Salt Print Pacing

Have been playing with salt prints for the last couple months, and one unexpected pleasure of the process is pacing.

Coat with salt...take a break while it dries.

Coat with silver...take a break while it dries.

Double coating? Take another break while that coat dries.

Using buffered watercolour paper? Start everything off with a decalcification bath and take a break while that dries.

Go have a coffee while the print is exposing.

It's a nice & sunny early spring day today...warm on the back deck...snow on the roof melting...birds singing...awesome

Used to be in the darkroom for hours, shut off from the family. Now have lots of breaks and they can stroll into the dimroom whenever they want. Definitely a process for the man/woman of retirement status.

I salt several papers at a time for 4x5 and 5x7 prints, but only one at a time for 8x10. Try pouring tissues for carbon printing, three minutes work, 20 minutes break and hope you waited long enough so the gelatin has set completely before you pick up the tissue.

Rick A said:

I salt several papers at a time for 4x5 and 5x7 prints, but only one at a time for 8x10. Try pouring tissues for carbon printing, three minutes work, 20 minutes break and hope you waited long enough so the gelatin has set completely before you pick up the tissue.

Click to expand...

Nice try. I see why you're doing there. Trying to lure me down an even more convoluted path dotted with innumerable pits of technical/process quicksand.

Think I'll stick with salt prints...for now...

Agree about pacing. Not a process to be in a hurry with! My exposures usually start with an hour or two or three aimed at North sky with a diffuser... and end with an hour or two wash...

That's the same reason why I love to bake bread or go for long walks trusting that the right photograph will appear.
Isn't it nice to find a process that fits your own rhythm? That's how I like to think about it. Enjoy!

Ever since I started doing alt processing, I have taken to pacing too.

:Niranjan.