Cooling Palladium

Is it possible to cool the warm tone of palladium? Does Na2 do it?

Would you like to discuss what the developers do to the final color?

Yes, Na2 will cool the tone. Since you generally use less of the Na2 than you would the traditional platinum solution (potassium chloroplatinite), you won't get as noticeable of a difference in color shift, though.

What developer are you using? If you're using potassium oxalate, you could switch to ammonium citrate or sodium acetate and get a cooler tone that way.

Off topic: It's snowing here in Santa Fe again. We got 2 feet last weekend (A record) and it looks like we could get 6 inches or more tonight. Hooray for global warming!

Mark, please excuse me for butting in...? for Dana...

Dana,

What is the shelf life of your Ferric oxalate Solution #1 once it has been opened? I have a bottle I opened 6 months ago -- should I order more from you?

Vaughn

PS -- it is even cold here in NW CA...a touch below freezing last night. But rain is on its way, so we'll get lows in the low 40's and highs in the low 50's.

Cooling Pd with NA2 - Consider Adjusting your Negative DR

I have traditionally printed with a 50-50 mixture of Pt to Pd which produces a rich warm black...but without the sepia tones typical to Pd. Lately, I've been using more NA2 with Pd because of working with digital negatives. If you develop your in-camera negatives to require 2-4 drops of 20% NA2 for an 8x10 (DR about 1.4-1.5), and develop in potassium oxalate at 110-130 degrees F, you will get a print color very similar to 50-50 Pt-Pd. Tonight I printed an in-camera 12x20 negative that required 1ml of 20% NA2 to 3ml Pd. The print color is almost identical to a 50-50 Pt-Pd mixture but with half the platinum and the tones are smoother than if I had used potassium chlorate and KPt. I have also recently completely changed the shape of the photoshop adjustment curve for digital negatives to use more NA2 to better match the tones in a traditional 50-50 Pt-Pd print. The philosophy of using the smallest amount of NA2 possible for a given negative generally results in the sepia color tones of Pd to which you refer.

Bob Herbst

Another factor in image tone with pure palladium is the actual physical temperature of your developer. Developing with room temperature PotOx will cool the image tone down a bit from what you get with properly tempered PotOx. It is subtle, but perceptible.

Another approach would be to try the Ziatype process. A pure palladium ziatype can give you a dead neutral print. Not attractive to my eye, but if that's what you're looking for the Zia is an easy way to get it.

I am getting everything together to start the process, so no developer use yet. I got a couple of palladium kits last year and am finally getting around to building the light box. I am mainly curious how I could cool it with snow scenes, other than that situation where I really want white whites, I like the warm tones I have seen on palladium prints. Should I break down and buy a Pt/Pd kit

Dana, send some of that snow our way. We need it. You folks get 2 feet and we get a couple inches.

Papers make a big difference, also.

Printing at about 63% palladium, 35% platinum on Cranes Cover (Platinotype?) using Ammonium citrate as the developer (room temperature) gave me fairly neutral tones.

Switching over to room temperature Potassium oxalate developer (and using Fabriano Aristco paper), warmed up the prints considerably -- but not overly warm for my tatses.

Good luck!

Vaughn

If you're particularly looking for cool/neutral white highlights, also think paper. The Bergger COT 320 is the most neutral-white paper for this process that I'm aware of. Try printing on that, to see if it helps you get the look you're after.

Room temp potassium oxalate on Cot320 is pretty neutral. How neutral do you feel the need to go?

I want snow to look like snow, cold not warm. I am realizing that there is going to be one hell of a learning curve with this.

Thanks for the info folks. I really did think this was going to be pretty straight forward. I'm just going to have to finish the exposire box, coat some paper and play. Then I might have a better Idea about how this all works.

Try buxton paper. It produces a cold print even with palladium and PO. I can't imaging how cold it must be with a traditional cold developer.


---Michael