Salt Printing - 16 Step Rough & Ready Version
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- Опубліковано 16 чер 2024
- I talk a lot about salt printing, but I realised that not very many people know what a salt print actually is. So I threw together a quick video, as a trip through the final test print from my first 2015 exhibition image.
Wikipedia says about salt prints:
The salt print was the dominant paper-based photographic process for producing positive prints during the period from 1839 through approximately 1860.
The salted paper technique was created by British photographer William Henry Fox Talbot. He called his negative process calotype printing, while the salt print process was used for making positive prints from the calotype negatives. They both employ a technique of coating sheets of paper with silver salts, but the calotype process differs slightly in chemicals used in the sensitization procedure, and uses an extra 'accelerator' step, immediately prior to exposure of the sensitized paper - Наука та технологія
This looks like an expensive art to get started in! Loved watching your process, thanks for sharing!
+christierella The silver nitrate makes this a very expensive process. Although it does force me to make better decisions about which images I want to print, which in turn (I hope) makes me a better photographer.
Step 1: Add overlay in PS. Step 2: Press print. Step 3: Go to pub. I used to own the largest wet processing lab and studio in the Southwest of England - we had rooms full of E6, c41, Cibachrome processing, enlargers, copying you name it we had it. There were tanks full of chem, all washed into the main sewer. When digital came along in the late 90's I got rid of everything, made the studio bigger and embraced the new age. No more stinky, dirty processing. We had 10x8, 5x4, 6x9, 6x8, 6x7, 6x6, 6x4.5, 35mm but heres the rub. To this day I have not seen one single print from ANY digital camera including Phase One) that could match even a 10x8 Cibachrome taken from a 5x4 transparency. I sold the studio some years ago and now retired just play around and do some occasional Fuji seminars - I love photography but am saddened that quality is talked about by some people who have no clue what it is they are actually talking about. Nice video - for a bit of retro cooking. Also vinyl. Don't even get me started on that....
I just set up my own darkroom a few months ago and been using it at least twice a week for printing or most days for developing film and sold my digital stuff. So happy now. I hated digital (started in it).
Darkrooms are popping over all over the place and Intrepid has stepped in to make new enlargers because there aren't enough to go around (or too expensive ones) due to overwhelming demand for anything film related.
Why get rid of it? All you digital converts are so short sighted... And actually it doesn't smell at all and I use a tiny darkroom in my cellar. There's such thing as odourless chems (except the blix) which I use quite happily.
Nelson Club. You are absolutely correct. My favourite cameras for film are 4 X 5" and 8 X 10", black & white and color transparencies. Looks marvellous on the light table. The digital photographers have nothing like it. Hate digital menus which no-one can completely remember. And then there's that weird fad with excessively longish exposures through a black Lee filter, resulting in all traces of movement removed, its all dead, looking as if a neutron bomb has killed all life. Kills the art too.
@@Foxglove963 Thanks for the reply - could not agree more - and everyone calls that aspect of photography fine art now too - when they mean minimalism which is the maddest thing I have ever heard - all artists are fine artists - the expression simply means 'that which the artists see's or imagines or visualises'. Don't get me started on menus - Fuji GFX is a fine thing - but with so many menus' here and menus there, sub menus, main menus and a hundred million different configurations and far too many 'customisable' function buttons - some not even marked - I had no clue if I had turned something on, switched something off or just made no difference at all all anxiety making stuff in the heat of moment - and do I really need eighty different film simulations? I quite liked the Hasselblad H5D50c as it had 5 changeable things ISO, exposure, aperture shutter and white balance and that was it but a big and heavy thing so I now use an even simpler device the 907x which sort of feels retro but its not built very well - all good - stay safe, be lucky keep shooting
@@nelsonclub7722 The adepts of digital don't readily see the different QUALITY of film. Regards, stay safe and good luck!
great tutorial just a bit of advice it's never safe to wash fixer down the drain especially if you have a septic system other than props to you for a great looking print!!!
Tank you for this great tutorial an compliments for your awesome photo
thats a lot of steps, that would be my one and only picture for life :)
Wonderful stuff...
Persevere. :-) I use paper negs made from bond paper. brushed with vegetable oil or glycerol to make them Translucent. They work very well, but will produce a more grainy image. But I love that..They are cheap and dependable. I print them in the strongest red or red-magenta I can manage, That also helps increase contrasts.
