Niepceotypy: The Albumen on Glass Negative Process

by Mark Osterman

[Originally written as a manual for an albumen on glass workshop taught by

Mark Osterman and France Scully Osterman
at Maison Niepce, 2001]

History of the Process

It is generally acknowledged that Abel Niépce de Saint-Victor

invented the first photographic process applied to a glass support
in 1847. However, like so many other developments in the history
of photography, the story is much more complicated. Several others
contributed to the evolution of glass plate photography prior to
1847 and many more to the improvement of Niépce de Saint-
Victor’s invention soon after its introduction.

When Nicéphore Niépce, Niépce de Saint-Victor’s uncle, began his

heliograph experiments in 1817 he found that asphalt dissolved in
oil of lavender could be applied to a variety of surfaces. These
included pewter, copper, tinned iron, lithographic stone, silver-
coated copper and glass. The resulting images were permanent, but
the exposures required to make them were much too long for
practical use, particularly for portraiture.

Sir John Herschel created some images on glass in 1839 by

combining very dilute solutions of sodium chloride and silver
nitrate. The cloudy precipitate was allowed to settle on a piece of
glass lying on the bottom of a dish containing this solution. Once
dry, the plate was given a second application of silver nitrate and
exposed while still wet in a camera obscura. The image, which was
printed out, was then fixed in hypo and washed.

In 1840, William Henry Fox made some experiments involving

albumen on glass fumed with iodine and sensitized with silver
nitrate. He also tried several combinations; including albumen
salted with potassium iodide, but evidently did not have enough
success to publish his findings.

Alexander S. Wolcott of New York wrote to his friend John Johnson

in 1843 regarding experiments on the use of albumenized glass to
make photographic lantern slides. He reasoned correctly, that the
process was an adaptation of Talbot’s calotype process using the
very same chemicals for preparation, development and fixing.
Three months later he died at the age of 40. The letter was not
published until 1855.
John Whipple and William Jones, of Boston, Massachusetts began
experiments in 1844 by applying milk to glass plates and using the
same calotype chemicals. The results were not satisfactory and they
switched to albumen as the binder. The process seemed promising.
They spent the next three years perfecting the technique, but did
not publish their discovery.

On October 25, 1847, Niépce de Saint-Victor published an account

of his experiments using starch on glass as a photographic binder
in the Compte rendu des Séances de l’Académie des Sciences. This
included a workable formula and processing instructions. Like the
calotype, it relied on silver iodide as the sensitive halide and
development with gallic acid and small amounts of aceto-nitrate of
silver. His exposures for printable negatives were probably in the
twenty five second range with full sun.

He mentioned at the end of the article that albumen was a superior

binder to starch and included a brief description of its preparation
and application to the glass. He acknowledged that the albumen
plate required much more exposure than starch, but that the
resolution made up for this inconvenience. After some more
experiments, de Saint-Victor published a second article in the same
journal a year later with some improvements to the albumen
process. He observed that the plates could be exposed wet or dry,
but that dry plates required even longer exposures. This often
meant over twenty minutes exposure of buildings lit by full sun.
The development with hot gallic acid was also tedious, often
requiring hours.

1848 was a turbulent year in France. Unfortunately, the same

rioters who were instrumental in ending the reign of King Louis
Philippe, destroyed Niépce de Saint-Victor’s laboratory and along
with it all his records and experimental plates.

Back in America, Wm. and Frederick Langenheim of Philadelphia,

Pennsylvania made albumen positive transparencies in 1848. They
copied daguerreotypes by the albumen negative process and then
placed the finished negative in contact with a second sensitized
albumen plate. When the second plate was developed, fixed and
washed, the image was positive when viewed by transmitted light.
They called their positives plates, Hyalotypes.

Louis-Désiré Blanquart-Evrard published an albumen process in

1849 that was similar to that of Niépce de Saint-Victor’s and
emphasizes the fact that the plate could be exposed both wet or
dry. He also called attention to the phenomenon that underexposed
plates look positive by reflected light when backed with a dark
material. In the same year, Talbot patented an albumen on glass
process. He employed the technique of fuming the albumenized
plate with elemental iodine rather than mixing potassium iodide
into the albumen as described by de Saint-Victor, Whipple, and
Wolcott.

The Langenheims display their Hyalotype positives at the annual

fair held by the Franklin Institute in Philadelphia in 1849. These
included plates for projection by magic lantern and others backed
with frosted glass meant for window display. By 1850, the
Langenheims had secured a patent for the Hyalotype and
published a catalog of plates for sale.

It would seem that Niépce de Saint-Victor was organized enough to

resume his experiments by 1850, for in August, he published a
more comprehensive description of an improved albumen process
in the Compte rendu. This included some important observations on
the thickness of the coating in relation to the speed of the plate and
the advantages of including honey in the albumen. Honey helped
to prevent cracking of the albumen, a defect inherent in the process,
and had a marked effect on shortening exposure times. If too much
was added however, the albumen often blistered during
development.

