What I like the most with Nejc's videos is his "Straight to the point" approach. No superfluous bla-bla, no product placement, etc. He makes everything very doable !
I think that might be the best walk through of salt printing I've seen. Short, sharp and to the point! One tip I'd add is that if you can't get a brown bottle just wrap a clear bottle in aluminium foil from the kitchen. In fact I prefer doing that because you can peak under the foil and see if there is precipitate.
ive never learned this process and Nejc has made it clear and simple and didnt make me feel poor for not having some expensive equipment laying around for this. He keeps it real and makes me feel like I can do it!! thank you!
Nice tutorial. You deserve a split back printing frame; much easier for establishing the correct exposure during printing. Also … when waxing it’s easier to just melt wax in a shallow dish in a microwave and then let it cool. To apply put drops of lavender oil on the wax and work it into then rubbing pad. Best regards, Scully & Osterman
thank you for presenting an honest and simple tutorial where an amateur like me can easily understand and grasp this process. Now let me go try this - cheers . bo
As the start of cold temperatures and winter months creep in, here in the mid Atlantic states, USA, I've decided to take my Zebra dry plates I shot this past summer and make a few prints. And, yes, you guessed it, I'm following the instructions in this video. I am pleased to say, it worked very well. So my winter months will be mainly printing my glass plates from the warmer months and printing in the colder months. Great video, I love the Zebra dry plates and holders. Thanks for the tutorial.
Thank You for your simple, to the point explanation of salt printing, easy peasy. I think I will try this method after I work on cyanotype for a while. Much obliged.
Thank you for your videos. They're terrifically helpful. Good, clear instructions and tips, great editing and commentary. An, your prints are wonderful.
Excellent, quick run through the process. I’m just starting to look into some of these old processes so this is really helpful. Salt prints are really beautiful, but the process requires a fair amount of stuff. You don’t NEED a darkroom but it sure helps. A sink, running water, light you can control etc obviously makes it so much easier. I’ll try it eventually though!
This is incredible, what a fascinating process and what beautiful results with the painted coating! Does this only work with glass negatives or also film negatives, do you have any experience on this?
Hi Nejc, thank you so much for this tutorial! You are opening me a new way in this trip in the world of photography 🙂 May I ask which kind of paper do you suggest to use? I ordered some watercolour paper, hopefully it will be fine...
So much work, but the result is a unique, hand-crafted Artwork. There is nothing to compare with something you made with your own hands. I'll try this process - after I get bored with cyanotypes and anthotypes! ☺ You speak very quickly in this tutorial. But, all I have to do is change the speed to .75. If I slow you down to .50, you sound drunk. At .75, you only sound stoned. 😁
@@lostlightart6064 I can help! There are three things which - I guarantee - will keep people interested in long videos: 1. Cute, adorable kittens; 2. CGI dinosaurs or sharks; 3. Porn. Seriously, though, thank YOU for living such an interesting life and sharing your adventures with us. ☺
@@TheStockwell yeah exactly. It terrifying to see in which direction world is going. This is why I love to take my time and make things with my own hands and not steal a filter here a background there and call myself a photographer!
I absolutely love salt printing. With the cyanotype have you ever tried coffee tinting? I've been playing around with it and like the results so far. Cheers!
Hi! I’m excited about trying this with my class and I’m wondering how long the 100ml of the silver solution lasts? As in how many prints? I have a small class but want to be sure to mix up enough of the solution! Thank you!
Excellent demonstration - so concise and yet informative. I love making salt (and albumen) prints, but I'm still struggling to make time to hone my skills. This has inspired me to make more time for it. Thanks!
Great information, thanks! I would like to know about the silver nitrate solution.. after the preparation with water, what about its expiration date? for how long it can be used?
If stored in brown bottle in the fridge deffinetly a few moths. However there are so many variables that can affect this from PH, quality of the storage container, temperature, light exposure....
@@lostlightart6064 Thank you very much for the reply. I would like to ask another question. Can we use 0.02N silver nitrate solution, which is readily available in store here?
do you know there was one Slovenian priest back in the days who also is famous for shooting on a dry plate? In the 19th century. I guess it's from the area around you somewhere.
