Papers for 'Pure' Platinum Printing

Very few papers are much good for pure platinum prints. I use Herschel and Buxton, but I'm wondering if there are more out there. I know that there are plenty that work for palladium prints (with or without acid preparation) - COT320, Platine, et cetera. What I'm interested in is papers that work well if you have no palladium in your coating - i.e. when you use just ferric Oxalate and Potassium Chloroplatinite.

Thanks in advance,
Ian.

Hi Ian, AFAIK, pure pt printing has problems with gelatin coated papers - the remaing criteria is the same for all iron / iron-silver processes. Therefore, despite I haven't tried it with pure pt, I'd like to suggest you trying (there was a url link here which no longer exists) Fabriano Artistico Extra White paper. I've used this (treated) paper with the most finicky iron or iron-silver processes (new cyanotype, argyrotype - plus another easy-going process; pop pd) and it worked flawlessly with each of them! This paper has a strong AKD sizing, a very nice bright white (but still natural) color and some very nice surface options; soft press is perfect for gumovers for instance, and the its texture doesn't get into your way even with smallish (8x10") prints.

Definitely try it (sulfamic acid treatment and FAEW)!

Regards,
Loris.

Thanks Loris. I couldn't get ordinary Fabriano Artistico to work with pure platinum after an oxalic acid bath (it worked fine with palladium). I've got some extra white sitting in storage, so when I've got my darkroom back out of storage I'll try your Sulfamic Acid treatment.

Ian.

Good luck, BTW, if your choice of pure pt is "just" for the sake of the neutral color, give pop pd a try too; log 2.9 exposure scale and dead neutral results...

Regards,
Loris.

Yep, you'll have better results with that sulfamic treatment.

Herschel and Buxton are still my favorites, but it's quite impressive the way sulfamic acid opened up the paper space for iron processes.

Loris Medici said:

Good luck, BTW, if your choice of pure pt is "just" for the sake of the neutral color, give pop pd a try too; log 2.9 exposure scale and dead neutral results...

Click to expand...

Thanks Loris. Having a pleasing tone is part of it, but Pt also brings out more shadow detail than Pd. I've tried the POP process with some great results, but I use a vacuum frame for larger prints and checking the print during exposure isn't really practical.

I see, can't comment about shadow detail since I use the "other type" of negatives (not in-camera negatives) and this aspect is irrelevant with them (each process / paper combination has its own calibration - what you see is what you get...), but I can assure pop pd prints are perfectly doable with a vacuum frame; I did a myriad of them with my NuArc 26-1KS. It's just a matter of controlling the humidity of the paper and the enviroment; after that, it's a perfect print every time. (In camera negatives would require test prints for each negative - this is done once, at the very beginning, with the other type - but that's true for both cases of dop or pop printing...)

Regards,
Loris.