After 1855, photographers increasingly turned to albumen prints, either matt albumen or gloss, generally using factory coated albumen papers made using Rives or Saxe papers. Albumen prints are the most common type of photograph from 1865-95, when they were superseded by emulsion based (gelatin or collodion) papers.
Salted paper enjoyed a minor revival among artistic photographers around 1880-1910, both using materials coated by the photographer and a number of factory-produced materials (some of which required sensitising by the photographer, but others were sold ready for use.) They were more common in Europe than in the USA. Volumes were not huge and production ceased around 1920. One particular use of such materials was to make a cheaper alternative to the platinum print, gaining a similar neutral matt appearance by making a salted paper print and then using platinum toner.
Salted paper was again revived in the 1970s and later, by photographers who wanted to explore a greater range of possibilities than that offered by commercial materials. All make use of hand-coated materials, usually following one of the many thousands of methods published in earlier years."
["_notes_technical_details"]=>
string(6181) "Although the process is basically simple, getting strong prints of reasonable contrast is difficult. The image needs to be held on the top of the paper and not allowed to sink into the paper fibres. Various organic binders are used in the salting solution to produce a surface coating. Most of the organic binders used also aid in the reduction of the silver salts under the action of light, and may also produce light sensitive silver salts.
Salting solutions
Although some 'salting solutions' were no more than simple solutions of rock salt or sea salt (largely sodium chloride) in water, most photographers found more complex formulas more useful. The simple solutions relied on the presence on the paper of organic sizes added in manufacture, usually starch or gelatine, both to keep the salts on the surface and to aid in the reduction.
Different salts, such as ammonium chloride, potassium citrate, potassium tartrate and potassium bromide are often used and may have a slight effect on brilliance and image colour. Typical salt concentrations are around 25-50 g per litre. Starch, gelatine and albumen were commonly added. Papers were soaked in the salting solution for around 5-10 minutes and then hung to dry.
Sensitising
The paper then has to be made sensitive to light. This step needs to be carried out away from sunlight or other UV light sources, but can be done in dim tungsten lighting. The sensitising solution used is silver nitrate, often containing a small amount of citric acid (most silver nitrate in the nineteenth century was also acidic.)
The silver nitrate solution is usually brushed onto the paper fairly liberally and evenly, and then allowed to dry. The process requires the use of an excess of silver nitrate, and it is best to use a measured amount and brush it over the sheet relatively evenly. The paper can also be coated by 'floating' on a dish of silver nitrate solution, as was the normal practice with albumen paper.
The paper is then allowed to dry, and exposed without lengthy delay.
Exposure
Although prints can be made from paper negatives, exposure times are longer, and film is easier to use. Negatives for use with the process can be shot using a large format camera, enlarged to the size required from smaller negatives or transparencies, or produced on film using an image-setter or ink jet printer.
The best results are obtained from continuous tone film developed to a considerably higher than normal contrast - negatives that would print perhaps on a Grade O bromide paper, or slightly more contrasty than this.
The film emulsion is placed in contact with the sensitised surface of the printing paper and held firmly together under glass in a sprung or vacuum printing frame. Exposure is with a UV light source or the sun. A typical exposure using summer sunlight and a film negative is around 20 minutes. The progress of the exposure can be checked at intervals out of direct sun, as printing frames usually allow one side of the print to be pulled away from the negative for inspection while holding the two firmly together over the rest of the image. Exposure is continued until highlight detail is rather bolder than required.
Contrast is largely controlled by the negative contrast, although different light sources have a slight effect. Negatives can be 'reduced' or 'intensified' chemically. With inkjet (or image setter) negatives, the contrast (and 'exposure') depend almost entirely on the densities in the image printed to give the negative.
Toning
No development is used for salt prints. Immediately after exposure the prints are usually washed for around ten minutes and then toned. Washing removes soluble silver salts that otherwise react with the toner solution. Toning is normally in a gold toner and results in a slight darkening and richer deep brown and purple-brown tones.
