Kallitype: Your Wisdom

[Franswa]

It's going to take a lot longer and cost more in materials than you ever expected, before you get to a reasonable print.

I’ve done what I can to mentally manage this expectation.

 

[Franswa]

The best nugget of wisdom I can offer you is this: buy the Kallitype book by Don Nelson. There will be no unanswered questions if you follow this bit of advice.

Thanks, I’ve seen a handful of various videos by Don and am considering his book

 

[Franswa]

When I proposed to start Kallitypes along time ago, I was advised to start with VDB's, that I did and never progressed any further. VDB is easier and more affordable and so far I haven't seen anything in Kallitype or for that matter P/P to make me want to try either.

Honestly, I’ll most likely end up exploring that and other processes because I’m very curious by nature. But, who knows

 

[Franswa]

I second VDB as the preferred path, if it's feasible. Kallitype is more flexible in terms of contrast, which makes it a better choice for film negs. With digital negs, VDB is the way to go.

My single nugget of kallitype advice: stick with sodium citrate developer. Clearing will be you biggest problem, and citrate developers are your best. option on that front.

No problems there…I’ve got sodium citrate on its way!

 

[Franswa]

As Andy has pointed out, it is critically important to engineer a negative of the correct density/contrast to work well with Kallitype. You can either make a digital negative (you have to work with Epson printer tech for this) or work out a process to create an in-camera negative, which requires special processing. (For this I recommend Ellie Young's pdf, which goes into considerable detail about achieving the correct negative density) Your best option for in-camera alt process negatives is FP4+, which is ideally suited to making Kallitype (and Salt) negs because of its low base + fog density. Ellie explains the choice of FP4+ in the pdf, so do yourself a favor and take a look at it.

Andy's recommendation to stick to an appropriate paper is also excellent advice. To his list of Revere and Hahnemuhle I would add Bergger's COT 320 paper, which has been my favorite for Salted paper and Kallitype printmaking.

Tone your prints before fixing. Gold chloride toning is considered the best for archival and aesthetic purposes. You can buy a gram of Gold chloride for about half what it would cost you to buy gold toner pre-made: go to ArtCraft Chemicals. The Thiocyanate toner version of Gold toner is simplest and very easy to make yourself.

Fine tuning my digital negatives has been a top priority for me as I’ve learned is a critical foundation for good print results. Is the density/curve process far different than for cyanotypes? As for toner I’ve already ordered platinum toner

 

[retina_restoration]

Is the density/curve process far different than for cyanotypes?

Yes!!! You will need a negative with much greater density in the highlight values.

 

[Franswa]

Yes!!! You will need a negative with much greater density in the highlight values.

Thank you. Let's take this cyanotype for example(toned)

This is what the negative looks like. Are you saying that the blacks(highlights) need to be more dense(blacker) here? Or are you referring to having more ink laid down on the transparency in those areas? You can visit this link here if you'd like to zoom in: https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/54797812411_042c1a4f4b_k.jpg

 

[koraks]

Are you saying that the blacks(highlights) need to be more dense(blacker) here?

No density measurement is given for your negative, so it's hard to say, also because the cyanotype chemistry isn't specified and the requirements vary wildly between the different approaches, from around 1.5logD for classic cyanotype to ca. 2.1logD for New Cyanotype, with Simple Cyanotype being capable of accommodating different negatives within a certain range.

If that print was a classic cyanotype, then the blacks in the negative are most definitely too weak for a good kallitype. If it was a New Cyanotype print, they may be too dense.

If you're using digital inkjet negatives, you need to calibrate/linearize the negatives to the printing process. Likewise for silver camera negatives of course, but we generally don't speak of calibration/linearization in that case.

 

[Andrew O'Neill]

If you are using the traditional Cyanotype recipe, then the negative will be too flat for a Kallitype. Yes, the highlights on the negative will have to be denser...The negative density range is longer.

 

[Raghu Kuvempunagar]

Toning Cyanotype prints with coffee/tea/tannic acid etc has the nice effect of reducing the harshness of blown out highlights, reducing contrast and sometimes making such highlights very attractive due to the stain imparted by the toner. Kallitype will be less kind with detail-less highlights and increasing density of highlights in the digital negative won't help much in this case. This is of course assuming that the highlights are detail-less as hinted by a cursory check of highlight values of the negative image shared above.

 

[fgorga]

The whole point of applying a curve while preparing a digital negative is to tailor the negative to 'fit' the process. Thus, each process needs its own curve, more-or-less.

A good starting point for obtaining a curve for a new process is one of the curve 'libraries' that can be found on-line. I say a good starting point because one can sometimes tweak a generic curve to better match your working methods.

The library at Bostick & Sullivan (https://www.bostick-sullivan.com/digital-negatives/) has a kallitype curve.

Another good library, in general, is the one at Alternative Photography (https://www.alternativephotography.com/curve-corner-photoshop-curves/) but they do not have a kallitype curve.

 

[Andrew O'Neill]

...or just download Chartthrob, and make your own. And that is as far as I'll go mentioning digital here, as this is 100% analogue thread

 

[Franswa]

Thanks Frank, Raghu and Andrew. I used chart throb for my foundation curve for my classic cyanotypes so I’ll be creating one for Kallitype to see how that goes. I’ll also give the B&S a try as well just so I can have something to compare

 

[Franswa]

Toning Cyanotype prints with coffee/tea/tannic acid etc has the nice effect of reducing the harshness of blown out highlights, reducing contrast and sometimes making such highlights very attractive due to the stain imparted by the toner. Kallitype will be less kind with detail-less highlights and increasing density of highlights in the digital negative won't help much in this case. This is of course assuming that the highlights are detail-less as hinted by a cursory check of highlight values of the negative image shared above.

Absolutely, toning can impact the print as you stated. The highlights contain details in the cyanotype print as well. This was a second print but from the same negative.