Having discovered that Hahnemuhle Platinum Rag (HPR) paper gave a much warmer platinum/palladium (Pt/Pd) print than Legion Lenox 100, I decided to try a few other papers just to see what happens.
All of the prints show below were made under identical conditions (e.g. negative, exposure, processing) except for the paper used.
The papers I used were:
- Hahnemuhle Platinum Rag (300 gsm)
- Legion Lenox 100 (250 gsm)
- Rives BFK (280 gsm)
- Fabriano Artistico (Hot Press) (300 gsm)
- Arches Johannot (240 gsm)
All of these papers are high quality “art” papers and all, except for the Johannot, are 100% cotton. The HPR is designed specifically for alternative process printing such as I am doing here.
In addition to these papers, I tried to coat a sheet of Arches Platine (310 gsm), another paper designed specifically for alternative process printing. In this case the paper soaked up the sensitizer so rapidly that I could not spread out the puddle to cover the image area.
The results are quite striking. All of the papers except for the HPR resulted in a neutral print while the HPR gave a very warm print. All of the papers except for the HPR could use a bit more exposure (and maybe a tweak to the curve used to print the negative), especially the Johannot, but I wanted to change only one variable so the conditions were optimized for the HPR.
I have a few more papers that I want to try and then I’ll need to decide which one will be my “go to” paper for Pt/Pd printing. After that, it will be time to stop testing and make some larger finished prints.
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HPR has a sepia tonality to it on my screen. Like the contrast with the lights and darks. Next for me was the Fabriano Artistico as it shows better contrast than others. I remember a former club member who used to tweak our images for image Study Night and he always added contrast AFTER he cropped. The others seem over-exposed or without significant contrast for my liking.
Comment by Joe Kennedy — 26 December 2021 @ 5:09 PM