Topic: Salt prints query

[irv_b]

 I hurt my back gardening last weekend , so I have been off work this week and with the nice sunny weather, I thought that it would be good to finally try out some salt prints but as you can see I am not getting the desired results.
Rather than turning brown when getting exposed to the sun it is going to a bluish steely grey colour. I have left it for varying amounts of time. 
The print is coming out with a more washed out yellowy brown tint rather than the expexcted chocolate brown colour after processing
I have remade my Hypo fixer to see if it is that but no difference.
The silver nitrate solution is 12% and the paper is Arches Platine
Any ideas anyone, should I change the salt solution fron 2% as I am using domestic sea salt?

[Francois]

I know that changing the type of salt used will affect tone.
Since that is the cheapest thing to do, I would try it with something else.
Your sea salt might be more potassium chloride than anything. Try one with just regular table salt.


I know Analogue Andy does a lot of them (https://www.youtube.com/@analogueandy8x10)

Also, one of the guys of the Large Format Photography Podcast gets the nickname "The Sultan Of Salts", so that says something (I think it's Amish Gill)

[jharr]

Make sure your salted paper is BONE DRY before you brush on the silver nitrate. Then make sure that is BONE DRY before exposing it. Put a mark on your paper somewhere to remind you which side is salted. I have salted one side and silvered the other and that makes for sub-optimal prints! I agree with Francois about trying regular table salt (iodized) just to make sure the sea salt doesn't have some unusual impurity. I do small 35mm contact prints until I have things dialed in, then move up to bigger negatives.

Good luck!