Paladium Printing from Leica Monochrom digital files? youtube video

I saw an interesting video on YouTube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sDsUv4qPt6o. What the guy does is to go out with a Leica Monocrom camera (Monochrom is a black and white only digital) and creates digital files. He then works on them in computer and then prints to some kind of printer (no words in the video or explanation, but it looks like some kind of industrial printer which prints to film. May be an actual printer or a film recorder, can't tell) at full size to the print he wants to make. Note that in computer he "creates" a negative by inverting the image.

 

Then he takes a piece of paper (type unknown) and a chemical (presumably the paladium?) and spreads it out on the paper in daylight. Then he lays the "negative" print on top and then fits it into a frame. Effectively this is a contact print. He then places it inside a machine that projects a very bright light for some amount of time (unspecified). Then he removes it and you can see a very faint image. He puts it into a paper tray and pours another chemical (dark colored) on top and the print appears almost instantly. Eventually he takes it out and uses another chemical (fixer of some sort maybe?). And then he washes it. Very nice looking print.

 

Interesting that this is a digital to wet darkroom process and not the reverse. A hybrid process, but an odd one. Also interesting that most of the process is in room light. Of course the key part is that monster of a printer.

 

This probably all seems normal to a lot of you, but it was surprising for me.

It's not difficult and the process requires no specialized equipment. I've used Pictorico Premium Inkjet Transparency Film to produce negatives for contact printing with platinum and other alternative contact printing materials, as well as regular projection speed printing papers.

 

Pictorico Premium Inkjet OHP Transparency Film - 8.5x11/20 Sheets | Freestyle Photographic Supplies

 

Many years ago there were numerous companies making pre-coated platinum papers. I used to buy my machine coated platinum-palladium photographic papers from The Palladio Company, but they went out of business a few years back:

 

Why The Palladio Company Went Away: The True History of its Demise

 

Hand-coating your own platinum paper isn't that complicated. Bostick and Sullivan sells all the necessary materials, and can provide answers to all your questions.

 

Alternative Processes

 

Google "Digital negatives for alternative contact printing." There are many informative articles describing the process. Both Freestyle and Bostick & Sullivan have good info on their sites.

 

How to Make Digital Negatives | Freestyle Photographic Supplies

 

Bostick & Sullivan: Digital Negatives

 

You can also scan film negatives not large enough for contact printing, like 35mm and 120 RF, to create digital files, then print these onto inkjet transparency films to create larger contact prints.

Edited September 25, 2018 by sergio_ortega|7

Yes . . . This process has been around since the beginning of digital photography. Dan Burkholder wrote a book about it and Bostick and Sullivan used to have a service printing the negatives. This is more complicated that it appears because, in order to look photographic, the print files have to be created using, I believe it was called, a "stochastic pattern. This means that the image is a series of black dots of varying size and closeness instead of varying densities or grey. Many probably wouldn't worry about this anymore.