Karsten SchmidtMar 3

Shot ...and chaser (and it's only Tuesday): Two new 8x6" prints done over the weekend, from one of my fave repeat hikes in the Allgäuer Alps...

Alpsee and view into the Lechtal Alps (November 2021)
Himmeleck mountain pass with Großer Wilder (October 2023)

I find the aesthetics of the Kallitype process are so nicely complementing the timelessness of these places...

For some of the next prints I will be switching to Rochelle salt as developer for supposedly even more deeper & neutral tones (even though the current tones are also more neutral in reality & not as warm as in these phone images...).

#AltProcess #Kallitype #LandscapePhotography #Photography #PrintMaking #FineArt #BlackAndWhite #Alps #Mountains

Show threadRalph BrandiMar 4
@toxi What developer did you use for these?
Show threadKarsten SchmidtMar 4

@thereisnocat After some back and forth, I've settled on 6-7 mins in 18% sodium acetate (+ ~1% tartaric acid) for the past 6 weeks or so. I usually also add one or two drops of 5% ammonium dichromate to the emulsion to raise contrast. All prints are toned in a very weak 1:100 Se toner, just before final wash. But even with those things being mostly constants in my process, I'm continuously experimenting with different durations & concentrations of the processing stages, with sometimes quite unexpected results... I've started doing some test prints of my generative art pieces[1] and for those I think I'll be switching to gold toner for cooler tones.

What developer/toner have you been using for your prints?

[1] https://mastodon.thi.ng/@toxi/116079903123321876

#AltProcess #Kallitype #Darkroom

Karsten Schmidt (@[email protected])

Attached: 4 images Light Streaks — generative photography A small selection of long-exposures of randomly generated IFS (aka Iterated Function Systems), a family of very oldskool primitive/trivial fractal functions, but which can produce a fairly wide variety of outcomes. Each image is the result of billions of iterations of a single particle being iteratively transformed (meaning the particle's current position is used as the input for computing its next position etc.) For each iteration & position a tiny amount of light is being captured, slowly revealing an image, just like a negative does in analog film photography. Some of these images have been "exposed" (aka computed) for up to 30 mins. The smaller the amount of light captured per iteration, the smoother (less grainy) the outcome... (For the more technical: This is one of these projects where a floating point pixel buffer _really_ makes all the difference! My exposure rate is only 0.001 per pixel per frame, some of the images use even weaker settings... That means for a pixel to become fully white is has to be visited at least 1000 times [or more]) Made with https://thi.ng/matrices (matrix transformations) and https://thi.ng/pixel ("film" capture)... #MonochromeMonday #Photography #Light #Simulation #LongExposure #Fractal #IFS #GenerativeArt #AlgorithmicArt #ThingUmbrella #TypeScript

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Show threadRalph BrandiMar 4
@toxi I’ve been using the Christopher James recommendation of half sodium acetate/tartaric acid and half ammonium citrate. I’ve been working on portraits of some friends to send as gifts, and those are toned in platinum, but I haven’t posted those. My posts have been split between untoned and palladium toned.
Show threadKarsten SchmidtMar 4
@thereisnocat Hah, I've re-ordered ammonium citrate only last week, but you're using it 50/50?! From what I learned (and maybe I misremember), but for acetate systems, ammonium should only be <3% to avoid shifting the pH too much and reducing Dmax, risking generally flatter contrast... will have to play around with that! Thank you :)
Show threadKarsten SchmidtMar 4
@thereisnocat The way I understand it is that ammonium citrate acts as a restrainer, slowing down reduction/development and thereby causing smaller silver halides, which are then perceived as cooler tones by our eyes. Also similar reason why tartaric acid also shouldn't be more than 1.5-2%, since it then starts forming strong silver complexes which precipitate as coarser particles (aka warm/brown tones)... But again, this is just second hand knowledge from when I first learned about kallitype 10 years ago...
Show threadRalph Brandi
@toxi I’m going to have to look into this. I know there’s a developer that’s all ammonium citrate (200mg to 1 liter of water IIRC; I’m on the road right now and don’t have easy access to my books at the moment). I thought the sodium acetate developer was the one that Bostick & Sullivan ships as their “black developer”, meaning the smaller particles.
Mar 4 at 11:06amWeb
Show threadKarsten SchmidtMar 4
@thereisnocat Yeah, same! I will also do some more reading/testing! It's good to compare notes, though! Also, I'm in Germany, so sadly no B&S products available here, but I'm mixing everything from scratch... :)
Show threadRalph BrandiMar 4
@toxi I bought the Kallitype kit from B&S, but after I used up the sensitizer chemicals I started mixing my own as well.