Collodion prints without a camera.

I know what some of you may think about it and I've got ambivalent feelings about this too. But it is good to experiment a little bit sometimes and check what comes out from the connection of 'the new' and 'the old'. I think it's exciting.

Recently I did some contact prints and enlargements on collodion, using transparencies.

This is a collodion contact print of a positive image printed digitally on transparency, exposed under the enralger light:

This digital (sic!) image was taken a while ago in Italian Dolomites, (while climbing ferrata Giuseppe Olivieri, Tofane). I printed it as a rather week, B&W transparency and gave it 90s exposure @ f4.5, (5 months old collodion, poor boy).

I put the transparency directly on the wet plate (printed side up), but I was lucky it came out well. I think it would be better to put it somehow with a little distance to the plate.When putting it on the plate it is quite easy to create some stains, get air bubbles between transparency and the collodion film or scratch the plate. (and this was just 4x5 print, I'd imagine it would be even more difficult with something bigger)

The second image is an example of an enlarged print, from 6x6 colour transparency, 90 s exposure, with  dodging/burning the sky :).(it is cropped, enlarged on 4x5 glass)

I must agree that once you know how the image was made you can feel cheated. Someone may say there is no 'life' in it,  it's like an image of an image. But on the other hand it opens a lot of interesting possibilities, overcoming the limits of the collodion process and allowing to use collodion expression with any image.
I'd rather concentrate here on 'technicalities' and possibilities and leave the decision, if it's right to use collodion this way, to you...

I didn't make too many tests, just wanted to check how it goes and works. I have a very limited sources of transparencies (rather don't use them) and I randomly chose an image for printing on transparency, giving it one-off try. I've made an enlargement of 6x6 digitally printed B&W transparency and it's also working.
With neither of the image I got the quality that I'm getting from the camera and taking into account some loss of the quality caused by the enlargement, I guess it would be difficult.
However, I think that a little bit more experiments with different densities and contrasts of the transparencies would allow to achieve quite nice and interesting prints.

Van Dyke Brown printing

VanDyke printing was on my list of the 19^th century ‘techniques to try’ for a long time.  While working with cyanotypes, collodion and other techniques I had most of the chemicals needed for VDB handy and the only new ingredient I had to buy was a tartaric acid (easly accessible, for example, on ebay).

VanDyke Brown process is based on iron (iron ferrous citrate) and  is one of the POP techniques, similarly like cyanotype, platinum or palladium. VanDykes have a wide tonality range compared with pl/pd prints, when printed with the right negative, but the process is cheaper and less complicated.  
As Sarah van Keuren explains in her book 'A non silver manual', Van Dykes (along with pl/pd) have self-masking characteristics - shadow areas turn reddish brown during the exposure, acting as a filter. It allows for longer exposure of hightlights without losing details in the shadows. (It doesn't happen with cyanotype)
Kallitypes (similar process, but using ferrous oxalate) and Van Dykes are often called 'the poor man's platinum prints'.

VDB Receipt:

Ferric ammonium citrate 9g
distilled water 33ml

tartaric acid 1.5g
distilled water 33ml

silver nitrate 3.8g
distilled water 33ml

/mix 3 parts together/

I processed my van dykes in water with an addition of a pinch of citric acid (5 min bath) plus ca 2min in running water, and fixed with 3% hypo fixer. Washed for 30 min after all.

I experimented a bit with different negatives, single and double coating and papers. 

The main issue stays, of course, a proper negative. In my first tries I realised it’s not easy to get a good print from original B&W negative (I think it’s easier with cyanotype) and decided to stick to digitally printed transparencies for a moment. From the papers, I had, I like the results with Fabriano Artistico the most. Double coating makes the browns stronger, but  for some  reason I prefer single coating prints. (I'm also having problems with second coating streaks visible) Didn't use any contrasting agent so far.

