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Patrick Robert James · Sep 12, 2023

Rolleiflexible said:
Patrick, could it be the paper? Have you ever gotten good Dmax on Canson Bristol? I've read that Canson papers have poor Dmax with kallitypes. This is just hearsay for me -- I've never used the paper.

Sanders, I've actually had good luck with it after I started acidifying the mix and adding LFN but I wouldn't say it is great, maybe just good enough if I do things correctly. It doesn't soak in quickly though so I really have to work it, get it wet and dry it flat. I probably just didn't work it enough, so yeah, could be the paper, or me. I get impatient at times. I just want to print! Other Canson papers I've tried weren't worth the time.

I'd imagine that the lack of absorbency of the paper would make it poor for Kallitypes, but I haven't tried those yet. The Cuprotypes I did over the weekend on the Bristol weren't that great.

nmp · Sep 12, 2023

NedL said:
I printed this on Thursday. Sea Anemone and friends at the Seattle Aquarium
View attachment 348566

I missed this somehow....another nice one, Ned. Marine life totally suits cyanotypes - may be because we relate to the blue ocean.

:Niranjan

TheFlyingCamera · Sep 12, 2023

fgorga said:
Very nice... especially for an early attempt.

And yes, the aesthetics (pinkish highlights and red-brown hue) don't work with every image but they do work well for some, including this one.

I am about to revisit the iron toning described in my article. It gives a really nice blue-black tone that is a generally more useful color for many images. I really just barely scratched the surface of this toning method previously.

Interestingly, I think that I recently found what is probably the first reference to the iron toner in a 1894 article by J. Vincent Elsden in "The British Journal of Photography" (p 249). There is not any real detail (as is often the case with old articles) but it clearly refers to toning cuprotype with a mixture of ferrous sulfate and ferric chloride.

Frank-

the curve you included in your article - is that to apply to the file in Photoshop, or is that useable in QuadToneRIP?

Rolleiflexible · Sep 12, 2023

I've been sorting through how best to make kallitypes of people. One idea has been to go back to sodium citrate as a developer and it has shown some promise, though it is still warmer than I prefer. Here's a platinum-toned kallitype I made this morning from a roll of Ilford Ortho Plus I shot of my niece Jalynn back in June.

fgorga · Sep 12, 2023

TheFlyingCamera said:
Frank-

the curve you included in your article - is that to apply to the file in Photoshop, or is that useable in QuadToneRIP?

The curve in my article is a Photoshop curve.

markos · Sep 12, 2023

Rolleiflexible said:
I've been sorting through how best to make kallitypes of people. One idea has been to go back to sodium citrate as a developer and it has shown some promise, though it is still warmer than I prefer. Here's a platinum-toned kallitype I made this morning from a roll of Ilford Ortho Plus I shot of my niece Jalynn back in June.

Sanders, have you tried using a 1:1 mixture of sodium acetate and sodium citrate as the developer? That gives a tone intermediate between citrate and acetate for me. In the attachment, the left side is citrate developer, the right side is acetate, the middle is the 1:1 mixture, all platinum toned. The mixture needs a better curve, but it shows the intermediate color.

Mark Severson

nmp · Sep 13, 2023

One more salt print:

Contrail Reflections / Monocacy River, MD.

:Niranjan.

awty · Sep 13, 2023

nmp said:
One more salt print:

View attachment 348983

Contrail Reflections / Monocacy River, MD.

:Niranjan.

Very nice.

NedL · Sep 13, 2023

nmp said:
One more salt print:

That looks great. Is it a digital negative too?

nmp · Sep 14, 2023

awty said:
Very nice.

Thanks, Awty.

NedL said:
That looks great. Is it a digital negative too?

Thanks, Ned. Yes, digineg. Printed on Epson 400 with OEM inks on Pictorico Ultra Premium (or whatever the high end is called.) Using QTRgui with 100% PK + 50% each of Y and C at the highlights end. PK is reduced drastically immediately afterwards using high gamma with the rest of the tonal scale essentially made of C and Y in equal dose (making the negative green in appearance.) All curve corrections are done in Photoshop only.

:Niranjan.

NedL · Sep 14, 2023

Interesting thanks!

NedL · Sep 14, 2023

A few more digineg cyanotypes printed in the past few days.
Spotted Lagoon jellyfish and salmon fry at the Seattle Aquarium.

Salmon print was difficult and took 3 tries making the negative. I'm going to try a very different version of it later....

nmp · Sep 14, 2023

NedL said:
A few more digineg cyanotypes printed in the past few days.
Spotted Lagoon jellyfish and salmon fry at the Seattle Aquarium.

