Experience the Unmatched Beauty of Platinum/Palladium Prints
Platinum/Palladium (Pt/Pd) printing stands as the definitive pinnacle of fine black and white photography. This meticulously handcrafted process involves coating exquisite paper with a sensitive blend of platinum and palladium salts, then exposing it in direct contact with a negative. The result? A print of unparalleled depth, permanence, and artistic value, coveted by collectors and photographers alike. Notably, Pt/Pd prints boast exceptional fade resistance, ensuring your images endure for generations.
We utilize the Malde-Ware chemistry, a system that closely mirrors the original historical platinum printing techniques. This ammonium-based printing-out process unlocks a richer concentration of noble metals compared to conventional methods, yielding a superior dMax (maximum density), smoother tonal transitions, and heightened sharpness. We maintain a precise 50/50 platinum and palladium ratio in all our prints, allowing us to control the final tone through humidity and sensitizer adjustments, offering a choice between a near-neutral or subtly warm aesthetic. Rest assured, every print contains at least 50% platinum, allowing you to confidently label them as "Platinum Prints."
Our studio employs a unique Pt/Pd printing approach, distinguished by our proprietary calibration method. Leveraging our advanced Piezography® digital negative system, we've overcome the challenges traditionally associated with in-camera negatives. Piezography digital negatives, crafted with ten shades of monochromatic inks, capture an extraordinary range of shadow and highlight detail, surpassing even the finest film processes. This system provides a linear, calibrated workflow, ensuring a seamless translation from your screen to the final print. With our process, guesswork is eliminated, and proofing becomes largely unnecessary. You precisely control the highlights and tones, achieving exactly the look you envision. Our "what you see is what you print" philosophy sets us apart, guaranteeing exceptional accuracy and artistic control.
Perfect Negatives!
Perfect Prints!
(50% platinum/50% palladium, methodology 3 ammonium ferric oxalate, 58%rH, Revere Platinum paper 22x30 - photo by: Steven Friedman.)
You can come and work with us in collaboration or we can print remotely for you.
When you come to work in collaboration with us in our studio you pay $450 for the day and you receive 40% off our published rates. Our exposures using the verifiedUV™ system are only 60 seconds. Besides benefitting with better dMax and smoother tonalities, you can expect to make a lot of prints and each matching yours or our display.
Platinum / Palladium Print
This is the most collectible, permanent, fade-resistant of any photographic process. For this medium, we invented a calibration method for making digital negatives that produce platinum/palladium prints that match a calibrated display. Really no need to make small proofs and waste expense. We use the Malde-Ware method also known as the ammonium printing out method. Our sensitizer is made of 50% platinum and 50% palladium. We can offer a variety of tones from this sensitizer which range from very warm through neutral and into slightly coolish neutral. The dMax of our process is better than the potassium based develop-out method. We prefer to use Revere Platinum paper as we believe it offers the best Malde-Ware print. We can offer you other materials if you prefer. Currently we are offering a near neutral or a semi-warm. Interestingly, both are made from the same 50-50 mixture of platinum/palladium. The difference is the iron solution.
| PiezoDN Digital Negatives for Platinum / Palladium produced for our darkroom | |
| Up to 11x15 film size | $75 each |
| Up to 16x20 film size | $120 each |
| Up to 20x24 film size | $150 each |
| Up to 22x30 film size | $200 each |
| Up to 24x36 film size | $300 each |
| Up to 30x44 film size | $400 each |
| PiezoDN Digital Negatives for Platinum / Palladium produced for YOUR darkroom | |
| Up to 11x15 film size | $95 each |
| Up to 16x20 film size | $140 each |
| Up to 20x24 film size | $170 each |
| Up to 22x30 film size | $220 each |
| Up to 24x36 film size | $300 each |
| Up to 30x44 film size | $400 each |
DIGITAL NEGATIVE CALIBRATION TO YOUR DARKROOM requires 2-3 iterations of processing and measurements. Each iteration is $150 and includes a film target for you to expose, process, dry and return for measurements.
Platinum Prints on Revere Platinum paper
Maximum Image Size and paper will have about 2" margins unless specified by client. Your choice of clean margins (rod coated) or brushed margins (brushing outside image area is allowed to expose black).
| Platinum/Palladium 50/50 | 1st print | 2nd - 4th | 5+ |
| 6x7 | $240 | $170 |
$150 |
| 8x10 | $320 | $225 | $195 |
| 10x12 | $380 | $266 | $232 |
| 11x15 | $410 | $285 | $250 |
| 13x19 | $560 | $395 | $345 |
| 16x20 | $695 | $530 | $435 |
| 17x22 | $795 | $555 | $485 |
| 18x24 | $895 | $630 | $545 |
| 20x24 | $980 | $785 | $640 |
| 22x30 | $1200 | $1000 | $910 |
| 30x40 (On Arches Platine) | $4800 | $4400 | $4040 |
All platinum/palladium prints are cleared using the Ware process guaranteeing stability. Therefore, we offer prints with white paper margins or prints in which the hand brushing of emulsion past the image is permitted to go black.
PIEZODN DIGITAL NEGATIVES
We can produce negatives calibrated to your studio for your own alt process printing.
The PiezoDN negative is a new invention from Cone Editions Press. We found that printing with up to 10 shades of monochrome ink (from dark to light) enables incredibly smooth and dependable tones coupled with high-resolution, and very opaque dMax. These qualities are all required if you are going to spend $$$ on Platinum/Palladium salts. A Platinum print is only as good as its weakest link and usually that is the negative. With PiezoDN we finally have a negative that is capable of printing the fine details from a drum scan or high-megapixel digital camera. The negatives also have incredibly subtle tonal transitions and we can calibrate them perfectly.
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Custom Calibration (for your darkroom)
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| requires 2-3 iterations of processing and measurements. Each iteration is $150 and includes a film target for you to expose, process, dry and return for measurements. Calibration is stored @ Cone Editions Press and digital negatives are made from this calibration for the client and their own home darkroom. We currently do not support silver neg printing. |