Category: Salt Print

Salt Prints and The Edinburgh Calotype Club

Edinburgh has a long history of Salt Prints. Ranging back to the late 1830’s Hill and Adamson used the technique to produce prints using Talbot’s process. One of their subjects was the fishing village of Newhaven.

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Last summer Edinburgh LoFi had an Extraordinary Meeting of the Edinburgh Calotype Club at Newhaven, to pay homage to the first photographic society in the world.

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Some of the negatives have now been made into Salt Prints and a Japanese bound album has been made to hold them.

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Salt Prints – The Basics

Salt Printing involves 4 stages –

  • Salting the paper.
  • Sensitising the paper.
  • Exposing the image onto the paper.

exposure

  • Fixing the image onto the paper.

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Salt Printing Basics – PDF

Please be aware that the chemicals used are dangerous, ensure that you are familiar with and use all safety precautions necessary.

Further reading –

  • The Salt Print Manual by Ellie Young
  • The Book of Alternative Photographic Processes by Christopher James
  • Spirits of Salts: Working Guide to Old Photographic Processes by Randall Webb