Hello good People. I’m about to begin my exploration into kallitype printing and would like to ask you for one single piece of advice that you found to be critical in helping you learn this process. What’s that one nugget of wisdom you wish you’d known known that you hadn’t previously?
Hello good People. I’m about to begin my exploration into kallitype printing and would like to ask you for one single piece of advice that you found to be critical in helping you learn this process. What’s that one nugget of wisdom you wish you’d known known that you hadn’t previously?
Some years back I did a Kallitype workshop with Lisa Elmaleh at Penumbra in New York. She made it seem very do-able and it was: I bought the chemicals from Artcraft and made myself a UV lightbox and printed a bunch of things with satisfactory results. But the process literally left its mark--a group of black stains on my bathtub, directly beneath the spot where I hung my prints to dry, that have resisted all attempts to remove them. Anyone know the solution?
Thanks!Assuming it is silver stains, probably Farmer's reducer which is a mixture of pot ferri and thiosulfate.
:Niranjan.
Don't waste time with less expensive but unproven papers. Just start with Hahnemühle Platinum Rag, Arches Platine, or Bergger COT 320. You'll have plenty of troubleshooting steps to go through without wondering if your paper is just not suitable
You can either make a digital negative (you have to work with Epson printer tech for this)
I use a Canon pigment printer ((Pro10s) which works fine with an appropriate driver (not the Canon driver).
Please tell us more — I was never able to get sufficient density of pigment from my Canon proGraf pro printer.
Don't waste time with less expensive but unproven papers. Just start with Hahnemühle Platinum Rag, Arches Platine, or Bergger COT 320. You'll have plenty of troubleshooting steps to go through without wondering if your paper is just not suitable
The book, “Kallitype, Vandyke Brown, and Argyrotype”, by Don Nelson has a long list of tested papers and results of the test. Worth taking a look if one is wondering about the paper choice.
Many have had good experience with buffered papers after treating them with acid like Sulphamic Acid, Oxalic Acid or Citric Acid. In my own experience, economical watercolour papers like Canson Montval 300 gsm CP and Brustro 25% cotton 300 gsm HP work fine. So does the more expensive Lana Lanaquarelle 300 gsm HP.
I think that the point is, that when first starting out, using a paper like one of the ones @BHuij mentioned, removes one variable from the process.
It is tricky enough getting decent results even if all the other planets and the moons align - without introducing a paper that needs chemical preprocessing with its own set of variables.
I think that the point is, that when first starting out, using a paper like one of the ones @BHuij mentioned, removes one variable from the process.
It is tricky enough getting decent results even if all the other planets and the moons align - without introducing a paper that needs chemical preprocessing with its own set of variables.
So there are more options out there for OP and there's nothing wrong in drawing their attention to the data in the book.
Thank you all for your responses! Sorry, I have not had a chance to reply individually, but will do so soon(this week has been bananas at work).
Just wanted to mention, since it's a popular comment here, that I am pretty much married to using COT 320 as that's the paper that I've been using (and getting some good results with for my cyanotypes) and have plenty on hand. I shudder at the thought of trying anything else at this point and starting over with that aspect of the process, so, COT 320 it is.
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