The Albumen Print

By Mark Osterman Commercially made albumen paper was available to photographers by the mid-1850s. Despite the availability of a reasonably good product most photographic manuals of the period included directions for preparing ones own albumen paper. The following basic directions for the preparation and printing of albumenized paper are based on 19th century texts and 21st century empirical research. Equipment and Supplies required for the Preparation of Albumen 300 ml glass beaker 1000 ml glass beaker 2000 ml glass beaker Hand or electric mixer Suction pipette with rubber bulb Large glass mixing bowl Plastic spatula Large plastic spoon 5 liter plastic bucket (for settling beaten albumen) 2000 ml glass storage jar with tight fitting lid Scale for measuring dry chemicals Large plastic funnel with wide spout (for filtering) 5x5 piece of flannel cloth (for filtering) 5 dozen large chicken eggs Ammonium Chloride

I. Separating the Whites from the Yokes

Separate the yokes from the whites of five dozen large chicken eggs. Crack each egg against the edge of the 300 ml beaker and allow the white to fall into that beaker. Put the yoke into the 1000 ml glass beaker and the egg shell in a plastic lined trash can. The yokes can be kept for baking. If the white contains any of the stringy white chalazae, remove it using the suction pipette and discard into the yoke beaker. When you are satisfied that the egg white is clear of chalazae, pour the white into the 2000 ml beaker. Continue this procedure until all the whites are in the 2000 ml beaker. Should a yoke break during this procedure, discard both the white and yoke mixture into the yoke beaker and clean the 300 ml beaker thoroughly before proceeding. It is important not to have any yoke fall into the 2000 ml beaker of egg whites.

II. Adding the Chloride and Breaking down the Protein

Typically 5 dozen eggs will produce around 1700 ml pure albumen, but due to yoke breakage your results may differ. Measure the quantity of pure egg whites. For every 100 ml of albumen, measure out 1.8 grams ammonium chloride. When added to the albumen this will make a 1.8 % chloride solution. Pure albumen is made up of protein sacks that need to be broken down to a more fluid state before it can be used for coating paper. This can be done mechanically with an egg beater or by aging the albumen or both. Chemical additives such as chlorides, acids or alkalis will contribute to the breakdown of the protein sacks. Of the aforesaid options, mechanical combined with some aging are the best choices. Pour about 300 ml of the albumen into the glass mixing bowl and into this add some of the chloride; around 6 grams, though the actual quantity is not important. Beat this albumen with the mixer until you have white foam with stiff peaks. When the mixing bowl is turned over the foam should be so firm that it will not fall out. Using the large spoon put the beaten albumen into the 5 liter plastic settling bucket. Repeat these steps until all the albumen and ammonium chloride are thoroughly beating and placed into the bucket. When done, stir the albumen thoroughly, cover loosely and allow the foam to settle overnight. The next morning you will find that 95% of the albumen has settled as a clear yellow fluid covered with a thin hardened top layer of white foam. Pour the clear albumen into a glass storage jar and discard the foam. Albumen can be stored in glass containers at room temperature for weeks and can be used as long as its clear of visible solids. The albumen will be naturally alkaline and will smell of ammonia when first made. If the albumen becomes acid over time it will allow bacteria to form. Eventually the acid albumen will putrefy and give off a nauseating gas. Despite the rotten smell, stinky albumen was used and even preferred by some paper coaters in the 19th century. Tinted Albumen Albumen papers were available in natural, pink, blue and green tints by the 1880. If you wish to make tinted papers add water soluble dye diluted first in a little water to the albumen. Stir well and filter the albumen using a funnel with a piece of flannel cloth taped over the end of the spout.

III. Coating Paper with Albumen

Equipment and Supplies required for Coating with Albumen (for 8x10 prints) Canson CrobArt Acid Free Sketch Paper 9x12 Ref:797-101 Large Pyrex baking dish

