Basic instructions for Na2 platinum/palladium from B&S? I lost mine.

Hi all!

I bought my Na2 platinum/palladium kit from B&S over a year ago and only just pulled it out to use it for the first time, but the instructions are missing. I understand the coating/exposure, but just not the mixing of the chemicals.

I have:
1 x 10mL bottle of 5% sodium chloroplatinate (the platinum)
1 x 25mL bottle of palladium solution #3 (sodium palladium standard - no concentration listed)
2 x 25mL bottles of ferric oxalate solution #1. Yes, TWO bottles of solution #1.

I thought it was odd that I got two bottles of the same thing, when some people are referring to ferric oxalate #1 or #2 (I don't have #2... maybe it's for the non-sodium version of pt/pd). Is this right?

Could anyone give me a quick idea of the drop counts on how to mix these as a starting point? I can adjust my own contrast later.

Many thanks for your kind advice

Daniel

P.S.: I did a lot of searching around and found frequent reference to a page by Dick Arentz which is now dead. I found a copy, and it confused me even more, since he has another solution I don't.

Have you gone to the Bostick and Sullivan website? I think they have all their instruction sheets on the site. If not, a phone call or email should get it to you. They are great people to deal with and will likely get things sorted out for you if you don't have the right chemistry. Bill Barber

Call B&S for the quickest, most accurate answer.

Correct...no need for ferric oxalate solution #2 when using Na2.

Use one drop of ferric oxalate solution #1 for every drop of palladium solution #3 and/or Na2. You have 35ml of those combined and B&S does not bottle the ferric oxalate solutions in amounts less than 25ml -- thus you have extra.

What size prints are you making?

With small prints (4x5) it can be difficult to make small adjustments in contrast with Na2. Some folks dilute the Na2 to give more control. A little goes a long way.

But if your negs have good contrast, try without the Na2 first (a drop of the ferric for every drop of palladium). If you need more contrast, try replacing a drop of the palladium with a drop of the Na2. If one drop of Na2 gives you too much contrast, you will need to dilute it.

I try to expose and develop my negs so that I need no contrast agent at all. I normally use both platinum (not Na2) and palladium, so Na2 does not work for me (using the regular platinum salts and Na2 is not recommended -- the contrast will not change). But occasionally I'll print older negs (and some 120 film) that were not processed for pt/pd printing and find that palladium and Na2 works nicely.

Wow, thank you all for the replies!

I ended up trying out an experimental combination before I saw your replies. I did a 1:1 ratio of palladium to ferric oxalate #1, and 1 drop of 5% Na2 per 6 drops of palladium. So for an 8x10 sheet I cut down to fit two 4x5s, I used 2 drops of Na2, 6 drops of palladium and 6 drops of ferric oxalate #1, if I remember correctly. For my first attempt, I exposed in an old plate burner for 5 mins, developed, and got a very light image. For my second attempt, I exposed for 10 mins, visually inspected and saw virtually no latent image (no step wedge was included), so I exposed more for a total of 30 mins. After developing, the paper outside the negative area had a nice black, but blacks inside the negative area were more like middle grey. The negative was fairly dense and reasonably contrasty. It was an original 4x5 in-camera negative shot using the zone system, with blacks and whites fairly well-distributed. I will try with more Na2, and perhaps also with a digital neg.

I will report back in a couple of days with results. I'm just excited that I've made two platinum prints now

Oh, and I also couldn't find the B&S instructions on their site. I will just need to figure out the time difference from my side of the world so I can call them during office hours.

Thanks again!

Do not use TMax100 as it has an anti-UV layer that blocks UV...so exposure times are extremely long. A good way to judge exposure is when the black of the film's rebate just matches the black with no negative. Thus in theory, any clear shadow area in the image area will be max black. This also how one determines the exposure time for creating digital negatives.

For an 8x10, I use about a total of 40 drops (20 of the Ferric, 20 of the pt/pd). But that can change depending on the paper. I make pt/pd prints with very rich blacks.

An example (Yosemite National Park):