Albumen Printing

[al]

hi all, i'm al, really adam, but i like albumen so i didn't wanna be a big dork and call myself something with albumen in it, so i just abreviated it to al.

aight, i am just writing a question to people who have experience with printing albumen. i print on a bristol 1ply plate finish paper because i like the way it holds to the surface, but the problem is is that it is soooo thin that when i take it out of being coated it usually wrinkles.

what do u think is the largest I can go without wrinkling terribly? i was thinking 11x14-16x20. perhaps a size between the two so that with my text all in all it would be 16x20.

anyone ever work larger with albumen? like 30x40? i am just worried about coating the paper and not having it get wrecked.

aight, thanks much, reply soon, i'm doing some major darkroom renovations right now for the upcoming semester. i'd been doing 24x30 cprints, and got bored with the color process, wanted to get back intouch with the process and out of the school's darkroom.

so yeah, word to u guys, i didn't know this place existed!

 

[cjarvis]

Is the problem wrinkling or curling? All papers curl with albumen...the lighter the worse.

If you want to go really big, you really should try a heavier paper. Lenox 100 would be suitable if you don't mind the texture. If you want something a little smoother, you can use just about any of the heavier papers by Arches.

Something else to consider with large albumen prints is the volume of albumen and silver nitrate required. You'll need about a gallon of albumen to sufficiently fill a tray required to float an 11x14 sheet.

Yet something else to consider is that with albumen I've always found the biggest obstacle to be air bubbles. The larger the surface the greater the potential for small bubbles to ruin your finish.