One image printed two ways (or: how I spent my Sunday)

[neile]

I had a little fun today. I started by spending most of the afternoon over at my friend David's house making salt prints. I used one of my photos of wheat from the Palouse region of Washington State for the print. It came out very nicely.

When I got home I looked at the box of 44" Breathing Color Lyve canvas that has been sitting there un-opened since the day I got it. I figured what the heck.

Thirty minutes later I was able to take this photo:



On the left: the 44x44" Breathing Color Lyve print. On the right: a 9x9" salt print on watercolour paper.

A fun day, I would say!

Neil

[Eric Myrvaagnes]

Neil,

I'm in awe of all the wild prints you've been making lately. You seem to be having a great time at it, too, and that's what it's all about.

Eric

[bill t.]

Very elegant image!

Just off hand I would think that the canvas gives a more favorable surface_area:effort ratio!

I made some salt prints long ago.  Nobody bothered to tell me how dangerous Silver nitrate is!  Fortunately no impairments resulted.

[neile]

Just off hand I would think that the canvas gives a more favorable surface_area:effort ratio!

True, however the salt print has a more favourable surface_area:fun ratio

Neil

[Alan Goldhammer]

I made some salt prints long ago.  Nobody bothered to tell me how dangerous Silver nitrate is!  Fortunately no impairments resulted.

Not so sure about that, your ears seem to have grown quite large.   Still, it's less toxic than the selenium toner that many of used for B&W printing in the old days.

[bill t.]

So Neil, were you working with high contrast digital paper negatives, or what?  Wonder if you can make salt prints with a digital projector, would only take few days to get the exposure!

Selenium, huh?  It was obligatoire for any young man seriously making prints in the manner of the Masters.  Lots of chemical bullets were flying in those old darkrooms, I never even thought about it at the time.

EDIT...just noticed your related thread in the Wet Darkroom forum...

[neile]

So Neil, were you working with high contrast digital paper negatives, or what?  Wonder if you can make salt prints with a digital projector, would only take few days to get the exposure!

It's a digital negative printed on Pictorico OHP using QTR with curves and colouring applied that create a negative that creates a linear greyscale when printed. I didn't have to do all that work though, David (my friend) had already done all the step-wedge and exposure tests to lock it in.

Exposure is 16 minutes under what amounts to a tanning bed full of UV fluorescent bulbs.

Neil