Freshwater Photography
A photographic print by Achim Boers made using an alternative printing process

Salt & Albumen Printing

Two-day workshop

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The workshop

Give your photographs a handmade surface

The paper is part of the photograph. In this two-day course, you will prepare your own papers and discover how salt and albumen printing give an image a different presence on the page.

Working with wet plate collodion negatives or digital negatives, we will make contact prints and compare tone, contrast and surface finish. I will explain the purpose of each material as we go, so you can connect the look of a print with the choices that produced it.

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Duration
2 days
Format
Salt prints and albumen prints
Teaching approach
Practical work supported by science
With
Achim Boers

What you’ll make

Salt and albumen contact prints, with an opportunity to compare their tone, contrast and surface finish.

What you’ll learn

  • Prepare paper for salt printing and albumen printing.
  • Understand the purpose of coating and sensitising the paper.
  • Make contact prints using wet plate collodion negatives or digital negatives.
  • Explore tonal control and contrast in your prints.
  • Compare the surface appearance of salt and albumen prints.
  • Learn finishing and preservation methods for your photographs.

Two-day programme

Day 1

Paper preparation and salt printing

Begin with the materials and prepare paper for your first contact prints.

  • An introduction to salt and albumen printing and their materials.
  • Preparing and sensitising paper for salt printing.
  • Working with wet plate collodion negatives or digital negatives.
  • Making contact prints and reviewing tone and contrast.

Day 2

Albumen printing and finishing

Explore albumen-coated paper and compare the results with the salt prints, then consider how to finish and preserve the work.

  • Preparing and coating paper with albumen.
  • Making contact prints and considering tonal control.
  • Comparing contrast and surface sheen across the two processes.
  • Finishing and preservation of the completed prints.

The science

Why the process works

We explore how paper preparation, sensitising and exposure work together in making a contact print. The practical work connects the materials you use with the appearance of the image.

Comparing salt and albumen prints gives you a way to examine tone, contrast and surface finish. The emphasis is on understanding your choices and using that knowledge when making further prints.

The history

Photography’s early paper prints

William Henry Fox Talbot’s experiments in the 1830s helped establish photography on paper. His negative-to-positive approach made it possible to produce more than one print from a single camera image.

In 1850, Louis Désiré Blanquart-Evrard introduced albumen printing, which became a major photographic printing process of the nineteenth century. Working with these papers today lets you explore how the surface itself contributes to a photograph.

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Contact me for upcoming dates, locations and availability.

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