Kallitype Developers Comparison

5/13/2023

Yutaka Suzue

Introduction

There are many numerous developer recipes for Kallitype. And even some basic developers can result the variety of tonalities of black, sepia, reddish brown and so on. I took a chance to measure and compare several developers. I selected these five types:

• Bostick-Sullivan Black Developer
• Bostick-Sullivan Ammonium Citrate Developer
• Sodium Acetate Developer
• Sodium Citrate 20% Developer
• Classic Borax Developer

The purpose in conducting these comparisons is to better understand each developer’s unique characteristics, so I can refer to these results when choosing which one to use for future images. This exercise also provides valuable practice in making consistent prints.

Measurement and Comparison Process

Test Document

I’ve prepared this Black and White test photoshop document.

This document has my three favorite images, highlight and shadow contrast, gradations in circle and square and 51 steps wedge. These components can show the performance of those developers, and it is easy for me to read and understand the characters.

I understand that the print quality may vary due to various factors such as temperature, humidity, water quality or uneven brush stroke.

Synthesizer and Coating

Kallitype Synthesizer A – 10% Silver Nitrate

Kallitype Synthesizer B – 20% Ferric Oxalate

Kallitype Synthesizer A and B are mixed from powdered silver nitrate and ferric oxalate. I mixed them occasionally and have been using relatively fresh synthesizer (at most a few weeks ~ a month age).

Negative

I prepared a single digital negative image and used exact same negatives for all these developers. This is done purely for my convenience. I adjusted the curve based on the prints developed with Bostick-Sullivan Black Developer, so the curves are not optimized for each developer. Thus, this comparison shows the difference of the developer.

Exposure

All exposures are same and 3 minutes on my lightbox.

3 minutes seems to be a bit shorter for me so there is no much room to make a small adjustment. And the timing to stop the light may be severe. This is because it turned out that my light was too strong, and I reduced the LED bars and change the exposure time.

Development

I simply follow the develop and wash methods in PCNW.

• 8 min develop
• 5 min Wash with Citric Acid and running water
• 5 min EDTA
• 1 min Fix
• 2 min Hypo wash
• 20 min final was with running water

Developer Recipes

I referred Alternative Photographic Processes (by Christopher James) and Kallitype – the process and the history (by Dick Stevens)

Bostick Sullivan Black Developer

* Added 3g tartaric acid earlier

Sodium Acetate Developer

75g sodium acetate

3g tartaric acid

1 litter distilled water

Sodium Citrate Developer

200g sodium citrate

1 litter distilled water

Borax Developer

100g Borax

3g tartaric acid

1 litter distilled water

*Added 2g and 10g tartaric acid before printing with curve006

Building Curve

I started from my previous Kallitype curve (adjusted last November) with Bostick-Sullivan black developer. I made 5 prints for each developer and measure the stepwedge of the Bostick-Sullivan Black developer and adjust the curve again. Then I use this curve for next print for all developers and repeat this. Again, I’m pretty sure this won’t optimize for other 4 developers and it may not be good idea to share same adjustment for different developers, but it could show me that how other developer behaves for each curve change. And it also saved my time.

For now, I got two curves, curve-006, which was adjusted on last November and curve-007, which is newly adjusted. The curve-007 seems to be good for the black developer and Sodium Acetate developer. The curve-006 seems to be good for Sodium-Citrate and Ammonium Citrate. The results of Classic Borax are thinner and flatter with these curves and the current light strength. But it can show some interesting image and tone.

Here are two curves. The curve007 yields slightly darker.

Print Results

These are print results comparison for curve006 and curve007. All images are scanned by Epson V850 with VueScan (Neutral Color balance on 48bit RGB)