Salmon print was difficult and took 3 tries making the negative. I'm going to try a very different version of it later....

Another nice set.

It could just be a scanning artifact, but does the first one look a little yellowish in some spots (as well as overall move to more cyan tone.) Perhaps not completely cleared. Are you using acidic bath or plain water?

:Niranjan.

NedL · Sep 14, 2023

nmp said:
Another nice set.

It could just be a scanning artifact, but does the first one look a little yellowish in some spots (as well as overall move to more cyan tone.) Perhaps not completely cleared. Are you using acidic bath or plain water?

:Niranjan.

Thanks Niranjan. You've got a good eye. I almost wrote "the 1st one looks better in person than my scan"! I just did a poor job on the scan, it's the same nice dark blue as the 2nd one. I do keep an eyedropper of 20% citric acid at the sink where I process them, and I put a little into each change of water before using it. The last wash is always with RO water, and I usually add a bit of CA to that too, but not always -- by then the print should be totally cleared anyway. I probably wash cyanotypes more than most people ( leftover paranoia from salt prints

KYsailor · Sep 26, 2023

Thought I would revive this thread - after attending Clay Harmon's DTP photopolymer/intaglio workshop, I have joined a local print making studio and learned that the intaglio printmaking process is like all alt photo processes - subject to many process variables. Attached is my first attempt to print some of the plates we made at the workshop on the local press equipment - despite using the same paper as the workshop, my results are not quite as good - a bit grainy. I need to look into the quality of the blankets and the pressure settings on the press - as well as making sure the paper moisture was in the correct range. I was somewhat naïve to think I could easily duplicate the results - however it has been interesting to learn the operation of the press and the impact of some of the variables. They also have a "plate burner" UV unit that seems to give reasonable results on a stouffer wedge using a scrap of photopolymer plate, so that will be my next challenge to create some plates using my printer and the UV burner - we will see. I will post some results when I get some of these issues sorted out.

Dave

Vaughn · Sep 26, 2023

Doing a little pt/pd printing this past week -- 5x7 negatives and some 120 film (6x6 and 6x10).

Here's the Kelpies in Sterling Scotland -- 100 foot sculptures. A single strip of film..the Rolleicord does not always space images evenly, but I like the way it worked for this print.

koraks · Sep 26, 2023

@KYsailor that's really nice. And I recognize what you said about the variables. When I still had my press, I started by figuring out how to make decent linocuts. This taught me a lot about how to work the press and the importance of blankets etc. Mind you, printing linocuts and woodcuts is fundamentally different from intaglio, but it's a decent way to learn to know a press.

Another variable I didn't see you mention is the stiffness of the ink. I used various inks, notably Charbonnel and Akua soy-based inks. The latter were totally different from the former and I remember stiffening them so that they would actually work with intaglio. In your case, you might consider trying the opposite and diluting the ink a little bit so it becomes a little less stiff. This will make it bleed better, filling in the gaps. But there are several ways to skin this cat; more pressure would accomplish something similar, as would printing on wetter or softer paper.

KYsailor · Sep 26, 2023

Koraks, thanks for the guidance - I forgot about the ink. I am using Charbonnel and I noted they had some "reducers" on the shelf at the studio. I will try adding some as well as working with the pressure and wetter paper. I am using Hahnemuhle etching paper, which should be soft enough. Going to give it another try later this week.

Dave

Vaughn said:
Doing a little pt/pd printing this past week -- 5x7 negatives and some 120 film (6x6 and 6x10).

Here's the Kelpies in Sterling Scotland -- 100 foot sculptures. A single strip of film..the Rolleicord does not always space images evenly, but I like the way it worked for this print.

Vaughan - as usual really nice work, I really like the contrast in these images

Dave

Rolleiflexible · Sep 28, 2023

I've been setting up my darkroom to make larger prints. Last night I reprinted this image of the French Broad in the Pisgah Forest onto a 17x22 sheet of Revere Platinum paper. The print at this size has a dimensionality that the smaller print lacked. This is a platinum-toned kallitype developed in sodium acetate -- original shot with a Rolleiflex Automat onto Fomapan 200 (EI 100) film and digitally enlarged on Fixxons with an Epson P900.

KYsailor · Sep 28, 2023

koraks said:
@KYsailor that's really nice. And I recognize what you said about the variables. When I still had my press, I started by figuring out how to make decent linocuts. This taught me a lot about how to work the press and the importance of blankets etc. Mind you, printing linocuts and woodcuts is fundamentally different from intaglio, but it's a decent way to learn to know a press.

