Merci, Monsieur Louis Désiré Blanquart-Evrard!

I finally did it – my first albumen print from my first glass negative. Many thanks to Monsieur Louis Désiré Blanquart-Evrard. For the longest time I’ve struggled to control the fogging brought on by long exposures and long development. I did not want to do intensification or re-development. It’s quite a balance between exposure and development to get a dense negative.

The Print

Negative density range: 2.14 – 0.64 = 1.50
Albumen: 1.5% sodium chloride with vinegar
Paper: 9×11 Canson Universal Sketch (aka. Crob ‘Art) single coated (float method)
Sensitization: 12% silver nitrate, rod method
Exposure: 5 minutes next time I’ll fire up the NuArc.

I bought a few turn of the century glass negatives from E-bay – we’ll see how those turn out next!


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