	Curve-006	Curve-007
Bostick-Sullivan Back Developer	raw-2023-05-10-006-Kallitype-BSBlackDev-Curve006-3min-AtHome.dng	raw-2023-05-12-001-Kallitype-BSBlackDev-Curve007-3min-AtHome.dng	Image with Curve007 show the good step wedge however the color is a bit warmer than expeted. Probably this is because of the room tempature? 78.5F and 43%RH
Sodium Acetate	raw-2023-05-10-002-Kallitype-SodiumAcetate-Curve006-3min-AtHome.dng	raw-2023-05-12-002-Kallitype-SodiumAcetate-Curve007-3min-AtHome.dng	I could consistently produce coolblack tone with this developer. Curve007 solved flatter mid to shadow area. The stepwedge measurement of 007 is very close but tiny steepness of highlight area gives some extra contrast.
Sodium Citrate	raw-2023-05-10-003-Kallitype-SodiumCitrate-Curve006-3min-AtHome.dng	raw-2023-05-13-001-Kallitype-SodiumCitrate-Curve007-3min-AtHome.dng	Brighter Sepia Brown tone. Curve006 already show smooth hightlige and shadow but the mid tone seems to be foggy. Curve007 is too dark.
Bostick-Sullivan Ammonium Citrate	raw-2023-05-10-004-Kallitype-AmmoniumCitrate-Curve006-3min-AtHome.dng	raw-2023-05-13-002-Kallitype-AmmoniumCitrate-Curve007-3min-AtHome.dng	I like this Rich Maroon Color but the tone was not consistent. Is it very sensitve for tempature or somehting wrong in my process? Curve006 is already darker but it still keep highlight. So this curve may be interesting to use for some images. Curve007 is too dark but the tone was changed from 006. Why??
Borax	raw-2023-05-10-005-Kallitype-Borax-Curve006-3min-AtHome.dng	raw-2023-05-13-003-Kallitype-Borax-Curve007-3min-AtHome.dng	Probably not perfect maxblack. And Borax developer itself is fragile and unstable. (It is easy to get cristalized and tone is changed unpredictablly at least to me)

Here is the measurement of the step wedge.

The blue line is the target and the perfect steps. It means 50% produces 50% gray.

The yellow line is the measurement of the gray scale value which was normalized from 0 to 100% from each scanned print.

Developer and Curve	Contrasts
BostickSullivan Black Developer Curve-006
BostickSullivan Black Developer Curve-007
Sodium Acetate Curve-006
Sodium Acetate Curve-007
Sodium Citrate Curve-006
Sodium Citrate Curve-007
Ammonium Citrate Curve-006
Ammonium Citrate Curve-007
Borax Curve-006
Borax Curve-007

Developer and Curve	Gradations
BostickSullivan Black Developer Curve-006
BostickSullivan Black Developer Curve-007
Sodium Acetate Curve-006
Sodium Acetate Curve-007
Sodium Citrate Curve-006
Sodium Citrate Curve-007
Ammonium Citrate Curve-006
Ammonium Citrate Curve-007
Borax Curve-006
Borax Curve-007

Problems and Learnings

Borax Crystallization

Borax developer crystalized quickly, and it is known that Tartaric Acid dissolve the crystals. I mixed it with 3g of Tartaric Acid to reduce the crystal. But the paper could not be washed well. Adding 2g more change the result a bit better. I added 10g more and the white part now could be washed properly. The tone is cooler as expected but the contrast seems to be lower. According to the Alternative Photographic Process, adding 15g to 20g of Tartaric Acid can dissolve the crystal.

Above test was done with this developer which crystalized once. I believe a fresh borax developer should have higher contrast.

3g Tartaric Acid	Added 2g more	Added 10g more

Dusts – too strong light

One day, I was unable to achieve a clear paper white during highlighting. Suspecting it might be due to washing, I replaced the water filter, increased the amount of tartaric acid, extended the washing time, and tried other adjustments, but nothing worked. At some point, I noticed an unusual amount of dust appeared as soon as I poured in the developer, which suggested the issue was related to exposure. To address this, I removed several UV LED tubes from my UV box and shortened the exposure time. Afterward, the paper white became clearer.

It turned out the problem was caused by my max black. I had to measure the max-black, though it’s still unclear why the issue started suddenly. As far as I can tell, I used the same synthesizer, lighting, and timing as before.

All of above tests were done using this new max black configuration.

Exposed Strong Light – old max black config	Exposed Adjusted Light – new max black config

Conclusion

The curve-007 is good for Bostick Sullivan Black developer now. I also noticed Sodium Acetate developer behaves similarly to the black developer. Not only the print results but also the color changes during developing, washing and fixed. Probably the black developer is based on Sodium Acetate.

Sodium Citrate and Ammonium Citrate resulted different type of brown tone. I have not had a chance to optimize the curve for these developers yet. However, it was good to know the curve 006 can be used as the starting point.

Borax developer was challenging to me. It was a bit hard to control to get a contrast.

Next Steps

Adjust curves for Sodium Citrate and Ammonium Citrate

Find max black and the curve for Borax

Explore some more classic developer such as Rochelle Salt.

Appendix

My Lightbox

I used my light box that I build a few years ago. I picked up cheap woods, ¼ inch-thick 2’-by-4’ boards and a few long ¾inch-by-1inch in HomeDepot. The box size is 20”x30”x12” and the front door is 30”x6”.

Then I installed 8 2ft bars but now I use only 4 bars since the LED was too strong.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B071NT6189/.