Photgraphic Platinum Printing explained 

Thanks Tom. Good to hear from you.

Many thanks for your comment. Much appreciated.

Glad to be of help Mark. Good luck.

Thanks for the comment. Much appreciated.

Hi Romano. There's no set distance they have to be, but if they are a long way from the contact printer the exposures will be longer. Mine are about 15cm from the glass on top of the contact printing frame. I never really measured this before!

Thanks for the comment. You don't need to size or treat in any way the particular paper I use. For platinum printing you should only use 100% cotton rag paper for archival purposes anyway as the process is inherently archival with platinum and palladium being noble metals. There are only a handful of papers that are suitable, Arches Platine being one and my go-to choice. Hope that's help.

Hi Romano. Many thanks for your comment. The exposure for each negative / print will be different for each negative, just in the same way as silver printing in an enlarger. You have to make tests by using smaller strips of coated paper to determine the right exposure for that negative and the particular coating you have chosen. I like to keep notes every time I print a new negative and this helps with estimating future printing times. My U.V. box is a very simple plywood box painted white inside with three sets of double tube holders. The tubes in mine are 60cm long and just marked: Phillips TLD 18W/08. Just simple UV tubes. The negative will be fine but you must make sure that the coating is dry of course. If you are in any doubt, you can put a thin sheet of transparent polyester between the negative and the coated paper but I never have to and my negatives are fine. Hope that's a help.

Many thanks for your comments, much appreciated. Most of my materials I get from Firstcall Photographic - www.firstcall-photographic.co.uk Both for platinum and silver printing. Museum mounting board from John Purcell Paper who can also supply the Arches Platine paper I use for platinum prints. Other archival materials such as hinging tape for the mounts and mats from Conservation Resources UK. They can also sell the storage boxes. Hope that's a help. I'm not sponsored by any of these by the way.

@@pete-davis-photography ,thank you for that great information Pete. I am currently making exposures onto dry glass plates in a large format camera, the plates are inherently contrasty ( although I can control the contrast in development with a pyro dev. )so would these be suitable for platinum prints?

@@thatmancalledhobbs One of the qualities of platinum printing is its ability to reproduce a subtle range of tonalities, especially separating delicate highlights. Provided of course, that the negative also has those qualities. Like all printing, the print can only be as good as the negative. It seems counter-intuitive to the process to try to print very high contrast negatives but there are no rules. It's entirely up to you to interpret the subject the way you see it.

@@thatmancalledhobbs I should also add that contrast control with platinum printing is limited. Get the negative right is the answer. However, you can increase contrast slightly by using a proportion of a second ferric oxalate solution that has an additive to increase contrast.

@@pete-davis-photography thanks Pete, you are a mine of valuable information. I’ll let you know how I get on with the glass plate prints.

Many thanks for your comment and glad you found the video interesting. 99% of my platinum prints are made from my original camera analogue silver negatives. Mostly now, 10" x 8". However, as you noticed, if, sometimes I want to make a larger print, I scan the original negative (hi-res) and print it out on to 'Pictorico' inkjet transparency film. Of course you can also start with a digital file and do the same. My preference is always to print from the original camera negative but I do realise that not everyone has a large format 10" x 8" camera. Hope that's a help.

@@pete-davis-photography That's of great help thank you so much! Hope to be doing it by summer time once I get my hands on a 8x10 rear standard. The information is hard to come by but seems important to keep this legacy processes alive specially in this digital age, so hopefully I can help keep it going on my camera club. Thank you again Pete!

Hi Stuart. Not a silly question al all. 99% of the platinum prints I make are from my original large format negatives. However, on that one occasion in the video, a customer in the gallery that sells my work asked for a platinum print of an image he saw in one of my books in a particular larger size. So I made a hi-res scan from the negative, enlarged it and made the print from that. Not my usual favoured method but I have a hi-res large format scanner so can keep the quality up. Hope that's a help.

A monopod? With a heavy 8" x 10" camera leaning over? Now that would be a clever trick! I'd make a fortune as a magician or a circus performer! No, it's a very heavy duty Gitzo tripod with a No. 5 head. Thanks for watching!

Thanks for the comment. Yes, I have read all those books and many more. Those are just a selection behind me, I have many more on other shelves. A lot are photography books of course, monographs by photographers and selected collections. Some are also text books that I use and refer to in my academic work.

It is only a contact printing process. However, you can make a hi-res scan of a smaller negative, enlarge this and print on to transparency film to whatever size you want the finished print to be. Not quite as good as printing from the original negative but it's one way. Hope that's help.

Exposure times are much longer for platinum / palladium as the materials are less sensitive to light. It will depend on the type and quantity of UV lamps / tubes you have etc. Typically, my exposures, with my set up are in the range of 10-30 minutes. (I just checked through my notes!).

Thanks for your interest.No, I don't treat the paper in any way prior to coating. Arches Platine is 100% cotton rag paper with no wood pulp or lignin etc so is archival stable like the platinum and palladium. Hope that's helpful.

Yessir, that does help.

Hi Phil and many thanks for the kind comment. A long time ago I used to run workshops from here - large format and fine printing, with my friend and colleague John Nesbitt. My photography, exhibiting and publishing commitments, plus my teaching at Aberystwyth University mean that I have little time to spare now. Fairly soon I will put out another video which might expand on this one a bit more. Sorry I can't be more help just now. Kind regards, Pete

@@pete-davis-photography completely understand Pete. Liked your approach. All the best . Thsnk you