Greetings - first time posting on this subject so hope its in the right place...
I have been Salt and Albumen printing since early 2013, had some great success and a lot of 'learning experience' failures but I am now sometimes getting what looks like contamination in the lighter central areas of some of my light background Albumen prints, a rather nasty textured dark yellow effect - less at the edges !!
After final wash images look fantastic but the effect can grow between paper being almost dry and the following 24-48hrs.
I have tried different papers, longer/shorter pre expose dry times, changing washing times (up to 60mins), using a salt pre-wash, Stop bath, toning, fast dry... fresh chemicals, just about everything, but whats getting to me is that it is not consistent so I am doing something wrong. Variable water supply ?? (Highlands spring water)
Have even tried Gelatine in place of Albumen - Greyer more contrasty image but same problem to a lesser amount.
I am suspecting either bad chemical coverage as the discolouration pattern is not unlike the paper texture and is more away from the edge of coverage (tried several different papers, no change). Maybe too much SiNitrate soaking into paper ??
I attach 2 cropped samples, 1 good and 1 extremely bad but have many more. Rather than list everything I have tried I would value any thoughts or specific questions.
Any help appreciated.
Good sample
V.Bad sample
ps - Salt, Cyanotypes and Vandykes all coming out rather good
I have been Salt and Albumen printing since early 2013, had some great success and a lot of 'learning experience' failures but I am now sometimes getting what looks like contamination in the lighter central areas of some of my light background Albumen prints, a rather nasty textured dark yellow effect - less at the edges !!
After final wash images look fantastic but the effect can grow between paper being almost dry and the following 24-48hrs.
I have tried different papers, longer/shorter pre expose dry times, changing washing times (up to 60mins), using a salt pre-wash, Stop bath, toning, fast dry... fresh chemicals, just about everything, but whats getting to me is that it is not consistent so I am doing something wrong. Variable water supply ?? (Highlands spring water)
Have even tried Gelatine in place of Albumen - Greyer more contrasty image but same problem to a lesser amount.
I am suspecting either bad chemical coverage as the discolouration pattern is not unlike the paper texture and is more away from the edge of coverage (tried several different papers, no change). Maybe too much SiNitrate soaking into paper ??
I attach 2 cropped samples, 1 good and 1 extremely bad but have many more. Rather than list everything I have tried I would value any thoughts or specific questions.
Any help appreciated.
Good sample
V.Bad sample
ps - Salt, Cyanotypes and Vandykes all coming out rather good