Scanning doesn't really make them a justice as it exagerates the structure of the paper,(I'm struggling with this for a while - not sure how to scan papers like that), but here are the first prints that I'm quite happy with:

Fabriano Artistico, 400W halogen lamp, 30min exposure (one coating) 

Old photos, new prints. Cyanotypes after a long break.

After a long break in cyanotyping I did a few new prints of my old photographs, and it was a nice change after WPC,(comparing the complexity of these processes), that I was concentrated on for the last year.

I have used different papers that I found in my studio and was a bit surprised with a Fabriano 5 HP smooth paper, that I've used for the first two images. First of all  after applying the chemicals on the paper and after drying there were still brush strokes visible. They are visible on prints. Secondly highlights never got bright, but stayed quite intensively blue. All that may be connected with my chemicals getting a bit old now, what in connection wih this 50% cotton paper gave unexpected results.

However I quite like these prints and their more ' dreamy' aesthetics.

8x10 print,35 min exposure, halogen lamp, digital negative of collodion scan

8x10 print,45 min exposure, halogen lamp, coffee toning, digital negative of collodion scan

The following two were made with accordingly Winsor & Newton and Fabriano Artistico papers, and gave the results similar to my earlier prints:

13x16cm print,45 min exposure, halogen lamp, coffee toning, digital negative of collodion scan, Windsor & Newton

4x5 print,15 min exposure, halogen lamp, coffee toning, collodion glass negative, Fabriano Artistico 

All the above were made with my recently build DIY printing frame, that works very well:

Salt print.

It is not too far from albumen to salt printing (albumen is essencially a salted paper print, using albumen as binder). It is actually much easier to prepare salt solution then the eggs' whites albumen, and it's less smelly!

Same fixer and silver sensitizing solution, as for albumen, can be used - at least that's what I did.

Just mixed water, salt and gelatine (- most popular receipt, details below).

The main issue stays the proper negative. This time I've used an old, one of my first collodion portraits, accidentally overexposed - waiting  for printing test until now :)

..a lot to learn on this processes, it's just a record of the first tests..

30 min exposure, halogen lamp 400W, 4x5 WPC negative, water colour paper

Receipts:

5 grams Sodium Chloride

0.5 grams Gelatine
250 ml Distilled Water

Mix gelatine with one fourth of the water and let it bloom a bit. Heat the rest of the water and dissolve Sodium Chloride (Sea Salt) in it. Then mix the two together. Cover the paper with salt solution and leave to dry.

Sensitize with - I've used 15% silver nitrate solution in distilled water, that I've prepared for albumen first. (different sollution can be used, most typical - 12%, but 15% should result in increased contrast). Leave to dry.

Expose. Wash in water. Fix (again - same as for albumen) :

75 grams Sodium Thiosulphate anhydrous

(as I had only ST Peptahydrate I've multiplied the required amount by 1.56 =117g)

500 mL Distilled Water

1g sodium carbonate (washing soda, which you can buy or you can 'do' (like in my case) by heating baking soda) (some receipts do not include it)

Wash well - ca 30 min.

Printing Collodion Negatives - albumen & photo paper tests

All I can say, so far, is that I need to work more with negative's densities, and possibly different ways of their intensification, but I'm glad I have tried it finally.

It is working and I've got something to start with :)

First Albumen print (8x10) :

Ilford Multigrade IV rc paper, developed in Rodinal (8x10 contact print) :

albumen and photo paper together:



Ambrotype for comparison (8x10)  :

Negative (doubled exposure and development time, plus redevelopment with a few drops of silver nitrate) :

Other photo paper prints from thinner negatives (4x5) :

(some of them were printed as cyanotypes a while ago LINK1 & LINK2)

Collodion, cyanotype and coffee

Cyanotype is not among the techniques recomended for collodion negatives printing, but I'm testing it from time to time...
cyanotype print from collodion negative,
security lamp 1hour exposure,
coffee toned

Printing collodion negative

5 min exposure, direct sun, Ireland (14th Nov)