I never expose in cloud-it drives me nuts waiting. I use full sun, no matter what anyone says. I use a printing frame now and that is a boon-I can check how it;s all going very easily. After a while you get a good sense of the development anyway. I also ad a few drops of 10% potassium dichromate to the d=salt solution-it seems to make better highlights. hat was my big bugbear for ages-I'd have beautiful, print. but then after processing. it would lose high;rights too much and look very flat. There is a difference between a salt print that had=s charm , and one that just looks crappy. :-)
Very interesting, I would like to try this in my darkroom but with film.
45 minutes, wow! I wonder how safe the 'dried' sodium nitrate/chloride surface is for contact printing from paper negatives? Have you noticed any reaction/effect on the transparent negatives you used? Thank you for sharing :)
An interesting salted printing out process is Arrowroot-Chloride POP. Dissolve the sodium carbonate and citric acid, the mixture will effervesce, then add the ammonium chloride.
great video about photography
fab vid thanks !
What printer and transparency media are you using? Inkjet transparencies are normally clear, but yours seems to have an almost opaque quality.
Unfortunately I could not get Hypo (sodium thiosulfate) in my country I have a silver nitrate and you are able to do a good and successful experience for printing the negatives but quickly turns into a dark color with the passage of time, because I did not broke the image does not have a long stability. There is a suitable material and acid or sodium to replace the natural substance home available to install the pictures I would like to answer and thank you for the wonderful video
Really cool :-)
Hello.
I am a Korean subscriber.
Nothing else, I'm using a Bristol watercolor and 240g of paper, but when exposed to UV rays, the image is partially invisible.
I think it's a problem when brushing the paper. What paper do you print on?
Hello. I am a South Korean subscriber. What are the disadvantages of not using toner?
Thanks for sharing your experience. I truly enjoyed the learning. Would you kindly share with me the vendor and make of the UV light you used. Where can I find it?
Thanks
Salim
You can buy these work lights from any hardware store. They are made by Arlec and have a power output of around 45 watts.
What transparency film are you using please, and which printer to print the negative?
Would like to know what transparency film you used too
I had before will soon experience the negative printing by silver nitrate and gelatin, salt solution, but unfortunately I can not image stabilization for a long time does not Nha become black little by little because I did not get Sodium Hypo acid solution in my country because it is difficult does guide me to an alternative I can get it from kitchen utensils materials, for example, or a similar alternative O'Shea which can be accessed easily in order to be able to install the pictures for a long time and I will be very thankful to you
Is that old Berger B/W paper that you used, adding the salt solution on the shiny side or did you use watercolor paper?
I'm using Bergger COT-320, salted on the smooth side. A beautiful paper for both salt and platinum/palladium work.
There's at least one meter cube of water spent on your print, it'd better be correctly exposed in the first place...
exactly my thoughts!
People waste more water flushing Down literal piles of shit. So this is nothing.
and?
Like the result a lot...but , let`s be honest : you dont wanna waste an estimated 200L of water on one single print, do you ?
That's kinda weird seeing it processed from a digital image but the result looks awesome.
It does not
I have a question about the gold toner. Is it reusable after the bath? Can it be save and filtered like silver nitrate? Do you mix the the toner or is it available in solution?
It is possible to replenish the gold toner, if using a gold alkaline toner, by adding 5-6 millilitres of stock gold chloride to the solution after one 8x10 print. This is usually sold as a single pre-mixed solution. If using a A-B gold thiocyanate toner, add 7-10 millilitres of both A and B stocks to the working solution after an 8x10. I believe this is sold as ingredients to be mixed yourself.
what kind of paper do you use?
wow, nice contrast! I still struggle with that... why the ink side down?
+Steyreon Having the ink side down puts it in direct contact with the emulsion, meaning you get a sharper image, whereas having the ink side up means light from the image must pass through the negative's base material before hitting the emulsion.
+GPV Photography I see! do you have an advise how to get a good contrast?
+Steyreon Contrast can be increased by longer exposure and less light. Direct sun will produce lower contrast. Also you can create negatives with higher contrast.
+GPV Photography thanks for the tip! :D and for the video
I'm working on making my first salt print but before I mix everything together, I'm specifically interested in what makes a good negative for salt printing.
I've always heard to use a "dense" negative. To me, that means 'overexposed.' I would think it would be possible to still make a salt print of a dark object, but I hear darks can get a little muddy.