The same as on LF film. You need a large format camera, proper Dry Plate Holders and some plates. The rest is very simmilar to developing film or paper. I make plates even up to 50x50cm in size 😉 You can learn more on: www.zebradryplates.com
Few questions; have you succeeded with film negative, getting good density? Do you know what is the density in your glass plates? Also why the whole paper cannot be submerged in salt water? And one question more: I've understood that normal "hardening" fixer will dissolve too much silver, but that wasn't problem here. Did you use some tricks? I think sodium thiosulfate should be used for fixing.
I have used negatives developed in 510-pyro at 100%+ increase in normal developing time to build density. So far as I know, if you get Salt solution on the reverse of the paper it can affect the Silver coating and cause staining. I use Sodium thiosulphate + pinch of Sodium bicarbonate to fix x 2 baths.
@@matt-analoguelife Pyro is a good choice as the staining is protecting even more from UV. Lost Light Art used Adofix so that is why I'm questioning the fixing. My Sodium Thiosulphate fixer has much radical effect than the Adofix on this video. Maybe I should try Adofix too.
@@vedostuu - you can reduce the bleaching effect of the thiosulphate fixer by first washing (1 - 3 min's) the print in a weak salt solution (same as the coating is fine) , then by adding Sodium bicarbonate to the fixer to maintain alkalinity.
I am getting good density negatives by developing in HC-110 otherwise many other paper developers will give you nice density as well. If you submerge the whole paper you, also thr back side kf the paper would get exposed but if you dont mind that just go for it! I use adofix for everything without any problems 🤷♂️🙂
Great video. Thank you so much! Does anyone know approximately how long the 12% AgNO3 can last in the brown bottle? I am using some I made 2 weeks ago, and the prints are coming out very light. Could it be the solution is no good anymore? Thanks!
It will definetly last for more then a few weeks however you are always better to coat it fresh. After a few months the solution will brown and turn bad
So the silver bath for collodion plates is ~10% and here we use just a 2% solution? Whats the reason for that? :) It obviously works I'm just curious. Great video by the way! Right in time before my salt print equiptment arrives. :)
So I'm trying this for the first time and I'm a bit confused. You have to coat the silver nitrate solution onto the salted paper under a red light, but once it's dry, it can be under tungsten light again? For my first attempt I did everything under a (dim) tungsten lamp, and my highlights look brown. Thanks for the great video.
Its pretty simple the less you expose your salt-silver mixture the better it is. So you can do the whole coating and drying pocess under red light. You turn the lights back on just for exposure...
hey, do you think you could link where you got the silver nitrate, and I just want to make sure I get the right stuff you know! thanks! lived the video and I would love to try it myself
Another informative video Nejc, thank you very much I learned a lot. I would love to try this process however ,I don't have anywhere to develop glass slides at present so unfortunately I can't give it go, but you never know in the future :-) Keep producing the excellent videos friend, I really enjoy them.
Careful, Steve. It's definitely a rabbit hole you can fall down in pursuit of the perfect negative. Entire systems have been created in trying to achieve desired results.
Ha ha thanks for the warning Bob. Having just bought an Intrepid 4x5 camera literally two days ago and having been going out with a Noon pinhole recently, I appear to have a growing number of rabbit holes that are pulling me down at the moment. (But I'm loving it truly 😉)
I shoot 4x5 negatives (Fomapan 100 currently). Developing in 510-pyro for N+N developing times to create negatives with enough density for Salt Printing. Contact printed is quite nice at this size. The 'digital negative' route is useful for smaller formats, digital images or colour converted images particularly, but as mentioned it is a Rabbit Hole of chasing perfection...
your fingertips..oh dear. silver nitrate is a very useful thing for people into photography and chemistry. you can make beautiful high quality mirrors with it. or semi-silvered mirrors, or beam splitters. the quality of reflection is much higher than that of normal mirrors used in every day life. it's commonly used in the medical field as well. don't let it get on your skin, or you'll have stains like in the video for a few weeks :)
@@Piratesjunior I would check on a chemistry forum. It sounds like the fixer is not completely neutralizing the developing agent. The fading happens because the developing agents don't fully stop and continue developing the photo slowly over time. A hobbyist chemist on any chemistry forum could help you calculate the amount you're off by. Because it could be a lack of a certain chemical in the fixer/stop bath or a bad dilution. I use premixed chemical formulas to prevent this so I can just tell you what's happening, a chemist can tell you how to fix it.
