WooooHoooo! Albumen success

windrivermaiden · Jul 30, 2007

Finally successful albumen prints. (Civil War re-enactment; Huntington Beach CA, 2006)
These are double coated albumen, sensitized by floating on 15% silver nitrate for 2 minutes. Exposed 1'30" in midday So Cal sun. Washed in clear water 5 minutes, fixed 5 minutes in Sodium thiosulfate, washed in clear water 40 minutes, then toned in Selenium toner for 3 minutes and finally washed for another 40 minutes and dried.
Not bad for starters...cant wait to do more.

blackdoglab · Jul 30, 2007

D&mn, that's the kind of stuff i want to do! Did you scan negatives and make negative transparencies, or use a large photographic negative?

Keep up yer handmade photography!

windrivermaiden · Jul 30, 2007

I made digital negatives printed on an Epson R320 (5 x 7)...some from scanned neopan 100 and 400. Some are from digital files. I use Pictorico OHP for my negatives, although I have used standard transparency film from Staples with good results for Van Dyke process and Cyanotype. I highly recommend Dan Burkholder's digital negative book. I don't claim to understand the highly technical stuff he talks about but the book is a great place to start and for a resource.

So far I'm all self taught, I haven't found any classes or seminars in my area or price range. I did a paper on Albumen process in college photo class a few years ago and then I went to Bostick and Sullivan's Platypus party last summer met a guy there who had acutally made some and was inspired to try it.....and here are the results.

I have about 60 images of Civil War re-enactments that I would like to eventually print in this process.

The total dream is to get a 8 X 10 field camera, bad hair day hood and all, and take "real" photos.