Archival Printing

Archival printing is process of hand printing your images from a film negative using a hard and soft developer. For this I used a fibre based light sensitive paper with fibre base chemicals. According to Parallx Photographic Coop, "Traditionally resin paper was used for contact sheets, proof prints, and snapshots, with fibre the go-to paper for exhibition prints."

They say that this is because;

"Fibre paper has a thicker base than resin, with a weight around 255g/sm or higher. The heavier weight is sometimes called “double weight”. Another term for Fibre Based paper is Baryta. This is because of the layer of baryta (barium sulphate) applied to the paper base before the emulsion. Baryta will give the paper a whiter base, brighten the image and bring out the tones, as well as provide a ground for the emulsion. On fibre the emulsion is able to sit in the grain of the paper, giving the image more depth and richness than resin."

The first step to printing using chemicals in this way is by first exposing the paper to the light that goes through the negative, using an enlarger.

To do this, we must first place the negative into the film holder spot in the enlarger using a holder that is an appropriate size for your negative.

You need to then ensure that your easel is set to the right size of the paper, taking your borders into account. 

Now turn on the constant light in the enlarger and put the lights off in the actual room. use the knobs either side of the enlarger to make sure your projected image will cover all of the easel. The left knob will allow you to move the head of the easel up and down and subsequently making the projection smaller and larger. This will need to be in focus too, use the right hand knob for this.

It's best to do this when the lens is wide open too, so set the aperture at f2.8, this will allow you to focus easier.

Once the image has been set to the right height, change the aperture back down again. A good starting point for this is f16.

Set the enlarger to grade 2, as it has a long tonal range.

We now need to set the timer. Start with a flash of 4 seconds for the whole piece of paper. You can turn on the red light in the room now, and then with the constant focus light on the enlarger OFF. with this, you can now put in your paper with the glossy side up. Ensure it's right against the edge of the easel in order to get accurate and straight borders.

Now turn on the timer and flash the paper for 4 seconds. now, without moving the easel or paper, change the timer to 2 seconds. cover the majority of your paper with something to block out the light. this will appear as strips of varying density in tone. Expose that strip for 2 seconds and move the object you're covering the paper with downwards to make another strip. continue this until you reach the end of the paper, around 8 separate strips is usually enough.

Now put that paper into the box it came in to make sure no light gets to it. You can then begin the development.

You need to set up some trays before you this, in order;

1. soft developer

2. hard developer

3. stop

4. fix

5. hypo clear

6. water

once the trays are set up you can now turn off the lights, put the to red lights and then take out your paper. Do as follows;

1. Place paper in soft developer for 50 seconds and agitate by rocking the tray backwards and forwards gently. After the 50 seconds you can hold the paper up by the corner and leave it to drip for 10 seconds. This soft developer will be to bring out the highlights in your image.
2. Put the paper in the hard developer for the same amount of time and the same agitation. Drip again for 10 seconds. The hard developer brings out the darker tones in the image.
3. Place the paper in the stop. This needs to be in there for 30 seconds face down, then turn it around the other way for another 30 seconds. This stops the development process. 
4. Put the paper in the fix tray for 3 minutes - don't agitate at this stage. This helps the paper to stop being sensitive to light and therefore helping the print last longer.
5. You can now turn on the lights as the paper is no longer sensitive to light. 
6. Put the paper in the hypo clear for 3 minutes to clear off any fixer that's left on the paper. This isn't necessary for test trips as we don't need them to last a long time however I find it's good to get into practise. 
7. Finally put the paper in a bath of running water to remove any excess chemicals. Do this for 10 minutes at least. 
8. Place the print on a drying rack and leave it to dry.

Once dried you can now see the different tones in the strips on your paper. Figure out which time you prefer as a whole, not forgetting the 4 second pre-flash.  Then go back to the enlarger and set up the same as before, only this time use the timer to the time you liked best in the test strip.This time don't use timing intervals or cover any up, just expose for the one set time.

Now go and develop it the same as before.

Preflash is also an option to reduce the contrast in your image. If it's too strong, it's a good idea to flash the paper with a burst of light without any negative in the holder. This small amount of exposure can limit the contrast in the image. 

You can also put the print in the developers for different times, as long as the times still make up 2 minutes. For example, 1 and a half minutes in the soft and 30 seconds in the hard will result in less dark tones.

these are my final 3 images from tray printing. For the first one, i did 1 minute in each developer. For the second image i used the soft developer for 1minute 30 seconds and the hard developer for 30 seconds, making for the print to be lighter. The other final print is done using 1 minute 30 seconds in the hard developer and 30 seconds in the soft developer. This increases contrast to the image and makes things a bit darker.
This final image is my favourite of the 3 because it shows much more detail in the statue which is my main subject point.



https://parallaxphotographic.coop/the-difference-between-resin-coated-and-fibre-based-paper/