Platinum Toning - Van Dyke prints

[scootermm]

I recently (with some of my last remaining $$s for the month ) purchased a platinum toning kit for POP paper.

I just toned my first 7x17 Van Dyke print.

Gorgeous. What an astounding result to the semi familiar Van Dyke process. Its not in the least bit steering me away from Van dyke printing. Quite the contrary. what a wonderful way to create a wonderous result to an already wonderous printing process. I am excited to play with it more.

prints are washing right now. Made a straight van dyke and a Pt toned one to compare the final results.

just thought Id share for anyone interested.

The formula I used in the toning bath.
10grams Citric Acid
10 drops of 3% Pt
to 1000ml (1litre) of distilled water.
I toned for approximately 1min.

then fixed and washed.

 

[Stan. L-B]

Congratulations. During your playing around, try a longer exposure, as to me your exposure of 1min. is very short, my average was around 3mins. But, it could be that your make-up is different. Stan.

 

[scootermm]

Ill make a note of trying that Stan. I want to try longer both exposure for sure.

 

[scootermm]

I made a few more prints today to do some testing.

Here is the straight Van Dyke Print of the negative
here

and here is the platinum toned Van Dyke.
here

I managed to have sunlight that was pretty consistant today. not many clouds when I made these two. used two contact printing frames and took them outside at the same time.
I washed the prints and then toned the one for 3mins and then put them through the sodium thio for 2 mins and then washed for about 30+mins.

Im finding out that when I tone the image in platinum that you have to go against some of the standard procedures for Van Dyke printing. There doesnt seem to be as much dry down as usual. So the whole, remove from sunlight when the highlights just start to show miniscule detail. Im finding I should get the print exposure to about where I want it when it prints out and then the toning in pt seems to just solidify this.
anyone had any experience with this? offer suggestions.

 

[Digidurst]

I really like the results you are getting with the platinum toned Van Dyke. Really beautiful!

I took a look thru your site as well; Good work! Good job on the site too - it's very clean and your images are showcased very well. Kudos to you!

p.s. I'm a born & bred Texan but I haven't made it back in about 9 or so years - I live out east now (South Carolina). Looking at your work sure made me miss the home state!

 

[photomc]

Thanks for sharing, Matt. These are really nice and I like the way the plt. tone looks...

Good Job.

 

[sanking]

I recently (with some of my last remaining $$s for the month ) purchased a platinum toning kit for POP paper.

I just toned my first 7x17 Van Dyke print.

Gorgeous. What an astounding result to the semi familiar Van Dyke process. Its not in the least bit steering me away from Van dyke printing. Quite the contrary. what a wonderful way to create a wonderous result to an already wonderous printing process. I am excited to play with it more.

prints are washing right now. Made a straight van dyke and a Pt toned one to compare the final results.

just thought Id share for anyone interested.

The formula I used in the toning bath.
10grams Citric Acid
10 drops of 3% Pt
to 1000ml (1litre) of distilled water.
I toned for approximately 1min.

then fixed and washed.

Very nice work.

One thing to keep in mind is that in addition to changing the color of the print, toning with platinum actually replaces silver metal, which can react with residual salts in the print, with platinum, so that the resulting print is much more permanent. However, toning for only one minute with this formula will not give full replacement. Based on some previous testing I estimate that a one minute toning with this formula will only replace about 80% of the silver with platinum. For replacement over about 98% you will need to tone for about 10-15 minutes. You can reduce toning time for the same replacment value by using a stronger dilution of platinum, but you may find it more cost effective to simply increase time.

Another issue with vandyke is that there is no contrat control. Not an issue if you are working with digital negatives but quite a issue when using in-camera negatives that vary a lot in contrast. At some point you may want to consider kallitype based on feric oxalate because, although it is slightly more complicated than VDB, the resulting prints are usually richer in the shadows (more Dmax) and you have the same range of contrast control that is available with Pt./Pd. printing.

Sandy

 

[Rolleiflexible]

New question for an old thread: How does platinum affect the tones of a Van Dyke print? I've scoured the internet for examples and can find none. (scootermm's links above don't work any more.) I know gold is the usual toner. I want to avoid the bluer hues of a gold-toned print, and the brown tones of the untoned Van Dyke print.

Does platinum tone a Van Dyke to the same tonal range as a platinum print? Or the same range as a Kallitype toned in platinum? I know people often say that a Kallitype toned in platinum is indistinguishable from a platinum print. Can the same be said of a platinum-toned Van Dyke?

Sanders McNew
www.instagram.com/sandersnyc
www.flickr.com/sandersnyc

 

[CreationBear]

You might try searching for palladium-toned Vandykes to get you in the ballpark--Wolfgang Moersch, who seems to have mastered just about every chemical permutation in alt-printing, unsurprisingly has a few posted on Flickr.


Otherwise, I'm just starting my alt-print journey, but if you've not already, you might explore Clerc's gold toner vs. the thiocynate-based formulas if you dislike the blue cast of the latter.

(BTW, very much like Mars Hill--our Airedale came from a breeder there.)

 

[Rolleiflexible]

You might try searching for palladium-toned Vandykes to get you in the ballpark

The problem is that palladium is also too warm for my tastes. I want something colder, blacker, that doesn't tip over into the blues and violets. It might be that I can't get there with vandykes and should stick with Kallitypes toned in platinum. But if a vandyke will get me to the same place with less work, I'm all for it. I've been printing in palladium to work out the negative curve and the results are okay:

But I am aiming for a cooler palette.

(BTW, very much like Mars Hill--our Airedale came from a breeder there.)

There are a surprising number of people nearby working in alt printing processes. You should come across the mountain for a visit!

 

[CreationBear]

Excellent, I'll look forward to your exploration in alt prints--my greatest leap forward to date has been catching the Bostick & Sullivan sale last weekend. Otherwise, there's a daunting number of variables to attend to--IIRC, simply the relative humidity can affect the "warmth" of a POP print, though perhaps more advanced folks than me can dial-in with bleaching/post-fix toning.

At any rate, scruffy Knoxvillians can say mean things about the soft-handed hipsters in Asheville on occasion, but I did rather enjoy living in the Whittier/Bryson City area a few years ago.

 

[revdoc]

I haven't done many, but this is one of mine, "near Hartley Vale Road":

post alternative techniques - Page 391

So many fine images in this forum. But I miss a thread where we can post our images, made in one or more of the fascinating "alternative" techniques that are out there... show us your Cyanotypes - Oil prints - Bromoils - Albumen's - Van Dyke's - Carbon prints - photo gravures or what you are...

www.largeformatphotography.info

I find the tone is quite neutral... somewhat warmer than Clerc's, but not overly so.

The results will be affected by the usual processing variables, so you might be able to tweak the colour somewhat.

 

[Rolleiflexible]

I haven't done many, but this is one of mine, "near Hartley Vale Road":

post alternative techniques - Page 391

So many fine images in this forum. But I miss a thread where we can post our images, made in one or more of the fascinating "alternative" techniques that are out there... show us your Cyanotypes - Oil prints - Bromoils - Albumen's - Van Dyke's - Carbon prints - photo gravures or what you are...

www.largeformatphotography.info

I find the tone is quite neutral... somewhat warmer than Clerc's, but not overly so.

The results will be affected by the usual processing variables, so you might be able to tweak the colour somewhat.

I am not able to access the link in your post. Any chance you might post the image directly here?