Here's a resource for anyone that really wants to dive into this. Dick Arentz is a modern day master of the technique. His book is pretty much the definitive resource.
Platinum Photography
21–30 of 48 posts
Re: Platinum Photography
#22>You can’t take a small negative and project it onto the paper, as you do with an enlarger for silver gelatin prints. Pretty much sums up the point. Using 8x10 or whatever size negatives when film rolls were coming about is a non-starter for the general public. The cost seems very high as the other commenter has mentioned also. From a quick search purchasing a kit will give you a printing cost of ~$15/photo. This imm…
It's possible to print large negatives from digital files. The results are stunning if you manage to get the curve right. I've done a few times, lots of trial and error and I never could get a curve that worked perfectly on multiple setups or even on multiple shots with the same setup. A bit of tweaking is required for every shot, in my experience. It's just that the whole thing is slow, expensive and error prone in…
> It's possible to print large negatives from digital files.
You can actually do it on your home laser printer, onto transparent sheets.
You can then go even easier and make salt prints (also uses silver) and the sun. They come out very interesting.
Re: Platinum Photography
#23My understanding is digital c-types use LASERs to expose the paper.
Could you in a similar way use a UVASER for this process?
Re: Platinum Photography
#24Earlier quoted context omitted.
It's possible to print large negatives from digital files. The results are stunning if you manage to get the curve right. I've done a few times, lots of trial and error and I never could get a curve that worked perfectly on multiple setups or even on multiple shots with the same setup. A bit of tweaking is required for every shot, in my experience. It's just that the whole thing is slow, expensive and error prone in…
> It's possible to print large negatives from digital files. You can actually do it on your home laser printer, onto transparent sheets. You can then go even easier and make salt prints (also uses silver) and the sun. They come out very interesting.
This sounds like a great use for the laser transparencies I bought at Goodwill having no particular use in mind. Thanks for the idea!
Re: Platinum Photography
#25There are metal replacement toners that replace the silver in a print with either gold or platinum. This way the print can be made normally with an enlarger and silver chemistry to overcome the contact printing limitation. Toning improves the longevity of the print and provides many of the same tonal effects, depending on how long the print sits in the bath. Unfortunately, the chemicals involved are quite toxic. I re…
>Rayko
I got into film photography too late to ever visit Rayko. How I wish it had survived, somehow. Having a whole darkroom for rent in town would be incredible.
Re: Platinum Photography
#26>You can’t take a small negative and project it onto the paper, as you do with an enlarger for silver gelatin prints. Pretty much sums up the point. Using 8x10 or whatever size negatives when film rolls were coming about is a non-starter for the general public. The cost seems very high as the other commenter has mentioned also. From a quick search purchasing a kit will give you a printing cost of ~$15/photo. This imm…
I did not really understand this point. >The first reason is linked to one of the drawbacks of platinum photography. Although the resulting images are far superior, platinum does not react as quickly to light as silver. This means that you can only make an image using the contact printing technique Wouldn't that just mean you have to wait longer?
> Wouldn't that just mean you have to wait longer?
You would have to wait much longer with a standard enlarger, probably several days and that's without taking into account reciprocity failure. In practice, it just wouldn't work.
I haven't tried platinotype myself since platinium and paladium are so expensive, but I do print a lot of cyanotype which has a similarly low sensitivity and I built a UV enlarger for that, which works quite well with exposure times on the order of a few minutes for enlarging 35mm onto A5 paper.
It requires a 40W 365nm UV LED source though, cooling for the negative in order not to burn it, and a few other tricks to get it to work well.
Re: Platinum Photography
#27WITI is a really cool newsletter BTW. I use this as an alternative to reddit/kottke/twitter in terms of fresh/interesting content, just because I'm sick and tired of all the nonsense on the other platforms.
Re: Platinum Photography
#28Earlier quoted context omitted.
It's possible to print large negatives from digital files. The results are stunning if you manage to get the curve right. I've done a few times, lots of trial and error and I never could get a curve that worked perfectly on multiple setups or even on multiple shots with the same setup. A bit of tweaking is required for every shot, in my experience. It's just that the whole thing is slow, expensive and error prone in…
> It's possible to print large negatives from digital files. You can actually do it on your home laser printer, onto transparent sheets. You can then go even easier and make salt prints (also uses silver) and the sun. They come out very interesting.
It depends on the resolution and shades of gray your home printer can output. It will work, of course, but you may be disappointed with the harshness.
Last time I printed on an Epson 9600 @1200dpi. It looked awesome.
Salt prints are great fun and have a distinct look. Very different from palladium and platinum.
Re: Platinum Photography
#29There are metal replacement toners that replace the silver in a print with either gold or platinum. This way the print can be made normally with an enlarger and silver chemistry to overcome the contact printing limitation. Toning improves the longevity of the print and provides many of the same tonal effects, depending on how long the print sits in the bath. Unfortunately, the chemicals involved are quite toxic. I re…
>Rayko I got into film photography too late to ever visit Rayko. How I wish it had survived, somehow. Having a whole darkroom for rent in town would be incredible.
San Francisco has the Harvey Milk Photo Center, which has a huge dark room and film processing facilities. It's pretty awesome. I've taken several classes there. https://www.harveymilkphotocenter.org/
Re: Platinum Photography
#30Earlier quoted context omitted.
>Rayko I got into film photography too late to ever visit Rayko. How I wish it had survived, somehow. Having a whole darkroom for rent in town would be incredible.
San Francisco has the Harvey Milk Photo Center, which has a huge dark room and film processing facilities. It's pretty awesome. I've taken several classes there. https://www.harveymilkphotocenter.org/
Wow, thank you! Sounds like I can even learn how to use the darkroom there. Boy, I love that we have stuff like this here. Shoutout to Oscar’s in SOMA for doing a great job developing my stuff for me, fwiw.