Large plastic funnel with large spout opening for filtering Scotch Brite Scouring pad Scissors 4 Drying rods Drying box Hot plate 2 Pressing boards Cut a round patch of the Scotch Brite pad and press this firmly into the bottom of the funnel deep into the spout. Pour the albumen into the funnel, keeping the spout against the bottom of the dish so that it gently filters into the dish without causing bubbles. Pour enough albumen into the dish to fill it about from the bottom. Cut 1 off the paper along the long end of the Crob Art paper so that the sheet will fit in the Pyrex dish. Keep this long strip for skimming the albumen. Dust, hairs and bubbles can be drawn off the surface and up against the side of the dish using the skimming strip Skimming the albumen should be done each time before you float a sheet of paper. Fold a margin along each end of the paper you are going to coat. Holding the paper by these upturned ends, allow the paper to bow down in the center. Lower the paper so that the nearest end of the bow touches the surface of the albumen and then lower the entire bowed section. After the center section is in contact, lower each end of the paper until the entire sheet is floating. Hold the paper in contact with the albumen by resting your hands on the ends of the dish and gently pressing against the upturned ends of the paper. Once you sense the paper is settled, pick up one end of the paper and inspect for bubbles. Pop the bubbles with your finger or a small brush and gently lay the paper back onto the albumen. Check the other end the same way. Keep the paper on the albumen for two more minutes making sure that the four corners are making contact. Drying the Paper with a Drying box Hold the paper by one of the corners. Gently and with no sudden movements lift the paper from the surface of the albumen. The first corner you grasp should be kept higher than the rest while you clip the paper onto the drying rod. Attach one end of the folded edge and then the opposite end of the paper. Once clipped, slowly draw your index finger along the bottom of the paper several times to remove the excess albumen and carefully hang the paper in the drying box. When first placed in the box avoid dripping directly onto the hot plate as this will burn and smoke. Once the coating begins to set you can pick off the remaining drips with your fingers and move the paper directly over the hotplate until the paper is thoroughly dry. The entire drying process will be complete before you have a chance to coat and hang three more sheets, so you will only need three drying rods for your box.

Uneven coating in the form of drips and ridges is usually due to either the albumen not thoroughly broken down or sudden movements when handling the wet coated paper. A drop or two of a surfactant such as Kodak Photo-Flo or natural oxgall (available at art supply stores in the watercolor section) added to the albumen will help. Surfactants, called spreaders in the 19th century, break down the surface tension and will make the albumen drain from the paper more evenly, but at the cost of reduced gloss because more albumen will fall from the paper during the drying step. Flatten the dried albumen paper between thick, smooth, flat boards with the albumen sides facing each other in pairs. Flattening the albumenized paper makes either double coating or sensitizing much easier.

IV. Sensitizing Albumen Paper

Equipment and Supplies required for Sensitizing Large Pyrex baking dish Silver nitrate crystals Acetic acid pH test strips (8-12 range) Plastic clip pants hangers 1 diameter pole 5 long 60 watt household lamp Silver Nitrate Distilled water Glacial Acetic Acid pH test strips (2-5 range) Albumen paper, or any other silver chloride printing out type paper, can be sensitized under average household tungsten lighting as these papers are mostly sensitive to blue and ultra violet light. Once the papers are sensitized they should be allowed to dry in the dark and used as soon as possible for best results. Acetic or citric acid was often added to the silver solution to retard the reaction of the strong silver content with chloride, which causes pre-exposure reduction of silver. If you are working in a warm place or in a group workshop addition of a restrainer is a necessity to produce clean prints. A strong silver formula may seem to be wasteful but a higher percent silver bath will chemically harden the albumen layer giver a higher gloss. 500 ml distilled water 100 grams Silver Nitrate (this is a 20% solution) Acetic Acid as needed to prevent yellowing (usually to test pH 3.5) [Silver Nitrate is corrosive and will destroy anything organic including skin, cloth, wood, iron. Use rubber gloves if you are sensitive to the corrosive action of silver

nitrate or want to avoid indelible black stains on your skin. Silver nitrate splashed in the eyes can cause serious injury.] Floating the Paper This technique is identical to floating paper on the albumen. Pour the silver solution into the tray and skim off any bubbles or debris with a slip of paper. Float the paper for one minute and hang by clipping the corners using the pants hanger. Blot off the silver drippings for a minute or two, then affix the bottom two corners of the paper to a second pants hanger that has had the heavy hanger section removed. This acts as a weighted stretcher, keeping the paper flat during the drying process. Dry the paper with the lights off. Once dry, keep the sensitive paper in a light tight box until needed. [Its very important that the clips on the pants hanger used above are plastic not steel or they will contaminate the paper]

