with a paper diffuser, in the shade aimed East away from midafternoon sun. 5 minutes aimed East without diffuser. 90 second blast of straight sun to lock in the darks.

Toning: 0.34 g borax + 3.4 ml 0.2% gold chloride in about 80 ml of water for 20 minutes. Then added a scant 1 ml of 2% ammonium thiocyanate and agitated until the first hint of a shift in tone was apparent: 2 minutes. This shifted the tone away from red toward peach and somewhat more neutral. I think it made the highlights ever so slightly brighter too. I'm very pleased with it :) I'm going to attempt to tone a whole series this way -- but not with this salting solution, which was troublesome. I'll try to capture the color better next time.

Namias' Sepiaprint 2

nobody@ipernity.com (Ned) — Sat, 05 Mar 2016 19:22:18 +0000

Ned has posted:

Another Namias' Sepiaprint, this time un-toned.

Pinhole paper negative from February 2015, Laguna de Santa Rosa.

Printed 4 March 2016

Namias' Sepiaprint

nobody@ipernity.com (Ned) — Wed, 02 Mar 2016 00:55:42 +0000

Ned has posted:

Rodolfo Namias' Sepiaprint

Pinhole paper negative, heritage oak at Finley Community Center in Santa Rosa, California

Left: still wet after fixing. According to Namias, the browns would get much darker if allowed to dry.

Right: final dry print after toning.

I read Namias' 1901 article describing an iron-silver process. It is somewhat like a so-called “Van Dyke Brown” print, but uses citric acid instead of tartaric acid. It is not one of the historic processes that has remained popular today. I can't find much record of its use, except in “sepia paper” used for copying technical drawings, similar to the way blueprints were used. Since I had all the needed supplies, I thought I'd try it.

I followed the directions in the article and made this print from a pinhole paper negative. Everything went just as Namias described, which in itself is a refreshing change from usual. Usually there are all sorts of things that can go wrong, but it made a nice print on the first try.

This must be the simplest and easiest printing process I've ever tried:

* brush on the senistizer, let dry
* expose the print
* wash for 2- 3 minutes
* fix for 2-3 minutes
optional: tone after fixing
* wash.

Everything was done as simply as possible. I already had eyedropper bottles of

24% silver nitrate
12% citiric acid

that I use to make salt prints. I made another eyedropper bottle with:

25% ammonium ferric citrate

A drop ratio of 1:2:2 is close to the formula in Namias' article. I used:

6 drops silver nitrate + 12 drops citric acid + 12 drops ammonium ferric citrate

This was much more than enough to coat a piece of 5x7 inch paper.

I used Canson Universal Sketch paper, which does have an alkaline buffer, but it worked just fine.
You can see the highlights are perfectly clear white with no fogging and no hint of yellow.

Brushed on with an inexpensive foam brush, no brush marks or uneven areas are visible.
Exposed it for ½ hour under BLB compact fluorescent lamps, it did not look done, so exposed for ½ hour more. Then it was time for dinner so I just turned the lamps off.

After dinner, it was interesting to see the image intensify in the wash, just as Namias described. Then it intensified again and changed color in the hypo. I used a rounded ½ teaspoon of sodium thiosulfate in about 60ml water to fix the image.

Namias recommended gold thiocyanate toner after fixing, so I mixed a weak toning solution of:

2.5 ml 0.2% gold chloride + 2.5ml 2% ammonium thiocyante in about 70ml distilled water.

Toned in this for about 10 minutes, until it did not seem to be changing much.

Washed for an hour then dried on a sheet of glass overnight.

I think it is remarkable how there is detail in the deepest shadows ( on the tree and in the background on the right ) and in the most extreme highlights ( bulletin boards on the building in the background ). Also the sky is perfectly paper white.

This is a fun and interesting process, and particularly simple. Next time I will let one dry down without toning and see what it looks like. With the right negative, it might make a nice print!

Duncan's Landing Salt

nobody@ipernity.com (Ned) — Mon, 29 Feb 2016 04:23:02 +0000

Ned has posted:

Salt print from calotype.
Calotype had a few spots touched up on back w/ soft pencil.

