The Handmade Silver Gelatin Emulsion Print

Creating Your Own Liquid Emulsions for Black & White Paper

Denise Ross

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2018
• eBook ISBN: 9781351163989
• Topic: Art
• Subtopic: Photography

The Handmade Silver Gelatin Emulsion Print is a cookbook of simple, basic recipes for making black and white printing paper and paper negatives, along with creative options for printing, toning, and coloring. Author Denise Ross draws from photographic literature from the last 135 years, adapting old recipes to fit modern tools, materials, and work spaces and modern twists have been applied to traditional techniques.

The book is divided into three sections: Section One lays the groundwork for this unique alternative process; Section Two provides the recipes; Section Three highlights contemporary silver gelatin artists.

The book features over 200 full-color images and covers key topics including:

Vocabulary: a list of terms used by traditional photographers and emulsion makers

• Creating work spaces with the right tools and materials
• Basic emulsion chemistry and paper coating techniques
• Working with various negative options, analog and digital
• Gaslight chloride contact printing paper
• Kodabromide-type chlorobromide all-purpose paper
• Bromide enlarging paper
• Warm tone paper and developers
• Making and toning your own printing-out paper (POP)
• Matte surface and baryta coating surface paper
• Paper negatives and making hand-drawn and digital masks
• Toning handmade paper
• Gum printing over handmade paper
• Troubleshooting handmade paper
• Artists working with handmade paper
  

The Handmade Silver Gelatin Emulsion Print is for photographers who love the look and creative potential of black and white traditional photography but who want more control over the process and the end product. It is written for the beginner to experienced photographer, with processes initially explained in such a way that anyone will feel comfortable getting started, as well as information in increasing levels of complexity so that experienced photographers who enjoy a challenge will also find one.

SECTION TWO

The Recipes

The long, rich history of silver gelatin emulsions has given us a wealth of paper options.

The five types of basic papers are chloride, slow chlorobromide, fast (enlarging speed) chlorobromide, bromide, and POP. These papers can all be made in a home darkroom with a few ingredients and minimal equipment.

In addition, we have the option of coating on a handmade baryta surface.

More complex, and therefore much harder for the home darkroom, are direct positive papers, panchromatic papers, and variable contrast papers. The major difficulty with making these types of specialized papers is not emulsion making techniques, but rather accessing the specialized chemical sensitizers required.

For example, making orthochromatic film is very straightforward, and the required erythrosin easy to purchase. However, it dyes the emulsion light pink. This isn’t an issue with film, but it would be in a paper. Making variable contrast paper requires a colorless sensitizer, and that eludes me. I have high hopes that someone else will tackle and conquer the challenge.

Developer recipes can be equally basic, and the full range required to work with handmade papers are described in Chapter 11.

Finally, paper negatives can be viewed as a bridge between paper making and negative making (film or dry plate). They are also a beautiful tool in their own right.

Reading the Recipes

The recipe chapters are arranged to be read sequentially, even if you are only interested in one particular type of emulsion. There is necessarily some redundancy, but each chapter contains general emulsion making information.

Chapter 11
Developers

Figure 11.1 Ansco Formulas, 1946 [artist unknown]

Step into my darkroom and we’ll see what develops.

Some of the illustrations aside, there is a wealth of knowledge in the old pamphlets and booklets that used to be sold for pennies in every corner camera and darkroom store. Steve Anchell has done a terrific job hunting them all down and pulling their information into one book,¹ but there’s a lot to learn from the original sources. Ansco, Kodak, Agfa/Ansco, Dupont Defender, and others published various guides. Most are not much more expensive today than when they were first sold. I’ve had excellent luck finding several at abebooks.com and camerabooks.com.

Although you don’t have to know anything about photo chemistry to use a developer, or even to mix one up from a recipe, understanding a few basics is never a bad idea. Almost any book on photographic processes will do the trick. If nothing else, Wikipedia has some surprisingly solid information. If you are new to darkroom work, it may seem like there is an awful lot to learn, but don’t let yourself feel overwhelmed. All in good time. Until then, a recipe is just a recipe.

If you don’t want to mix your own developers, I recommend Kodak HC110, a liquid concentrate. All developers are not created equal. There are several developers that work well with a specific recipe, but HC110 is the only commercial developer I’ve used that seems to play well with all. I’ve had terrible results with several, including every PQ (Phenidone and hydroquinone) developer I’ve tried.

Mix the ingredients in the order written. Completely dissolve each ingredient before adding the next. With the exception of hydroquinone, none of the ingredients are especially hazardous, but always use caution to avoid dust and spills. Avoid breathing the dust. Avoid skin contact. For some people, metol can cause dermatitis after prolonged skin contact. Wearing latex or nitrile gloves eliminates the risk.

Store all developers in airtight containers. You can purchase either plastic or glass storage bottles from photographic supply companies. Amber glass bottles are classic and beautiful. However, repurposed bottles work just fine. Brown plastic hydrogen peroxide bottles are excellent. I also like diet root beer bottles (probably because I always seem to have too many of them). Soda bottles do have an advantage over more rigid bottles. The air can be squeezed out before capping.

Metol-Based Developers

D23-Plus

Distilled water at 125°F/52°C …	750 ml
Metol …	5 g
Sodium sulfite …	80 g
10% solution of KBr (potassium bromide) in water …	10 ml
Water to make 1.0 liter total volume

TLF All-Purpose Developer

Distilled water at 125°F/52°C …	750 ml
Metol …	3 g
Sodium sulfite …	80 g
10% solution of KBr (potassium bromide) in water …	10 ml
Water to make 1.0 liter total volume

You can bump up the speed and contrast by adding a little 10% sodium carbonate to the tray of developer.

Increasing exposure time and adding extra 10% KBr warms the tone of a print.

TLF Extra Oomph Developer (TLF-X, for short)

Distilled water at 125°F/52°C …	750 ml
Metol …	6 g
Sodium sulfite …	80 g
10% solution of KBr (potassium bromide) in water …	10 ml
Water to make 1.0 liter total volume.

You can bump up the speed and contrast by adding a little 10% sodium carbonate to the tray of developer.

Increasing exposure time and adding extra 10% KBr warms the tone of a print.

Ansco 120 Soft-Working Paper Developer

This is a soft-working developer, primarily intended for portrait work where soft gradation is required.²

Distilled water at 125°F/52°C …	750 ml
Metol …	12.3 g
Sodium sulfite …	36 g
Sodium carbonate …	36 g
Potassium bromide	1.8 g
Water to make 1.0 liter total volume

For use, dilute 1 part stock solution with 2 parts water. Use with a plain water stop bath and non-acidic fix. Normal developing time, 1½ to 3 minutes at 68°F/20°C.

Ansco 125 Paper and Film Developer

Distilled water at 125°F/52°C …	750 ml
Metol …	3 g
Sodium sulfite …	44 g
Hydroquinone …	12 g
Sodium carbonate	65 g
Potassium bromide	2 g
Water to make 1.0 liter total volume

Paper development: Dilute 1 part stock solution with 2 parts water. Develop 1 to 2 minutes at 68°F/20°C. For softer and slowe...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Table of Contents
• Acknowledgements
• Section One The Important Stuff Before the Recipes
• Section Two The Recipes
• Section Three The Contributors
• Bibliography
• Index