V. Printing
The formula of 1.8% salting and 21% silver sensitizing included in these instructions was chosen for printing from vintage collodion negatives of the 1860-70 era. The relative percentages make a paper that produces rich density in the maximum density areas and the high silver content contributes to chemically harden the albumen surface. Weak silver solutions combined with albumen paper salted to an appropriate percentage will produce good tones, but the lower silver content will not harden the albumen. Loss of albumen in the silver bath makes the bath discolor faster and results in a loss of gloss in the final image. Equipment and Supplies required for Printing Split back photographic printing frames (found in antiques shops and on line auctions) UV light unit or sun shine Tracing paper Charcoal pencil Glue stick or mucilage glue and a small paint brush Masking tape Scissors Printing The albumen process does not require a developer to bring out the image. The sensitized paper will darken to its maximum density by exposure to light. When placed in contact with a negative and exposed to sunlight albumen paper will form a complete image given enough time. The thin areas of the negative will allow light to exposure the paper faster in the beginning, but the dark purple/red silver that forms on the paper acts as a filter to

slow down the printing process in these areas. This gives the highlights of the picture time to print out. This filtering effect is called self masking. Place the negative in the printing frame so that the collodion (image) side is up. Cut the albumen paper to the size of the opening of the printing frame and place the sheet albumen side down, facing the negative. Close and secure the back of the printing frame and place the frame in the sun or under the UV unit with the window facing the light source. Exposure is evaluated by removing the printing frame from the light source and inspecting progress in a darkened environment. Open the larger side of the printing frame back and make an evaluation. If the print needs more exposure, close the back and continue exposure. Most people err by underexposing. The image should be printed much darker than the finished tonality to account for the processing steps. [If you are printing from a valuable negative, place a thin sheet of clear Mylar over the plate before the albumen paper to prevent the migration of silver nitrate from the surface of the paper to the plate.] Contrast Manipulation Tissue Overlays: The most important factor in the quality of the final print is the character of the negative. It is very difficult to make a great print from a weak or thin negative. Slowing down the printing process will increase the contrast. The easiest way to do this is to tape one to three layers of tracing paper over the top window of the printing frame. Frosted white or ground glass can also be used Fuming: Raising the pH of sensitized paper with ammonia is a very effective means to increase contrast. This is done by taping the corners of the paper, albumen side out, on the underside of a lid from a large plastic storage box. Place a layer of cotton wadding in the bottom of the box and drizzle an ounce or two of household ammonia upon the cotton. Secure the lid and fume the paper from 1-4 minutes. Remove the paper and allowed to out gas for a minute before placing it in the printing frame. Fuming should not be done in the same room you are processing the prints. Retouching: If the negative has areas that would benefit from holding back some exposure, the technique of dodging is not practical when printing with a printing frame. Retouching on the collodion/varnished side of portrait negatives was done by scuffing the surface with a

fine powdered abrasive to create some tooth. Graphite pencils were then used to apply density where needed. Water soluble opaque medium was also applied to either side of the negative. This was either graphite (black) or iron oxide (red or yellow) mixed with a gum binder. Opaque was applied on the collodion/varnish side in the skies of landscape negatives where the sky met buildings or landscape. The majority of the sky however was blocked out on the glass side of the negative by gluing masks of black, orange or red paper. A layer of tissue paper could also be placed on the glass side of the negative and density added by applying graphite or charcoal. The paper was secured to the edges of the glass side of the negative using a few dots of gum based mucilage before retouching. Glue stick can also be used. The retouching can be applied with charcoal pencils and smoothed with the fingertips or a paper stump. Black, red and blue were used for this technique.

VI. Processing the Print

The processing room for albumen printing need not be as dark as a typical 20th century darkroom. As long as sunlight is kept from this room you may work under average household lighting. Equipment and Supplies required for Processing Workroom with long sink, running water and a couple of 60 watt tungsten lights Scale Glass stirring rods 6 large Pyrex glass baking dishes (one should be a dark color) Assorted glass beakers and one tall, thin 10 ml graduate (for the gold stock solution) 200 ml brown bottle for gold chloride stock solution pH test papers (6-9 range) blotting paper Distilled water 1 gram gold chloride Sodium thiosulfate Sodium sulfite Sodium bicarbonate

