coating salt prints

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NedL

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I just had a bit of a revelation. There are posts here at APUG saying not to coat your salt prints under a safelight, because you need to be able to see what you are doing. Those people know what they are talking about and I should have heeded their advice!

I made a calotype + salt print for MSA, and the calotype has some bad stains on it. But I was a little disappointed that the most glaring problems in the final print have to do with the salt print and not the calotype. I just looked back through a stack of salt prints, about 40 of them, and it is obvious that my problems with coating have gotten worse over time. The last 4 are by far the worst, with streaks and sections left uncoated or weakly coated. My first dozen were very evenly coated with almost no streaks at all except around the edges.

So, just now, I decided to try another, and I closed the blinds in my study, turned on an incandescent light, and sat at my desk where I could see. Well, it was obvious what's been happening. The AgNO3 solution is simply not going onto the paper as smoothly as it used to. The brush is leaving streaks of uncoated paper. Under the safelight, these were too hard to see. Even though I got the paper completely coated this time, I suspect they will show as areas of reduced or uneven sensitivity.

So... Pdeeh's post made me wonder what's changed. These last 4 were salted with 1/2% citric acid in the salting solution. That's the most obvious thing that has changed, and I wonder if that could have changed the surface of the paper. Or maybe the humidity is different, since these salted papers have been stored between blotter for several months. Or maybe my hake brush is changing over time. Whatever it is, I'm never going to try to coat the paper under my weak dark red safelight again!
 

cliveh

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Fox Talbot didn't have a red safelight and his salt prints are pretty good.
 
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I do salt prints and Ziatypes. I can say that silver nitrate and palladium is safe for a short while with not too bright incandescent lamps or yellow bug lights.
 

gzinsel

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I still think "the puddle pusher" aka the "rod" is the best! too much waste with brush + contamination!!!!!! oikkksss!!!!! much easier to see and FEEL where you have not properly salted or deposited the silver nitrate.
 
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I use the glass rod technique too, but it takes practice. I'm still working on it. It's very economical for pt and pd printing.
 
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NedL

NedL

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Cliveh: good point as usual.

I will get a glass rod and try to learn.

In my first few salt prints, I poured the silver nitrate onto the paper then spread it with the brush. This left a higher density area where the silver nitrate originally hit the paper. Since then I have been dipping the brush and that problem went away.

Also a side note, with this last batch of salt prints I floated the paper on the salt solution instead of submerging it. I usually dry my salt prints on a piece of glass overnight, and I've noticed that as these dry they "cup" toward the emulsion side. The papers that were submerged dried flatter. Every little detail matters with these!
 

Jim Noel

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After several years of teaching the techniques of salt prints I have probably seen every mistake possible.
My suggestions:
Get rid of the Hake brush even the best hand sewn one will eventually cause problems.
Purchase the appropriate size Puddle Pusher from B&S. Plastic rods work sometime, and sometimes not.
When you get the rod practice with food coloring until you master the technique.
No matter what paper you are using there will be fewer problems if you include 2 gm/liter of Knox unflavored gelatin in your salting mix.
Use a small plastic pipette and place the silver nitrate as smoothly as possible along the "Pusher". A few small circles will distribute it evenly. Do not push down on the rod, let its weight do the job.
The only good alternative to the rod is a "Magic Brush". Expensive, but well worth it. I have separate ones for silver nitrate, Pd/Pt cyanotype and sizes appropriate for the size of the image. The last 2" one I bought was on sale for $76.
 
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NedL

NedL

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Thanks Jim.

I have some photographic gelatin that I was planning to try. I think I already asked this question, but it's fine to use it without a hardener, right?

Puddle pusher will be my next purchase.
 
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