Handmade Kallitype Fine Art Printmaking

Kallitype is a contact printing method similar to platinum/palladium but for a fraction of the cost. You get a lot more creative freedom to create unique and expressive artwork.

You start by selecting your fine art paper of choice, hand-coating ferric oxalate and silver nitrate as your light-sensitive sensitizer, and then exposing your negative with UV light in direct contact with your fine art paper to make your fine art kallitype print.

Instead of using very expensive platinum or palladium in the sensitizer, we use silver nitrate and ferric oxalate. Traditional platinum/palladium prints require ferric oxalate and platinum and/or palladium directly in the sensitizer, which is very expensive.

By toning with precious metals (i.e., platinum, palladium, gold) at a much lower dilution, we can achieve new colors that are impossible with platinum/palladium and get the same archival benefits without the big expenses.

Below, you will learn many other similarities between kallitypes and platinum and palladium prints that I think you will be excited about. The kallitype process is easy, but it has many variables that allow for an incredible degree of control and manipulation to shape the mood, feeling, and aesthetics of your kallitype prints.

Why should you bother learning how to make kallitype prints?

A kallitype print toned with palladium or platinum is in every way an exact equivalent, visually and in terms of image permanence, of a platinum/palladium print.

-Sandy King

And to boot, you can make a kallitype for a fraction of the cost of platinum/palladium prints and you can do this without compromise. The way that I teach you how to tone your kallitypes with precious metals (i.e., platinum, palladium, or gold) is economical and highly cost-effective for making your kallitypes archival.

I teach you how to achieve colors with your kallitypes that is impossible to do with platinum/palladium.

If you are looking for a path to make handmade expressive fine art gallery-quality prints, you are in the right place.

If you are ready to make expressive handmade kallitype fine art prints that align with your creative vision, let me walk you through the entire workflow using my no-nonsense approach that teaches you everything you need to know without the unnecessary noise and distractions.

WHAT CONTENT AM I CREATING FOR YOU?

Like in all my workshops and guidebooks, I take a no-nonsense approach and walk you through the process of creating kallitype prints step by step.

I don’t feel any need to include a bunch of “fluff” to make a publisher happy, and based on my real-world, hands-on experience, I streamline the step-by-step process for you so that you can master the process quickly.

In this new series of videos, I walk you through making beautiful contemporary kallitype K II prints using real large format silver gelatin paper negatives.

If you want to use other types of negatives, you can do that and use my documented workflow to help you do that.

I share every detail you need to expose, develop, and use Ilford Warmtone Semi-Matte fiber paper as a negative. I do all the time-consuming and extensive tests so you can get busy making your prints immediately.

I create clear step-by-step instructions on mixing and creating the chemistry for every step to consistently make beautiful kallitype prints that equal or rival platinum/palladium prints.

Join my Tim Layton Fine Art Analog Photography monthly membership and get access to my latest kallitype videos and the rest of my entire video training library for only $20 per month.

BASIC kallitype THEORY

The chemistry of a kallitype can be traced back to John Herschel’s paper “On the Action of the Rays of the Solar Spectrum on Vegetable Colours, and on Some New Photographic Processes.”, in 1842.

It wasn’t until 1889 when W. Nichol patented what we know as the kallitype print. Nichol created several patents during the early 1890s, and the kallitype that is made today by mixing a 20% ferric oxalate with a 10% silver nitrate solution was the very last patent and the one that most people use today. I refer to these prints as K II.

The earlier versions use a lower dilution of ferric oxalate as the sole element for the sensitizer, and the silver nitrate is part of the developer. I call these types of kallitype’s K I.

We focus on the K II kallitypes, and at some point, I will publish something for the K I kallitypes. The K I variant deserves a separate effort because the process differs significantly from the newer K II version. The amount of variables that can shape the print’s aesthetics is nearly mind-blowing.

The ferric oxalate in the kallitype as well as the platinum and palladium prints is an important distinction over other similar prints because it allows you to achieve much darker shadow values (DMAX), and you can manipulate the contrast, which allows you to print with a wide variety of negatives in varying densities. This is really important because many other processes require very dense and high-contrast negatives, which is a common issue and stumbling block for contemporary photographers.

The kallitype is a developing out process just like platinum and palladium, and in fact, you can use the same developers for any of these types of prints.

A kallitype print starts with you selecting a paper of choice. The same papers you use for platinum and palladium prints will work perfectly with kallitypes. Papers such as Arches Platine, Hahnemuhle Platinum Rag, Bergger COT, Rive BFK, and many others make beautiful kallitype prints.

Mix a sensitizer with a ferric oxalate and silver nitrate solution and hand coat it on your paper with a dedicated brush or a glass coating rod.

Put the wet paper in a paper safe and let it fully dry before placing your negative in contact with the sensitized paper under ultraviolet light.

You can use the sun or a dedicated UV light source for a highly repeatable and reliable exposure method. Since the kallitype is a contact printing process, just like platinum, palladium, and many others, you need a negative the same size as your final print.

While it is possible to use digital negatives, I show you how to expose and develop large format paper negatives to make beautiful kallitype prints.

If you want to use a digital negative, you can use the same process you use for platinum/palladium, and this should work just fine.

If you need to adjust the contrast, that is easily done by adding potassium dichromate. I walk you through how to do this with real large format paper negatives, and it is the same process for digital negatives too.

After exposure, you follow the typical development, clearing, toning, fixing, and washing process just like you do with platinum/palladium prints except toning your kallitype with platinum, palladium, and/or gold before fixing.

Not only does the precious metal toning make your kallitype just as permanent as platinum/palladium, but you have many more options to share the color and aesthetic of the kallitype, which makes it an incredible option for realizing your creative vision.

Join my Tim Layton Fine Art Analog Photography monthly membership and get access to my latest kallitype videos and the rest of my entire video training library for only $20 per month.

LIFECYCLE OF A KALLITYPE Print

You can watch the kallitype transform throughout the process in the images below. You can never correctly judge and adjust a kallitype until it fully dries. I let my prints dry overnight and evaluate them the next day.

STEP 1 – Select a fine art suitable paper of choice. In this example, this is Platinum Revere paper.

STEP 2 – Mix the sensitizer (ferric oxalate and silver nitrate), plus any additives, and hand coat the paper.

STEP 3 – After the sensitized paper is fully dry, sandwich your negative on top of the paper and expose with UV light.

STEP 4 – After the sensitized paper is exposed for the proper time, it needs to be developed to convert the image to metallic silver.

STEP 5 – I developed this print by using sodium citrate with potassium dichromate. Many different developers and additives can achieve a wide range of colors. I wanted a rich, warm-tone print, so I used the sodium citrate developer.

STEP 6 – After going through the clearing bath stage, the print changes again.

STEP 7 – After clearing, the print is toned with a precious metal such as palladium, platinum, gold, or a combination of them to convert the metallic silver to an archival precious metal print. As you can see, the print transforms through each step in the process.

STEP 8 – Next, the print goes through a series of fixing baths to stabilize the image. It continues to transform.

STEP 9 – The print goes through a hypo-clearing bath of sodium sulfite to help with the archival permanence.

STEP 10 – The print is washed for 60 minutes before hanging on a line to wick excess water off it before laying it face up on a drying screen for 24 hours.

This is the final dried-down print.

KALLITYPE BEHIND THE SCENES

I have several videos on my YouTube channel about Kallitype prints that you can watch and explore.