Chemical Formulas
Gold toning formulas The first gold toning formulas of the early 1850s were made by combining gold chloride to a solution of hypo. If you want to try this sel dor method of toning add 4 grains gold

chloride to 700 mls of a 15 % hypo bath and tone/fix for about ten minutes. By the 1860s, a separate toning bath was used just before the fixing step. Most gold toning formulas in the 19th century were made with gold chloride and a pH modifier. The gold was added to water by the grain and the modifier was added by test using litmus paper. There are many different chemicals that can be added to change the pH of the gold solution. The following formula works well to produce purple brown tones and can be used immediately after mixing. More gold can be added during the printing session if it seems to slow down, but it should be discarded at the end of the day. Gold Chloride Stock Solution Gold chloride is sold in glass ampules containing 1 gram. Remove the top (or break the sealed ampule) and place the entire container into a 200 ml brown glass bottle containing 154 ml distilled water. Because 1 gram is equal to 15.4 grains, every time you need a single grain of gold for a toning formula measure 10 ml of the stock solution. Working solution of Bicarbonate Gold Toner 700 ml distilled water 10 ml gold stock solution (1 grain) Sodium bicarbonate added to test pH 8 Fixing Bath 1000 ml tap water 150 grams sodium thiosulfate Teaspoon sodium bicarbonate Hypo Clearing Bath 1000 ml tap water 20 grams sodium sulfite Workroom Preparation Before adding the chemicals and washes clean all the glass dishes with powdered rottenstone or any mild abrasive cleanser and a sponge. Rinse carefully with copious amounts of tap water and then distilled water. Arrange the Pyrex glass baking dishes in the sink in the following: 1. 2. 3. 4. Tap water wash (dark glass baking dish) Gold toning tray Tap water wash Fixer (sodium thiosulfate)

5. Tap water wash 6. Hypo clear (sodium sulfite 7. Final water wash

The Procedure of Processing

1. Remove the print from the printing frame and place the print into the first wash. In a few seconds you will notice a white milky precipitate of silver chloride due to the excess silver mixing with chlorine in the water. If you do not have chlorinated water add a pinch of salt to the dish of water. Replenish the water until you do not see any more precipitate. Failure to remove the excess silver will make the toning step ineffective. The print will have turned a reddish color during the first wash. 2. Place the washed print into the toning bath and gently rock the tray throughout the toning process. The print will gradually change to a purple brown tonality. The longer you tone the cooler the final print. Prints should be toned for at least 4 minutes. If toned too quickly the toning may be ineffective. Dilute the toner with water if it tones too quickly. As you use the toning bath, toning may take as long as 15 minutes. If it takes too long add more gold chloride stock solution. 3. Place the toned print into the next washing bath and rock the tray gently for three minutes. Replenish the water when done. 4. Place the print into the fixing bath and gently rock the tray throughout the fixing process. Fix for 5 minutes. The print will lighten in the fixing bath. The degree to which it lightens is dependant on how strongly it was toned. 5. Place the fixed print into the next washing bath and rock the tray gently for three minutes. Replenish the water when done. 6. Place the print into the hypo clearing bath and gently rock the tray throughout the clearing process. 7. Place the print into the final wash tray. Rock the tray gently and turn the print over frequently throughout the final wash. Replace the water several times and wash for at least 20 minutes. 8. Remove the washed print and place it image side up on a sheet of clean blotting paper. Blot the print gently with a sheet of paper towel to remove the standing water. After blotting, place a second sheet of blotter on top of the print and leave this until the print has dried completely. Drying between blotters will reduce the amount of curling as the albumen surface shrinks during the drying process.

Specialized Equipment Most of the materials and supplies needed for making albumen prints are easily found. Unfortunately the Canson Crob Art paper can only be purchased in France, but other papers can be used provided they have a smooth surface and can stand extended washing. The drying box required for coating the paper can be as simple as a 15 x 20 x 30 cardboard box with the lid removed. The hot plate goes into the bottom of the box with the cord extending through a small hole in the side. The four drying rods for albumenizing are easily made by securely gluing (or screwing) two wooden spring type clothes pins 12 apart (on center) onto a 1 x 1 x 17 piece of wood. The hanger/stretchers for drying the sensitized paper can be found at any home store. Buy the wood type pants hangers with plastic spring clips that slide on a metal rod. Buy them in pairs and cut the sliding clip assembly from one to use as a weighted stretcher that is secured to the bottom of the sensitized paper.

Copyright 2007 Mark Osterman, Process Historian Advanced Residency Program in Photograph Conservation George Eastman House, International Museum of Photography, Rochester, NY