Albumen Prints...........anyone?

[Andrew Plume]

anyone on here doing Albumen?

.............or if one is feeling an urge to do so, here's a link to another excellent site:

http://bostick-sullivan.invisionzone.co ... 9-albumen/

b and s are also selling 'pre-coated' albumen paper:

http://www.bostick-sullivan.com/cart/pr ... 413&page=1


andrew

[Philippe Grunchec]

So does Victor Petryakov:

http://www.altphotoproducts.com/

[Andrew Plume]

Hi Philippe

Hadn't heard of him, thanks - looks like he is offering a different range of products, too

regards

andrew

[Keith Tapscott]

I have had a go at salt printing, so albumen prints would be the next logical stage, but I have not yet tried it.

[Andrew Plume]

good stuff Keith

Bruce Rae does Salt too - http://www.michaelhoppengallery.com/art ... llery.html

and there was a decent piece in 'AG' on his work a few years back


andrew

[banana_legs]

Andrew,

I tend to do Argyrotypes/ VDB rather than salt or albumen, although I do sometimes use albumen as a size instead of gelatine (the albumen is not salted). I also do carbon transfers, primarily grinding my own pigments for the tissue. I did try coating some paper for albumen printing, but after a small mixup with some other heavily sized paper, accidentally transferred carbon prints onto it

Best regards,

Evan

[Chris Wilding]

Hi there

Did some Albumens for the first time this weekend. My lovely girlfriend showed me the process got some great but varied results, seems like a summer activity, with the a large surface for doing many at the same time.

Seems like the more absorbent the paper the richer the tones, using textured water colour paper gave good results due to greater nitrate saturation I guess. Also a little goes a long way we mixed up 100ml of solution and didn't use anywhere near that. Brilliant fun!!

Any tips for next time welcome

Cheers

Chris

[Neil Barnes]

Well, at least you can use the leftover egg to make pale omelettes... if you don't mind fortnight-old egg!

Neil

[Chris Wilding]

I did worry about the cholesterol using up all those yokes!

I'm told that during World War II many yoke recipe books were written in Dresden as a result of albumen being used for the photographic war effort! Anybody else heard this?

Cheers

Chris

[Fourtoes]

Not specifically in Dresden but I did read something similar about the UK, I'll see if I can find what book it was as I tend to flick through several at once.

[Chris Wilding]

Yeah that would be interesting as it was just a story I was told. I envisioned industrial sized tanks being filled with egg white!!!!

On the subject of albumens are there any tips on avoiding streaks as we were applying the nitrate with japanese brushes some were streakier than others.

Cheers

[John Brewer]

Hi Chris

To get a nice even coat of silver nitrate it's better to float it. Practice without silver nitrate in daylight first.

BTW I think in Christopher James alt book 2nd edition he gives a recipe for creme brulee in the albumen chapter

[Chris Wilding]

Hi John

Thanks very much for the advice. As you probably know, in Spirits of Salts they referred to floating as the traditional method, made it sound a bit tricky but I'll give it a go next time.

By the way I've been gold toning my albumens with no discernible change in colour. Do you think this is because they are already that red/brown tone or do I need to leave them in longer (10 minutes+)?

P.S. My girl and I saw the film of you at work in your studio, loved it, really inspiring stuff and and nicely filmed to.

Thanks again

Chris

[Philippe Grunchec]

Victor Petryakov will be in Paris (France, not Texas) in February! Have a look here:
http://www.altphotoproducts.com/app-workshop

[John Brewer]

Hi Chris

I missed your post.

Gold toning should give a slight blue/mauve colour. Sometimes you do need to tone for a few minutes. Are you toning before or after fixing?

John