John Whipple, who had foolishly kept his albumen process a secret,
finally patented his technique in America in 1850. His method
included almost equal proportions of honey to albumen and the
use of bromides. He called his albumen plates Crystalotypes. Salted
paper prints made from these plates were also designated as
crystalotype prints to differentiate them from those made by paper
negatives. To make things even more confusing, when Whipple
eventually adopted the collodion negative process in 1853; he
applied the term to salted prints made from these as well.

In England, Talbot patented an albumen process in 1851 that

featured multiple coatings of iodized albumen and silver. The
result was a much faster film that enabled him to make an image of
a piece of printed text fixed to a rotating disc and exposed by an
electric spark. If this account is accurate, it is a mystery why others
did not employ it after it was introduced. Accounts by
photographers using the albumen process well into the late 1850s
describe a few minutes as their fastest. It’s possible that, like the
calotype, his patent discouraged others from using it.

In 1854, the Langenheims started producing stereo transparencies

made by the albumen process. These plates were mounted with a
ground glass backing and often featured beautiful hand tinting.
Single sides were also available as lantern slides for projection.
Existing plates reveal that the Langenheims and others also made
albumen positives from collodion negatives.
With the introduction of Frederick Scott Archer’s collodion process
in 1851, it’s a wonder why anyone would continue using albumen
plates after that date. Their preparation was laborious and fraught
with uncertainty, they were painfully slow and their lengthy and
tedious development required the patience of a saint. And yet
Claude Marie Ferrier photographed the Great Exhibition of the
Crystal Palace and James Robertson documented the Crimean War,
including groups of soldiers, on albumen negatives.

The process was a boon to photographers in the field. Unlike the

collodion process, plates could be prepared days before and
processed at a later and more convenient time. Above all, the
resolution of albumen plates was much finer than any process
invented before or since. It was worth the effort when quality was
an issue and long exposures were not.

Because of this, it continued as the process of choice for lantern and

stereo slides by the Langenheims and the studio of Ferrier and
Soulier several years after the advent of wet plate process.

The Basic Niepceotype Process

Plate preparation

Glass sheets
Glass cutter (wheel or diamond type)
Cork backed straightedge
Piece of mat board
Sharpening stone
Small, stiff bristled paint brush

In the early days of photography on glass, it was very difficult to

purchase glass sheets that were actually flat. This made coating an
even film of albumen very difficult. Today, excellent quality single
weight glass can be purchased at any framing shop.

Make sure that this is new stock as shipped from the manufacturer
and not off cuts recycled from previous applications. New sheets of
glass, or “lites” as they are called, are packaged with paper or some
other kind of protective interleaving between the plates to prevent
scratches. You should insist that this interleaving not be removed.
Scratches may not be readily visible until you have completed
making an image when it will be too late.

Draw a cutting guide of the exact plate size and shape you wish to
cut in the center of a piece of mat board. This board should be
larger than the largest piece of glass you plan to handle. Place the
glass over the mat board cutting guide and lay the straight edge
where you plan to make the cut. Be sure that you know where the
actual cutter is in relation to the handle of the tool. There could be
as much as three millimeters difference. It is a very frustration
discovery when a slightly larger plate will not fit in your plate
holder after it has been coated with albumen and sensitized.

If you are using a traditional diamond cutter you must find the
proper angle to hold the tool or it will not properly score the glass.
Wheel type cutters are much more forgiving, but in either case you
must score the glass from end to end in one try. You should hear
the sound of the tool against the glass throughout the duration of
the scoring process.

Once the glass is scored it should be turned over and held with two
hands on either side of the scored line. With firm, downward
pressure, the glass should break away from you along the scored
line. Do not lay the glass flat upon the table from now on, as this is
a frequent cause of surface scratches.

Carefully hold the glass in one hand by the inner surfaces. The
edges are extremely sharp. With the other hand, slowly rub a
sharpening stone along all of the edges of the plate at a 45 degree
angle. Be sure to do both sides. Brush off the minute glass
chippings from the front and back of the plate with a small stiff
bristled paint brush and lean the plate against a wall or in a
traditional slotted plate rack until you are ready to clean and
polish.

Cleaning the Plate

Calcium Carbonate or Rottenstone

Alcohol
Plate Vice
Cotton flannel and linen

The glass must be scrupulously clean or the albumen will blister

during processing. Place the plate in a cleaning vice. A sturdy plate
vice can be easily made by routing a groove on the inside edges of a
common woodworking clamp. If you don’t have a cleaning vice,
wrap a wooden board with three layers of linen and lay the plate
upon this.

