IN the 1840s Henry Talbot Fox created a light sensitive paper coating using Salt water and Silver Nitrate to produce photogenic images. Today in November of 2021 I tried my hand at Salt printing and it was mostly a failure. I bought the Bostick and Sullivan kit and some Hahnemuhle Platinum rag paper and followed the directions.

The salt coating was easy enough and it dried in about 30 minutes indoors. I used about 35 drops of Silver Nitrate for my 5×12 and also made some 4×5 test strips to use with a step wedge. The paper really absorbed the SN so it didn’t spread as much or evenly as I thought it did. But you can’t tell that in a dim room.

I used a 7×14 picture frame for my contact print frame which works but does not apply enough pressure, so need to visit Michael’s to get some craft foam to thicken the back some. I exposed the test strips for about 20 minutes in the shade of my patio angled toward the sky, but found the test strips only captured about zones 4-10 so went for 30 minutes on my actual negatives. The area not covered by negative turned a dark plum/aubergine color. The area under the negative was still at least two stops lighter but I could see the detail of the negative even though it was a bit soft.

When washed it turned from plum to orange tones in the wash water, and even shifted more and lightened when added to the hypo fixer. Further washing removed some of the image which indicates my flow was too high. The final dried color is browner than the wet color and slightly darker so my exposure time was close. The dark tones shifted more orange than the lighter tones did. I also wonder if there is enough UV coming in through the windows above my kitchen sink to cause further development fog. The image is also very matte compared to the glossy materials I usually work with so it will require some waxing and maybe some toning too. I still have much to learn and experience with this process.

The one thing I did find is that my Pyro negative that prints well at grade 2 will work for this process. I will need to bump up the contrast of the negatives a bit from now on. The step wedge negative which has no stain, is much denser than my Pyro negatives.

Here are the results of my first tests.

Round 2 a week later: I was a bit more careful with my brushing technique and increased the number of Silver Nitrate drops to 40. Even with that extra liquid, the paper absorbed most of it before I could spread it. I need to find a glass rod and try puddle pushing and maybe humidifying the paper a bit on the back side before coating. This time I also left the print in open shade for 1 hour. Upon initial development I can see where I missed the coating in the corners and along the bottom. Getting better but still not complete yet.