Platinum / Palladium printing

Platinum printing is considered to be the most beautiful and coveted of black & white photographic printing processes. It's main characteristic is the overwhelmingly soft gray tonal range. No other photographic process expresses gray tones as softly and elegantly. The platinum and palladium reflects light back to the viewers eyes with much greater depth. There is simply no other comparative process.

It's dMax (how black it gets) is not high. One does not choose this medium because it gets very dark (choose Carbon printing for that!). One chooses this process because it is abslutely the finest method of photographic printing using valuable and rare noble metals that bond to the fibers of the archival paper. It has a similar longevity as our Carbon printing, but with a much different panache. It is the most collectible of historical photographic process.

First invented in 1878, our Malde-Ware process remains the most unchanged  in terms of modern process, of Pizzghelli improved process using ammonium. We produce a Piezography digital negative for contact printing. The archival Fabriano Platinum paper is sensitized by hand using either a coating rod or a brush depending upon whether you prefer white unprinted margins or the exposed characteristic brush marks of historical platinum printing. Our chemistry has a higher proportion of platinum than it does palladium making these true platinum prints. We offer a near neutral tone, or a warm tone. Your option and we use a different iron solution to affect the final tone.