Kallitypes or Vandykes

[John Lockhart]

I have seen some discussion of this topic, but I wanted to see if anyone had any more specific opinions. If I am creating my images from digital negatives and toning with platinum or gold to get the final image, is there any significant advantage to the more complicated kallitype process vs vandyke? Can I use a simpler process and save some of my time energy for other parts of the process? As I understood it the primary advantage of kallitypes was contrast control and the variety of tones one could achieve with different developers etc... In my case that does not matter as I use digital negatives and tone.

Any feedback is appreciated.

Thanks,

- John

 

[Loris Medici]

I think you already know the answer: try toned vandyke and see if you like the results (both in terms of final hue and tonality)...

FWIW, to me the answer is Vandyke - pretty much due similar reasons you've already stated. (Less complication, ease and simplicity...) Plus, I don't like Ferric Oxalate much; there are too few suppliers of it, whereas you can get Ammonium Ferric Citrate from many different suppliers... Also, AFC is used for many other processes such as Argyrotype, Trad. Cyanotype, whereas FO is only good for (in extra) develop-out pt/pd. Ect. ect...

Regards,
Loris.

P.S. An important distinction is that Vandyke is a print out process (different shadow tonalities / characteristics) and needs very strong negatives whereas Kallitype is a develop out process and doesn't need as strong negatives. Depending on your printer model / inks and digital negative making method, you may experience difficulties with Vandyke. But if it works, I'm sure it will work better; in my experience, with digital negatives (when they work), the larger is the ES of the process, the better are the results... (I mean in terms of richness and smoothness of tonality.)

 

[John Lockhart]

Thanks Loris,

You are right. I know I simply have to try it, but wanted some idea of what to expect before I started ordering more chemicals.

I think the negatives I get from my r1800 will work well. If anything, the negatives I get can seem to have too much contrast.

I am looking forward to the Vandyke paper Sandy King has mentioned in some other threads.

- John

 

[Davec101]

Thanks Loris,

You are right. I know I simply have to try it, but wanted some idea of what to expect before I started ordering more chemicals.

I think the negatives I get from my r1800 will work well. If anything, the negatives I get can seem to have too much contrast.

I am looking forward to the Vandyke paper Sandy King has mentioned in some other threads.

- John

Vandyke all the way, Sandy introduced me to this process and have been able to print some toned platinum/palladium prints at 34x27inch at fraction of the cost of what a tradional plat/pall print work out at. Am please with how they have come out although theyi do need a bit more contrast which i can fine tune in PS or increase the exposure time.

 

[Loris Medici]

Dave, you can get very good dmax (therefore very punchy images) from double coated / gold-thiourea toned vandykes... I can get log 1.45 dmax on COT 320, which - albeit being very good in many other aspects - isn't a dmax champion usually...

Regards,
Loris.

 

[davido]

I did van dyke prints for years and have switched over to Kallitypes in the last year or so. I was doing double coating VDB to get the dmax I wanted. I was then having a hard time clearing the prints because of the double coating. The Kallitypes are only requiring one coat and are far easier to clear. Clearing your highlights completely seems to be the most problematic aspect of either process, and the kallitype is proving to be easier for me.

 

[Loris Medici]

You can get very good dmax from one-layer gold-thiourea toned vandykes too. I don't double coat Weston Diploma Parchment or Masa paper for instance, I can get very convincing blacks with those papers. It all depends on paper. (It just happens that COT 320 benefits from double coating...) Addition of a little 40% citric acid into the coating solution (I add 1 drop - from a plastic pipette - per ml of coating solution) helps incredibly in getting clean highlights w/o any clearing bath. I don't use clearing bath for my vandyke prints.

Regards,
Loris.