Lana Aquarelle, 2% alaea salt, 0.5% CA, 0.8% gelatine.
Sensitized with 12% AgNO3, 6% CA.

Bright overcast at start, partly sunny after first 1/2 hour.
1h 25m toward N sky with paper diffusor.
10m facing E away from sun, no diffusor.
2m direct 4PM sun.

Toning:
2ml 0.2% gold chloride + 2ml 2% ammonium thiocyanate in about 80ml DH2O. 12 minutes.
Followed by:
0.2g borax + 1ml 0.2% gold chloride in about 80ml water, 10 minutes

Hard to get the tone right on this digi-snap. It is a little more neutral, but also a tiny bit more toward dark purple in the water. It also looks sharper with more "pop".

Printed 27 February 2016

Redwoods in Fog

nobody@ipernity.com (Ned) — Mon, 08 Feb 2016 20:12:56 +0000

Ned has posted:

Gold toned salt print made from a calotype.
Printed 7 February 2016

This "fairy ring" of redwood trees is probably on the same ground a prehistoric giant once stood upon. At Riverfront Regional Park near the Russian River in Sonoma County, California.

Laguna de Santa Rosa

nobody@ipernity.com (Ned) — Tue, 19 Jan 2016 03:44:51 +0000

Ned has posted:

Still working on the non-toxic oil prints. This is an oilprint using AFC instead of bichromate. I'm having mixed luck, but having fun trying to make it work.

It was made from a pinhole paper negative. I've never printed or scanned this negative before, I think it is from February 2015 "red rooster" coffee can pinhole camera.

Printed / inked 17 January 2016

oak and cart

nobody@ipernity.com (Ned) — Mon, 28 Dec 2015 16:39:31 +0000

Ned has posted:

at Sutter's Fort in Sacramento, California. Pinhole paper negative from Oct. 2012.

This is an oil pigment print made using AFC instead of bichromate. I've been working at this process for a few weeks and this is the first partially "successful" one. It is inked like a bromoil print.

The process is non-toxic. There are still a few "kinks" to work out.

Oak Salt Print

nobody@ipernity.com (Ned) — Mon, 06 Jul 2015 23:25:41 +0000

Ned has posted:

Gold-toned salt print made from a calotype.
Printed 5 July 2015.

Burbank Oak Salt Print

nobody@ipernity.com (Ned) — Sun, 28 Jun 2015 22:24:13 +0000

Ned has posted:

Salt Print from calotype. Printed 27 June 2015.

Lana Aquarelle HP paper
Toned with gold borax toner.

Raining

nobody@ipernity.com (Ned) — Tue, 16 Dec 2014 05:37:20 +0000

Ned has posted:

Pinhole paper negative from February. It was the first rain in a late winter. We're having plenty of rain now!

Gold-toned salt print made December 2014.

Santa Rosa Creek Salt Print

nobody@ipernity.com (Ned) — Sun, 23 Nov 2014 20:46:25 +0000

Ned has posted:

Here's the salt print from that paper negative. Tried to use digi-cam instead of my scanner and it did not work very well, the colors still are not right even after using grey card to adjust the white balance. But anyway, this gives something of an idea!

Printed 11 Nov 2014
Lana Aquarelle paper, gold toned.
Paper is 7.5 x 11 inches.

Huichica Salt Pond

nobody@ipernity.com (Ned) — Fri, 11 Apr 2014 21:47:11 +0000

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I made this for a fun activity over at APUG called the Monthly Shooting Assignment. The current theme is salt. This salt print was made by coating the paper with saltwater from within this photograph.

Canson Universal Sketch paper, 7x11 inches, coated with this saltwater then with silver nitrate + citric acid. Contact printed from a paper negative.

Crane Creek Salt Print

nobody@ipernity.com (Ned) — Sun, 05 Jan 2014 16:37:25 +0000

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First tries at salt printing. It is very fun!
The background is nearly pure white, don't know why the scan makes it grey.
5.3 x 9 inches, printed 4 January 2014.