Showcase for Your HCWP's

[koraks]

I am wondering for how long did you tone them?

These look like untoned FerroBlend prints to me. This is how they come out of the process.

 

[Raghu Kuvempunagar]

Thanks @koraks, @nmp, @NedL, @Graham06 and @Patrick Robert James.

@Graham06: Debanjan posts regularly his works in Gum Bichromate Photography FB group. But I've no idea if the gum prints from the two negatives can be found there. FB search is quite underwhelming unfortunately.

@Patrick Robert James: no toning here as rightly observed by @koraks.

 

[Patrick Robert James]

@Patrick Robert James: no toning here as rightly observed by @koraks.

Whoops! Sorry! I got these mixed up with copper toned cyanotypes in another thread! So much new stuff these days....

 

[fgorga]

Things have been slow in this thread so here are a few salted-paper prints I made yesterday.

All are on 8x10 inch Hahnemühle Platinum Rag and the images are 6x7.5 inches or 6.5 inches square.

"The Back Door" (untoned)

The Back Door (gold/bicarbonate toned)

MacDowell Dam (gold/bicarbonate toned)

Bottles (gold/bicarbonate toned)

 

[FotoD]

Very nice salt prints! Thanks for sharing.

 

[Patrick Robert James]

Nice Frank.

 

[fgorga]

Very nice salt prints! Thanks for sharing.

Nice Frank.

Thank you both for the kind words.

 

[nmp]

Thank you both for the kind words.

Yeah, wonderful prints and images., Frank. Interesting that the toned prints move almost to cyanotype blues (or is it that my eyes tricking me or may be digital duplication is doing the tricking.)

:Niranjan.

 

[fgorga]

Yeah, wonderful prints and images., Frank. Interesting that the toned prints move almost to cyanotype blues (or is it that my eyes tricking me or may be digital duplication is doing the tricking.)

:Niranjan.

Niranjan,

Thanks!

The gold/bicarbonate prints in hand are certainly a neutral, bordering on cool gray. I'm not sure I would go so far as to say they are blue though.

 

[t5SQ]

One of my first cyanotypes from a silver gelatin negative that I'm pretty happy with. Printed on a 6" by 4.5" sheet of Arches Aquarelle hot press paper.

 

[nmp]

One of my first cyanotypes from a silver gelatin negative that I'm pretty happy with. Printed on a 6" by 4.5" sheet of Arches Aquarelle hot press paper.

View attachment 405198

Lovely!

 

[glbeas]

Digital negative from a 4x5 neg scan. Heavy coated van dyke. Finally got good shadow density. Possibly at Hunting Island State Park.

 

[fgorga]

Digital negative from a 4x5 neg scan. Heavy coated van dyke. Finally got good shadow density. Possibly at Hunting Island State Park.
View attachment 405662

Nice!!!!

 

[nmp]

Digital negative from a 4x5 neg scan. Heavy coated van dyke. Finally got good shadow density. Possibly at Hunting Island State Park.
View attachment 405662

And the shadows thank you.

:Niranjan

 

[glbeas]

I mixed my sensitizer parts 50 percent more concentrated to see what it would do. I would imagine double coating with the stronger solutions will give me even stronger shadows. Anybody else ever try this?

 

[koraks]

Yes, I have, but my observation was that there's very little gain in dmax with double coating and higher concentrations, provided the process is performed under favorable conditions. The main things are to use a suitable paper and a suitable negative.

 

[nmp]

I mixed my sensitizer parts 50 percent more concentrated to see what it would do. I would imagine double coating with the stronger solutions will give me even stronger shadows. Anybody else ever try this?

My experience with cyanotype and cuprotype has been that there is an optimum for the sensitizer solids concentration. Too dilute and the sensitizer goes far into the paper, becoming unavailable reduction by UV. Also the spatial density of the image making molecule is low. So the Dmax is low. Increase the concentration, density will go up for a while but then at some point start going down as most of sensitizer stays above the paper fibers which no longer provide anchoring mechanism, resutling in loss of density during develop and washing.

Each paper and process combo have different point at which there is a (Dmax)max, so testing is the key.

:Niranjan.

 

[glbeas]

This concentration seems to give a better coating with no speckling with my puddle pusher. I plan on playing with a few other papers I have on hand.
This one is on Stonehenge.

 

[glbeas]

One of my papers say it is buffered with calcium carbonate. Should this be washed out with citric acid before I sensitize it? I’m thinking it will kill the tartaric acid in the sensitizer.

 

[koraks]

You can try; I find that Van Dyke isn't as sensitive to chalk buffers in the paper as others. You may see an increase in dmax on an 'acidified' paper, so it's worth a shot.

 

[retina_restoration]

One of my papers say it is buffered with calcium carbonate. Should this be washed out with citric acid before I sensitize it? I’m thinking it will kill the tartaric acid in the sensitizer.

I don’t use any buffered papers for alt process printing. It will almost certainly create issues with your process.

 

[nmp]

One of my papers say it is buffered with calcium carbonate. Should this be washed out with citric acid before I sensitize it? I’m thinking it will kill the tartaric acid in the sensitizer.

You are already getting some great results as is. VDB is not well known for the kind of Dmax I see in your images.

In addition to tartaric acid, silver nitrate will also react with the buffer to make silver carbonate and then the process becomes part salt print. I suspect that one of the functions of tartaric acid might as well be to neutralize the paper.

:Niranjan.

 

[glbeas]

Thanks! I will try both ways and see what comes out.

 

[retina_restoration]

You are already getting some great results as is. VDB is not well known for the kind of Dmax I see in your images.

It seems to me that most of the pale, contrast-deficient VanDyke prints I see are due not to the process itself, but the fact that people are using negatives developed for normal printing/scanning, not developed specifically for alt processes. Negs for VanDyke, Kallitype, Salt, etc. must be processed appropriately to have much denser high values, allowing for blacks to print as "black". If you're getting flat VanDyke prints, it's because your negative isn't right for it.

 

[glbeas]

Heres todays efforts. I printed one on my Legion Stonehenge paper

then printed one on a unwashed sheet of Westminster Rag Board and one on a sheet soaked in a citric acid solution. The unwashed is on the left.

The unwashed has a distinct orangy tone while the washed sheet is closer to neutral a slight bit warmer than the Stonehenge. That may be a result of retained moisture even after two hours of drying in a heated drying cabinet. That is pretty thick paper.