Gold toning Van Dykes but no color change

SingerB, those are very nice prints and congratulations on nailing down the gold toning to your pleasure... I understand the sort of high key rendition you are after and I like that too. I also note that it is impossible to get the full sense of what the actual print is like "in hand". However, I notice that the left column on the building on the right is just shy of enough print density to see it's white margins distinct from the background on my screen. I am sure that it gets lost in the scan. A note ... with VDB/kallitype I believe that the ability to go for the highlights aggressively is one of this process's strongest benefits. The useful highlight tonal range is long and beautiful. Getting creamy smooth distinct tonality in that range is well within the possibilities ... You're doing good stuff here and because I'm a fan of the process I guess I'm just trying to be encouraging ... looking forward to seeing more from you ...

Thanks MVNelson. The scan is actually representing that fairly well; even on the print seeing the left edge of that building is very hard (although it is there). I actually did two prints of that today, and gave the second one more exposure to try and bring out some more highlight/midtone detail. However, it didn't appear to be enough to fully distinguish that edge. It doesn't help that there's a cloud right there, rather than open sky, making the tonalities very close. I used that scene because I've printed it before with the Cyanotype process, so I have some idea of what it can look like. This time, though, I agree that the other print is the more successful. Thanks for the encouragement, and I'm definitely going to keep working with this process.

Good work singerb, congrats.

BTW, you can still use your 0.2% gold chloride, just work out how much dry gold chloride you need (in the gold-thiourea toner formula) or compare concentrations/proportions and use the 0.2% solution appropriately; basic stuff really.

For instance, if the final volume of toner calls for 12.5ml of 1% gold chloride, you can substitute it with 1% / 0.2% (makes 5) x 12.5ml = 62.5ml of 0.2% gold chloride... (5x the volume, since your 0.2% gold chloride contains 5x less gold compared to a 1% solution.) You'll just have to add less water to make up final volume... (And also prepare an intermediate tartaric acid solution with less volume, in order to not exceed the final toner volume when all the intermediate solutions are mixed together.)

Of course - it's been too long since high school chemistry. I was thinking of how to convert a 0.2% solution into a 1% solution, but naturally, it's not the quantity of solution, but the quantity of gold chloride (and tartaric acid, etc). I should be able to just reduce the water required by 50 ml to compensate for the extra 50 ml in the gold solution. Thanks for pointing out the obvious! Wonder if I still have my chemistry book(s) somewhere...might be useful!