Salt printing…

Thought I’d have a go at Salt printing today.
A quick visit to the corner shop for some table salt. I already had silver nitrate.
The paper is just some old WHSmiths ring bound scrap book paper.

11g Silver Nitrate in 80ml Distilled H2O
10g Salt in 500ml of Distilled Water
PreWash salt bath

I used a very dilute Rapid Fix due to the lack of Sodium Thiosulphate. Maybe not a good idea but when needs must.

Paper was immersed in the salt solution for 5 minutes and then hung to dry. Coated with a cotton wool pad and one with a brush.
Salt1

Contact printed with window light. Overcast at midday, North light. Exposures of 30 -40 minutes.
Salt2

Salt3

When wet they had this lovely warm red/brown colour.
Salt4

When dry though its dark? brown but with less contrast.
Salt5

This one though from a glass dry plate neg has a totally different tone.
Salt6

It dried much greyer than the previous print. I wonder why?
Salt7

The other prints are from old digital negs for cyanotype and Van Dyke Browns that I had in a drawer.

Salt8

Salt9

So a quick exercise to see if the chem theory etc was right. It all seems to work just need to do it properly next time.