Early photographers used toners based on 'old hypo' which were essentially sulphide toners. When they worked well, these produced stable prints with image silver converted to silver sulphide, but they were unreliable and often a cause of prints that rapidly stained and faded. Mixed gold and hypo toners (sel d'or) introduced in the 1850s had similar problems. Improved alkaline gold toners and later thiocyante gold toners from the 1860s on were more reliable. Thiocyanate toners use more gold and are thus more expensive, and were not widespread, but they gave more neutral results and also greater permanence.
Platinum toning was used in the later period of salt printing (ca 1895-1915) both for increased permanence and to give a more neutral black tone, similar to that of platinum prints.
Fixing
After toning, the prints were thoroughly washed and then fixed in a simple bath of sodium thiosulphate (hypo) made alkaline with a little sodium carbonate. Fixing makes the prints yellower and paler (some of this change is reversed on drying.)
Much of the impermanence and fading seen in salted paper prints arises from fixing baths becoming exhausted as too many prints are put through them. Salted paper prints have relatively large amounts of excess silver chloride that needs to be removed, and thoroughly washed out.
Modern practice includes the use of hypo clearing agents, largely sodium sulphite, to improve washing efficiency. Even so, lengthy wash times are needed, especially with thicker papers.
Drying
Prints are usually pegged on a line to dry. When using thinner papers, it is best to mount the prints while still slightly damp.
Mounting
Mounting of older prints was probably most often carried out using starch pastes. Salted paper prints are often on thicker papers that do not require mounting."
["_notes_preservation"]=>
string(1016) "Almost, if not all vintage salt prints show some signs of fading, as well as staining. Often there is an overall image fading, accompanied by some spots or areas of more noticeable fading. Many print also show areas of yellowing in the highlights (possibly due to the presence of albumen.)
Prints that were mass-produced – such as those in Talbot's 'Pencil of Nature' often show these effects more strongly than amateur prints. Probably large-scale production led to more over-use of fixing baths and incomplete washing, especially when batches of prints were washed together.
The restoration methods that have proved successful with emulsion-based prints are not suitable for salted paper prints, and when tried have been ruinous. The prints are best left alone and stored under suitable conditions to slow deterioration.
Many older prints were mounted on unsuitable boards with an interior with a high lignin content, and it may be possible to remove these."
["_notes_summary"]=>
string(1278) "
Salted Paper was the first photographic printing process – published by William Henry Fox Talbot in 1839
Prints were made using ordinary writing or drawing paper (later, mainly Rives or Saxe papers, noted for their purity.)
It is a contact printing process - using a same size negative firmly held in contact with the printing paper
It is a printing-out process - where the image appears during the exposure to light and can be checked visually.
It uses finely divided crystals of light-sensitive silver salts, produced on the surface of the paper in the sensitising step.
Almost all salted paper prints were toned to improve colour and density; early toning methods were unreliable.
Toning using gold toner was widespread from around 1860, giving improved image tone and permanence.
Salt prints are normally a warm brown, although may also have a purple-brown tint.
Organic binders, such as gelatine, starch, citric acid or albumen are essential to the process.
Salted paper prints are matte. Salted paper with sufficient albumen could be made glossy, and glossy salted paper prints are generally considered as 'albumen prints' rather than as salted paper prints.
"
["_notes_photographers_of_note"]=>
string(2833) "[p]William_Henry_Fox__Talbot|William Henry Fox Talbot[/p] was the first photographer to make salted paper prints, and he set up a printing establishment in Reading, England to produce the prints, particularly the editions needed for the first major photographic book, "The Pencil of Light".
[p]1_Hill_Adamson|David Octavius Hill and Robert Adamson[/p], working in Edinburgh ([p]William_Henry_Fox__Talbot|Talbot[/p]'s patent on the process did not cover Scotland) produced a magnificent body of portraits of leading figures there in the 1840s, including several hundred ministers of the kirk as studies for a painting by [p]David_Octavius__Hill|Hill[/p]. Perhaps most impressive are their images of the fishermen and fishwives of the nearby village of Newhaven.