Prepare cleaning solution by mixing equal parts water, alcohol (70-

99%) and calcium carbonate or rottenstone.

Apply a small amount of this upon the glass and rub the cleaner
vigorously with a small piece of cotton flannel. Be sure to cover the
entire surface particularly the edges and corners. Wipe off any
residue with another, larger clean piece of flannel. Wipe outer
edges very carefully. Turn the plate over and repeat the previous
steps.

Once both sides are cleaned they must be polished. Hold the plate
by the outer edges in one hand (or if a large piece of glass, in a
clamp) and breathe on the surface. Condensation on the surface
will show areas that require polishing in the form of irregular
patterns.

Fold some linen into a ball and rub the surface of the glass firmly
and vigorously. By alternately breathing and buffing the plate,
eventually when breathed upon, the condensation on the plate will
have an even bloom, without lines or irregular patterns.

Preparing the albumen

Hen’s eggs
Pipette with bulb
Two 500 ml glass beakers or jars
Large mixing bowl
Ammonium or Potassium iodide
One 50 ml glass beaker
Distilled water
Egg beater
Cheese cloth
Wooden spoon
Funnel
One 500 ml glass jar with lid

For the albumen process, you may use the hen or duck or goose
eggs. The color of the egg is the result of the breed of animal and
makes no difference. The first step is to separate the white from the
yoke. While the issue was much debated throughout the albumen
plate and paper era many directions suggest that it’s important to
start with fresh eggs. Either way, you should know how to
evaluate the freshness of an egg. Do not assume that the freshness
is determined by where it has been purchased. If an egg is
collected soon after being laid and refrigerated for weeks, it will be
fresher than an egg left in the nest for hours and sold the same day.
A farmers’ market may not be the best place for fresh eggs.

The freshness of the egg is determined by several factors including;

the strength of the yoke sac, the air space between the shell and the
inner sac, the amount of thin albumen and the character of the
chalazae; the white string attaching the yoke to the inner sac.

Crack an egg and place its contents onto the center of a flat dish.
Look inside the shell and take note of the amount of air in the space
between the shell and the inner sac. The bigger the space, the older
the egg. Old eggs will actually float in a cup of water, due to the
amount of air in this space.

Now pay attention to the yoke, the thick albumen (closest to the
yoke) and the thin albumen. The higher the yoke stands, the fresher
the egg. This is because the yoke sac is strong. Yokes from fresh
eggs do not break as easily as those from old eggs. As an egg ages,
the thick albumen becomes thinner. If the egg has a great deal of
thin albumen, it is old. Inspect the chalazae. In a fresh egg this is
connected strongly to the yoke and not fragmented in little pieces.

Finally, there is the question about blood spots occasionally found

on the yoke. Barnyard lore maintains that these are the result of
trauma the hen has endured. Whatever the reason, they disappear
in time and there presence is a sign of relative freshness.

Crack the eggs and separate the white by using the shell halves. Do
this over a 500 ml glass jar and then put the yokes in a second one.
Use a pipette to remove any chalazae from the albumen while it is
still in the jar. Once the chalazae is removed, pour the albumen into
the large bowl. The reason for this procedure is to make sure no
yoke gets into the albumen. If you break a yoke into the small jar,
the contents can be thrown away and the container washed, thus
preventing contamination of the larger stock of albumen.

Once you have the required amount of albumen (200 mls will easily
coat 15 traditional half plates) measure 1.2 grams of ammonium or
potassium iodide for every 100 mls of albumen. Dissolve the iodide
in the least amount of distilled water possible and pour this into the
bowl of albumen.

As in cooking, the albumen is beaten to breakdown the microscopic

protein sacs. Time and acids will also do this, but a good stiff
beating is still essential regardless of the other techniques. You may
use a hand or electric beater to render the albumen to a very stiff
froth. Cover the bowl with a piece of cheesecloth and set aside for
at least two hours to let the albumen settle.

After the albumen has settled, hold the froth back with a wooden
spoon and pour the albumen through three layers of cheesecloth
laid in a funnel into a glass storage jar with a tight fitting lid.

The very first albumen plates made by Niépce de Saint-Victor,

William Henry Fox Talbot, John Whipple and Alexander Wolcott
were using potassium iodide. This was a carryover from the
calotype process. Potassium iodide was also the first halide used
later in the collodion process. It was soon discovered however that
ammonium iodide made cleaner albumen plates and that is why it
is included in this formula.

Plain albumen plates were also iodized by the fumes of elemental

iodine and iodine solutions, but these techniques were not typical.
The introduction of bromides and honey (or sugar) to the albumen
by photographers in the early 1850s contributed to the speed and
spectral sensitivity of the film. Such improvements have not been
included in these instructions with the interest in keeping the
variables to a minimum.

