Sizing paper with albumin

[Jeremy]

I dont think Thomas is planning to print in albumen. He is most likely to try an use a suggestion given at APIS to size the paper with albumen or collodion prior to coating to keep the "wet" look pt/pd prints have and minimize dry down. A wet pt/pd print is a thing of beauty, but dry down takes it's toll and unfortunatelly it is a weird effect. The highlights get darker but the dark tones get lighter. I once measured the Dmax of a wet print and it was 1.85, I then measured the same tone dry and it was 1.3, this is 1 and 2/3 stops loss! I think this technique bears experimentation, if one is able to get Dmax tones of 1.85 and above without having to do double or triple exposures, I think this will be the future preferred method for many pt/pd printers.

This was said by Jorge in the gallery about one of Thomas Saurwein's prints and I wanted to know more about it w/o drawing away from discussion of the image. Can anyone give results with having done this and some pointers on how to do it?

Thomas' image: http://www.apug.org/gallery/showphot...1&limit=recent

[Jorge]

Jeremy there is a discussion in the B&S web site started by norm la coe in the coffee shop forum. Terry King wrote to prepare the albumen as if one was going to make an albumen print and size the paper with this. About two years ago I tried this and did not work for me, so I mentioned this to Terry and he answered to dilute the albumen before use. I will try this, I am also going to try coating the print post printing, maybe it will work just as well without having to size before coating.

If you come up with a working solution go ahead and post it.

PS. Terry also mention sizing with collodion, but that is just too difficult IMO. I would just as soon keep the prints the way they are.

[Jeremy]

Thanks, Jorge, I found what you are talking about and next time I go to the grocery store I'll try to find some egg whites--if I can do it with that stuff then I'll give it a shot. It appears that Terry had trouble with it but another didn't.

Umm, how do I prepare albumen for making albumen prints? I don't know anything about that. It looks like it's time to make a trip to the library and borrow their alt process book again!

[Peter Schrager]

Jeremy-go to www.alternatephotography.com; they have a pretty good how to right there.
Best,Peter

[Jorge]

Separate the whites from the yolk. Do this in a small tray so that you can pour the whites on another tray once you separate them. Make sure the whites have no yolk or schelazae (yep, that is what the stringy white thing is called) Once you have them separate to 500 ml of egg white add 2 ml of glacial acetic acid and 15 ml of destilled water and stir until you foam the egg whites. The more you stir them and foam them the better. Filter with a cheese cloth and put in another tray to denaturate in the refrigerator for a week.

If you want to dilute it for testing, wait until you are ready to use it to dilute it. This way you can bring the temperature of the egg whites up a little. Make sure you store the egg whites in the refrigerator until you are ready to use them.

[Thomassauerwein]

Also try Richard Farber "Historic photographic Processes" Pg's 45 thru 55

[roy]

[QUOTE=Jorge] and put in another tray to denaturate in the refrigerator for a week.QUOTE]

We have to wait a week for the next instalment ?

[photomc]

[QUOTE=roy]

and put in another tray to denaturate in the refrigerator for a week.QUOTE]

We have to wait a week for the next instalment ?

I know Roy, when I first read about the process thought how did anyone ever get any prints made...those guys were dedicated. Have seen several Albumin prints and they are really nice looking prints - kinda like the ones that have small holes where the bubles were, that way you know it was an albumin print.

[sanking]

[QUOTE=photomc]

I know Roy, when I first read about the process thought how did anyone ever get any prints made...those guys were dedicated. Have seen several Albumin prints and they are really nice looking prints - kinda like the ones that have small holes where the bubles were, that way you know it was an albumin print.

If what you really want is high Dmax with palladium/platinum printing you might want to consider Craigh Koshyk's methods for hand coating fixed=out baryta papers. It is of course much more complicated to get a smooth coating on a fixed-out paper than on the papers we normally use of palladium and platinum printing. However, in level of difficulty I woud guess that getting good results by coating with albumin would also be very complicated.

I have experimented with this both ways, i.e. with fixed out baryta papers and with albumin sizing, and without a lot of effort I have gotten much better results with the fixed out baryta papers.

As far as I know Craig's directions are not on-line but he has a small booklet about this that I believe is for sale.

Sandy

[nze]

Sandy

Coating fix out paper is not as difficult as this it depend on the paper you use. I 've got great result bu using an ilford paper called ilfomar. with this paper I jst need to add 3 drops of Tween 20 to get a good coat of the platinunm , cyanotype and kallitype sensitizer. I think it should work with other process but as I 've never try I am not sure.

With this paper Idon't need to heat the paper or any other magic bullet, Just need to coat like I do with other paper let dry and expose, like I do with any other paper.
for sur ethe clearing is a little longer and it is better to avoid using platinum as it make the clearing impossible

Christian