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Alternative Photographic Processes - (Hand made photographic -emulsions and processes)

Processes - Palladium

In the 1920s Platinum became very expensive in the 1920s, causing photographers to change from using platinum to palladium salts. The two processes were very similar and produced similar results. Result © Please click here to see more examples of Platinotype photos. Platinotype photos were highly regarded. They often had a good range of grey tones from silver to black, but could also be produced in warm brown tones. The platinum was embedded in the fibres of the paper and did not fade. 1870s The British Journal of Photography [4 Jun 187, p.265] said: "The tones of the pictures thus produced are most excellent, and the latter possess a charm and brilliancy we have never seen in a silver print upon plain paper, added to which they are so permanent as to resist all the usual destructive tests." 1880s WK Burton, in his 1884 book described the colour of Platinotype prints as being: "not brown or purple, but a feint greyish-brown colour." [ABC of Modern Photography] 1890s A Horsley Hinton, in his book Platinotype Printing, published in 1898 wrote: "Whilst amongst most persons of more or less cultivated tastes the effects secured by platinotype and by carbon printing are preferred, one still meets many who will unhesitatingly proclaim their preference for the more old-fashioned silver print ... ..." "Thus, for example, if I have prints on platinotype paper and on a fine glossy-surfaced gelatine or albumen paper, and lay them before a child of twelve years, I expect him to show preference for the latter (the mere brightness and glossiness are a sufficiently superior attraction); or if I show them to my servant or a person of less cultivation, I shall be surprised if he does not show preference for the print of high surface, and which appears to him to possess properties which the other lacks; ... ... ... ... ..." "But when later on we grow to value such prints and pictures for the sake of the thoughts they suggest, for the pleasure they give as suggestions of nature in her more beautiful phases, or for the faithful reminiscence of a familiar face, then it is that the qualities of platinotype are appreciated, quite apart from the question of permanence, which is the proverbial character of the platinotype." [Platinotype Printing: A Horsley Hinton, p.7]

http://www.edinphoto.org.uk/1/1_early_photography_-_processes.htm

 

 

 

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