I've gotten a hold of the kit from Photographers Formulary since it seems to be a lower cost to start that getting the raw chemicals. I've seen somebody on UA-cam making a print with this kit but it turned out incredibly flat with nowhere near the tonal range that yours has. I've also seen collodion artists making salt prints that have excellent tonal range as well.
I see you're printing on a sheet that already has some density and isn't just clear. What is this called?
Also, if I'm using large format film, what can I do to make a negative that will work well for salt printing? If I over expose quite a bit and underdevelop, will that get me what I want? I'm using Arista EDU 400 for 4x5 and Ilford HP5 for 8x10.
Thanks, feel free to look for me on Facebook or my website for Laverghetta Photography and Portraits if you want to respond in more detail.
Thanks!
The word "dense" doesn't quite cover it. I've found that results will vary depending on the neg material, the printer inks used, the method of preparing the paper, and a bunch of other factors like temperature and humidity (though less so). I spent a long while calibrating my printer and figuring out curves to achieve the kind of tonality I needed. I'm guessing the same applies to film and collodion plates, determining exposures and development times. My one success printing a collodion plate came from an over-exposed, under-developed neg, with no additional iodine re-development as suggested by a few other collodion photographers. The best course of action is to print out a step wedge on neg stock (I use Pictorico OHF Ultra Premium film), make a salt print and see where the tones fall. Then create a Photoshop / GIMP custom curve to compensate for any over- or under-performing tones, rinse and repeat.
I was also considering the sheet that you are printing on with the inkjet printer. What is it called and where can I find it? Office supply stores don't really know what I'm talking about when I tell them it's not completely clear. Is there a source online and possible in local stores? Thanks again.
I make a neg from the original file, and all I do is make sure there is detail; i the shadows (if that's important in the pic). I gave up on all the nonsense about complex curves and so on. I use paper negs, printed in red and soaked in vegetable oil or glycerol. The rest is in the care and paper we use. :-) Good luck. :-)
If you use a black tray and chlorinated tap water you will be able to see the excess silver pulled from the surface of the print.
By printing the negative from digital, won't the printer resolution limit the quality of the final image?
Yes, that's correct. A good printer at 300 dpi, with good quality inks. Avoid pigment ink printers if possible.
Nice video. I'm confused, I thought salt printing did not require a safe light?
There is no need for a safe light for salt, albumen or collodion chloride printing out paper processing
Step 17.: Pay the water bill !
At least 30 minutes of running the tap per photo... and he was going to make 30 prints after this one, the captions read! Wtf?
step 7 does anyone know what percent that silver nitrate solution is?
did you use gelatin? or just sodium chloride to coat the paper? before coat it with silver nitrate.
In this case, just sodium chloride.
thanx man
GPV Photography What Kind of printer are you using for the negative?
What concentration of Gold Chloride do you use?
I use a 1% solution
hi there, what were the concentrations of the solutions you were using?
Me too please
What do we call that frame with the lock? I seem to cannot find it anywhere :(
it's a regular picture frame, A3?
maybe
@@frankeliotlloyd found it on a random french manual, it's called chassîs presse
Sir , I tried your method , I'm struck at first step itself. Though applied emulsion (2% salt solution , Silver nitrate 9.3g in 100ml (that's all I could afford)) looks neat for naked eye when exposed in sunlight (1.5 hrs 36 degree celsius in India) I see a lot of brush marks.Forget that I'll work on it. But I couldn't get the color that you got .! Mine is all brown and weak with brush strokes when washed with sodium thiosulfate .! Any suggestions where I might have gone wrong ?
I wish I could offer helpful suggestions, but the salt printing process is very difficult and complex. There are a lot of places where something could go wrong, and many reasons why a single problem could occur. My first suggestion would be to try different silver nitrate dilutions, but you don't have any more to try with. A lot of issues come from the silver nitrate, depending on age, brand, water quality, scale accuracy, brushing saturation, and a lot of trial and error. If possible, at this early stage of experimenting, you should buy as much silver as you can and experiment until you find the steps that start to work. Also try 10g silver nitrate in 90ml distilled water for a stronger solution.
