Salt Print – Made by the sun
A long hiatus, but posting once more. This, the latest image, made this afternoon.
I have been experimenting with the salt process over the last year or so, off and on, without great success until now. The 8×10 negative from which this contact print was made was on Fomapan 100 sheet film, exposed in the Sinar P for 60 seconds at f64 and developed in TMAX developer (1+4) for 6.5 mins at 22 degrees C. The lens used was a vintage 9″ Apotal. It is a contrasty negative but seems well-suited to salt printing.
The paper is Daler Rowney Aquafine Smooth watercolour, sized with gelatin. After drying it was coated with an ammonium chloride base coat, tweaked with potassium dichromate, using a 3″ Japanese hake brush. When dry, a solution of silver nitrate was freshly made and the paper coated. A 3″ foam brush was used and the paper dried in darkness using a drying cabinet.
It is apparent that the secret to getting good results with salt prints is to always use fresh chemistry and expose as soon as possible after coating. The contact print had 45 minutes exposure to afternoon sunlight. A previous test was made using a UV light indoors, but insufficient exposure was given, resulting in the image below from the same negative.
The final print (top) was washed in several changes of tap water until no milkiness in the water was apparent. a brief (30 sec) rinse in a sodium chloride 1% solution (too long seems to weaken the contrast) followed by a further 5 minute wash in running water. It was then toned in a home-made borax/gold chloride toner for 3 minutes. This changed the reddish-brown colour to a purplish black. The print was then briefly washed and fixed in 15% sodium thiosulfate/sodium carbonate solution for one minute, rinsed again and placed in a sodium sulfite hypo clearing bath for 2 minutes. A final wash and the print was then air dried flat on blotters.
Time will tell how permanent the image is, but I have found that longer fixing weakens the image significantly and so took a risk in keeping it short to retain the image tone I wanted.
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