Sunday, May 8, 2011

albumen

The albumen process was invented in 1850 by Louis Desire Blanquart-Evrard. It was the first time that producing a print on a paper base from a negative became commercially exploitable. This resulted in its popularity for use as the method for printing the carte de visit, a trend in the mid 19th century of buying and trading small prints of friends, family, and famous persons. The print has a slight gloss which contributed to its appeal and made it unique in comparison to other processes of the time period.

The process involves an emulsion made of egg whites and salt, which the paper is dipped into and then dried. Before exposing, the paper is dipped in a solution of silver nitrate and water which activates the emulsion and allows the paper to become light sensitive. After drying again, the paper can be exposed to UV light with a negative in order to produce the image. The result is a brown colored print.
The fixing process involves Herschels standard fixing method involving solutions of hype and a rinse of water.

My experience: Following the same methods as the traditional recipe calls for, we coated the paper, hung it to dry, activated the emulsion, and exposed the image for a few minutes outside. The final result was a brown image with relatively wide tonality range and a slight gloss. We had trouble with the double coating, so my image only had one coat of albumen which had a less noticeable gloss than some of those that had two coats.
The process is also outlined in a previous blog entry




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