Thankyou sir ! I could get little fund from my father to buy 10 more grams of AgNo3 ,made a 140ml solution for 18.3g.I found my strobe lights 100w bulbs could evenly expose the paper .it works. But I couldn't achieve your color rather I got a dark brown color. Then I took some help from APUG.org forums. They said many conditions could apply for the result. Also approved that my result are fine for the mixture I did. Now trying some new combination of salt and Silver Nitrate being same. ! Thank you Once again 😊
Use 10 salt and 12% silver nitrate. Don't be skimpy when applying the silver nitrate.. Just make sure it;s brushed on very even;y and thoroughly. Your print should develop rapidly in India. Mine are ready in 45 to 90 seconds in full sun. any time of the year. The brown colour is normal. It show.d be very dark purple brown in the darks. Take extra care with the brushing and the marks will never appear. When you fix the print. make sure it;s only about 10-15% hyp, and don't leave it in for more than 5 mins. Ut always fades at first, but will come back when watching. The washes are all very important. The print may change to a great or great brown-so much depends on the water, the paper and everything else.
Yes, you'll need an abundance of Silver Nitrate. Its a print out process, so you can see the image forming on the paper. The hypo fix will lighten the image a little, so expose a little past what you think is good. I used Kodak Rapid Selenium toner instead of gold, it yields a rich brown tone, and is much less expensive than Au.
Can you use the sun instead of a UV lamp?
Yes and I prefer to use the sun myself.
What do you consider a weak salt solution. Thanks for taking my back 45 years! Well done.
2g of either sodium chloride or ammonium chloride to 1 litre of water. Make sure the sodium chloride has no additives! Pure sea salt is best.
GPV Photography Thanks for quick response
GPV Photography You mean 2 g per 100 ml of water?
Kris Bochenek yes, thank you
Kris Bochenek MY apologies, you are correct. 2g to 100ml, 20g to a litre
how many watts have your uv focus?
The UV light is 55 watts
GPV Photography ty
what about the costs incl water and chemicals for ONE picture? looks like alot of wasting stuff and not so kind to nature. thanks
This the kids in Africa comment you were looking for.
I appreciate the quality and I love printing, but there is no justification for the excessive amount of water used. We just don't have it anymore. And, yes, I do know the difference.
what is special about a salt print?
I guess it depends on your definition of 'special'. The standard method of printing in 2017 is by ink through a machine. A print made by the application of salt and silver could be considered special because it's different to what is 'standard'.
Now all you gotta do is go back to the 1840's and secure a patent. Louis Daguerre will be fuming!
Interesting process, but the print looks just like a digital print with the "digital looking"-greyscale from a cheap inkjet printer. So whats the point of this cumbersome process? Okay if it looked like a really old print from the beginning of the 20th century, then it would be worth the hassle.
32900 gallons of water and chemical pollution later....an inkjet print.
Pollution producing electricity for manufacturing the printer and the inks, then running it. Chemical pollution making plastics, for the printer and ink cartridges. What happens to the plastic printer 5 years later once it's dated?
Just because you don't see the pollution being made, doesn't mean it's cleaner.
Gosh you used so much water the african kids are jealous
if you print the digital image in the first place ... you would rather add a photoshop filter and make it look vintage and print the photo already
Why?
That question could be directed at any photographic process that isn't digital... Or mountaineering, or being on a school debating team. Why? Because.
I was looking for something along the lines of a 'different aesthetic' or some kind of visual distinctive that can't be acquired any other way.
@@citizen1114 Then you have just answered your own question. Well done!
The amount of wasted water, how irresponsible one can be....
Marco wastewater is fast becoming one of the most recycled things on this planet. Shame more plastic is not recycled. Maybe focus your efforts on plastic waste for a better world. Just an idea.
Interesting but what a waste of water ! Unacceptable. If you really kept the water flowing for 10min each time this would be 6-700 liters of water. That’s ecologically irresponsible. Better leave the pic in a bucket to clean - seriously.
using SO MUCH water for a mediocre print that can be done with a click of a button ... WASTEFUL, SHAMEFUL & USELESS (at least in this day and age)
Give him a break. He can get away with less by soaking the print upside down. And anyway, he;s making something within own efforts-that is incredibly satisfying.
The water doesn't vanish into the never-never.....it goes into the public waste water and is treated and put back into the system.
And the info at the end: 1 of 30...
@ALI How much pollution does it take to give you a button to push and keep pushing it? Just because you can see the pollution being made does not mean it's cleaner.
So... the only shop i found were i live sells silver nitrated for the equivalent of 500€/ 100gr. God damn.