The calotype, and in particular the waxed paper variation of it, which increased the transparency of the paper negative was perhaps at its finest among French photographers in the early 1850s. Many of the fine prints produced from their work were salt prints, although later prints from their negatives may well be matte albumen. [p]Louis-Desire__Blanquart-Evrard|Louis-Désiré Blanquart-Evrard[/p] and [p]Gustave__Le_Gray|Gustave Le Gray[/p] were the pioneers of the waxed paper process and produced much fine work as salt prints. In 1851, [p]Louis-Desire__Blanquart-Evrard|Blanquart-Evrard[/p] set up the first mass-production factory in Lille to produce salt prints; he increased production speed greatly by giving only a short exposure and then using a developer to produce the full image. This factory printed the 25,000 prints needed to publish around 200 copies of [p]Maxime_Du__Camp|Maxime Du Camp[/p]'s 'Egypte, Nubie, Palestine et Syrie', each with 125 prints, the first French publication to be illustrated by real photographs.
Significant portfolios and books
[p]William_Henry_Fox__Talbot|William Henry Fox Talbot[/p] 'The Pencil of Nature', (Longmans, London) (1844)
[The first multiple copy photographic book, published as a series of six 'fascicles', each containing 4 salted paper prints for subscribers to bind.]
[p]Maxime_Du__Camp|Maxime Du Camp[/p] 'Egypte, Nubie, Palestine et Syrie' (1852)
[Around 200 copies, each with 125 original salt prints.]
[p]Felix__Teynard|Felix Teynard[/p] 'Egypt and Nubia' (1853-4)
[40 salt prints]
[p]Louis__de_Clercq|Louis De Clercq[/p] 'Voyage en Orient 1859-1860, villes, monuments et vues pittoresques' (1859-60)"
["_notes_current_use"]=>
string(112) "Many photographers have made salt prints in recent years, and a number of books give directions for the process."
["_notes_identification"]=>
string(1718) "Salted paper prints cover a wide range of dates and were made by different photographers using many different techniques. There is no real clear distinction between salted paper and matte albumen prints, and many salted paper prints actually contain albumen, as well as various other materials. The term 'albumen print' is generally confined to prints with a gloss surface, and which show the typical surface quality and cracking of albumen prints.
Key indicators:
matte finish (always)
warm brown or purplish brown tone (almost always)
visible fading in parts of image (almost always)
visible yellowing in parts of image (almost always)
If the print has the above characteristics and the age of the print is known or can be deduced, then the following applies:
before 1850 – almost certainly salted paper
1850 - 1890 – either salted paper or matt albumen
In general prints that show deep brown-black tones tend to be described as matte albumen, and those lacking these as salt prints. However it is possible to make strong prints without the use of albumen, and distinctions made on this basis are at best speculative. There seems to me to be little point in any case in trying to make them.
Other plain paper printing techniques were also in during the second period of salted paper use, including platinum (1873) and kallitype (1899) as well as a number of hybrid methods, making identification of prints from this era difficult, unless information is provided.
Fortunately most modern salted paper prints will have the process name written on the reverse of the print."
["_notes_possible_confusion"]=>
string(568) "Salted paper prints are sometimes wrongly called calotypes. The calotype process produces a paper negative, and these were printed as salted paper prints.
As noted in the 'Identification' section, prints described as 'matte albumen' may well be salted paper prints with no albumen content, while equally those described as 'salted paper' may contain albumen. In the absence of definitive information (such as the photographer's own description of the printing process or chemical tests) it is probably best not to use the description 'matte albumen.'"
["_notes_thanks"]=>
string(14) "Peter Marshall"
["_exhibition"]=>
string(22) "_PROCESS_Salt_print_01"
["_catcode"]=>
string(3) "697"
["_image_ids"]=>
string(31) ":18316:18319:18322:18331:18341:"
}
}