Another variable I didn't see you mention is the stiffness of the ink. I used various inks, notably Charbonnel and Akua soy-based inks. The latter were totally different from the former and I remember stiffening them so that they would actually work with intaglio. In your case, you might consider trying the opposite and diluting the ink a little bit so it becomes a little less stiff. This will make it bleed better, filling in the gaps. But there are several ways to skin this cat; more pressure would accomplish something similar, as would printing on wetter or softer paper.

Koracks,

Spent another afternoon at the print studio - and took your advice, a bit of reducer in the ink, damper paper and more pressure on the rollers. I produced some prints that are - to my eye, identical to the ones we produced at the workshop I attended in Ashville NC. thanks again for your advice - now on to my next adventure; creating new plates using my printer/QT-RIP/UV box setup. I ran some stouffer wedge tests on some small plate samples - so my UV box seems to work well enough to get close to the right plate exposure.

Dave

KYsailor · Sep 28, 2023

Rolleiflexible said:
I've been setting up my darkroom to make larger prints. Last night I reprinted this image of the French Broad in the Pisgah Forest onto a 17x22 sheet of Revere Platinum paper. The print at this size has a dimensionality that the smaller print lacked. This is a platinum-toned kallitype developed in sodium acetate -- original shot with a Rolleiflex Automat onto Fomapan 200 (EI 100) film and digitally enlarged on Fixxons with an Epson P900.

Sanders that is beyond impressive - I didn't know Fixxons made film that large! The logistics of printing/handling the negative, coating the paper, contact printing and multiple development steps at that scale just boggles my mind. The prints looks great, deep blacks/some pure whites and good tonality and at that size it must be striking. You must have modified your original "two bank" UV setup to get this kind of coverage I would think.

I need to get back to my kallitype efforts, I have become detoured into the photopolymer intaglio printing process which has been taking up my time lately. So many processes - so little time. Again - excellent work!

Dave

Patrick Robert James · Sep 28, 2023

Rolleiflexible said:
I've been setting up my darkroom to make larger prints. Last night I reprinted this image of the French Broad in the Pisgah Forest onto a 17x22 sheet of Revere Platinum paper. The print at this size has a dimensionality that the smaller print lacked. This is a platinum-toned kallitype developed in sodium acetate -- original shot with a Rolleiflex Automat onto Fomapan 200 (EI 100) film and digitally enlarged on Fixxons with an Epson P900.

That is an excellent print Sanders. You gotta take a picture of that wall though! Impressive.

Rolleiflexible · Sep 28, 2023

KYsailor said:
Sanders that is beyond impressive - I didn't know Fixxons made film that large! The logistics of printing/handling the negative, coating the paper, contact printing and multiple development steps at that scale just boggles my mind. The prints looks great, deep blacks/some pure whites and good tonality and at that size it must be striking. You must have modified your original "two bank" UV setup to get this kind of coverage I would think.

I need to get back to my kallitype efforts, I have become detoured into the photopolymer intaglio printing process which has been taking up my time lately. So many processes - so little time. Again - excellent work!

Dave

As I've gone along, I've assembled most of the stuff needed to make bigger prints: The P900 printer for making negatives 16-17 inches wide; a 30-inch guillotine and a 24-inch rotatrim for cutting sheets of Revere Platinum to size; flat files for the big sheets. I have a 17-inch roll of Fixxons, which works well for me. My vacuum frame can accommodate 20x24 sheets, and my UV bank is big enough to cover 15x20, with additional lights on hand to expand up to 20x30. Still, it's taken me some weeks to collect all the necessary stuff, notably trays and drums.

The hardest thing about scaling up has been coating such a large area of paper with my two-inch brush. My usual print size requires 6 drops of each solution. This monster required 54 of each. I need a bigger brush.

Rolleiflexible · Sep 29, 2023

Patrick Robert James said:
That is an excellent print Sanders. You gotta take a picture of that wall though! Impressive.

I hung a couple of large black metal chalkboards on my living room wall, on either side of a large print of a photo I made of central park. I use tiny magnets to mount my prints on them. I didn't know where else to put the big print -- both boards are full of smaller prints -- so I just mounted it over top of the others. Some day I have to figure out what to do with them all.

koraks · Sep 29, 2023

KYsailor said:
produced some prints that are - to my eye, identical to the ones we produced at the workshop I attended in Ashville NC.

That's really great! Nice to hear that a relatively simple intervention made such a distinct difference. Happy printing; I'm sure you'll produce many more very beautiful prints.

Perhaps join in on the alt. print exchange one day? It would be really awesome to have someone actually send out intaglio prints! (No pressure, though!)

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