Applying the albumen

Small pouring glass

Whirler
Hot plate

Niépce de Saint-Victor originally suggested coating the plate by

lowering the glass, face down onto a shallow tray of albumen. This
was a very difficult technique and quickly abandoned by him.
More often than not, most people doing this process held the plate
from underneath or placed it on a leveling stand and poured the
albumen onto the surface.

Albumen is very difficult to apply evenly to a dry piece of glass.

The most common method was to coax the albumen across the
plate with a stiff piece of paper or glass rod. The excess was then
allowed to run off one edge for a few seconds and the plate laid on
a leveling stand until the albumen dried. Drying could take hours,
and during that time airborne dust often fell onto the plate unless a
box was laid over the stand.

Special, so-called French leveling boxes were designed for the

albumen process with slots to hold individual plates. Planks of heat
dried wood were then slide into the slots between the plates, which
acted as a descent to promote drying. This was a very good system,
but the drying time often took two days depending on the relative
humidity and if additives like honey or sugar were added to the
albumen.

In the early 1850s, several photographers started to use inertia to

spread the albumen. This technique allowed the one person to
make dozens of albumen plates in one session. In its simplest form
the “whirler” was made by affixing a wooden rod to the back of the
plate with a gob of hot gutta percha or sealing wax. The rod was
then used to spin the plate by rolling it between two hands.

Others suggested connecting little hooks tied to lengths of string

onto each corner and suspending the plate from the ceiling. When
a hand drill was fitted with either a suction cup or a clamp, the
mechanical whirler had reached its most functional design.
Whirling, combined with drying by heat over a hot plate or open
flame became the standard method of coating albumen plates.
Eventually, table mounted designs were adopted and in its last
incarnation a electric motor was added to the whirler for spinning
dichromated albumen on zinc plates for the printing industry.

To use the hand drill and suction cup whirler the plate must be
centered. Trace an outline on a piece of clean white paper. Draw
lines from opposite corners to cross at the center.

Place the glass, cleanest side down, on the tracing and use the
crossed lines as a guide for centering the suction cup onto the back
of the plate. A little oil from your nose rubbed into the suction cup
will improve adhesion. Turn the crank to see if the plate will spin
without wobbling and make subtle adjustments if necessary.

Whirling is only effective if the albumen is fluid enough to move

across the plate by centrifugal force. It is also necessary to reduce
the surface tension. Steaming the surface of the glass most easily
does this. Any common teapot will work for this application.

Placing an oil can containing a little water on a ring stand over an

alcohol lamp makes a very simple and effective steamer. Be sure
that the interior has been degreased and that you don’t fill it too
full or it will send a stream of water across the room.

Slowly spin the glass in front of the steamer until the entire plate is
covered with condensation. The hold the whirler by the handle
from below so that the plate is horizontal and steamed side up.
Quickly pour just enough albumen to cover the plate and tilt the
plate until the albumen flows to all corners. As soon as you put the
pouring cup down, turn the whirler upside down, so that the plate
is at the bottom, into the opening of a trash can and gently begin
spinning the plate at the rate of one full revolution a second. Do
this for about thirty seconds.

Continue slowly spinning the plate and work your way over to the
hot plate. Spin the plate as close to the heat as possible for about
two minutes and then remove it from the suction cup and place it
directly upon the hot plate. There should be a thicker ridge of
albumen around the outer edge. Once you see minute cracks in this
ridge, the plate is dry and can be placed on a rack to cool. When
inspected with a magnifier these thin cracks run in very straight
lines, intersecting each other or running in parallel and resembling
bamboo trees.

The albumen coating should be very clear and it will be difficult to

tell the difference between the coated and uncoated sides. To
determine this, breathe on one side of the plate. The albumen side
will not show any condensation. Mark one corner of the back of the
plate with an indelible marker for future reference. Once
albumenized, the plates will last a long time if kept clean and dry in
a slotted box with a tight fitting lid.

Sensitizing the Plate

Silver Nitrate
Distilled Water
Glacial Acetic Acid
Ammonium or Potassium Iodide
Dipping Bath or Tray

The silver solution contains acetic acid as a restrainer. Because of

the large amount of acid, the solution is referred to as aceto nitrate
of silver. The acid restrainer helps to prevent fogging, but at the
expense of speed just as it does with the calotype process. A very
small trace of an iodide (or iodine) is added to the aceto nitrate of
silver to ripen the solution and to prevent pin holes in the film.
While the main function of the silver bath is to bond silver nitrate
with the iodide in the albumen, it also has the beneficial effect of
hardening the albumen, rendering it more durable for the laborious
processing yet to come.

Combining 15 grams of silver nitrate crystals to every 160 mls of

distilled water makes the sensitizing solution. To this is added 40
mls of glacial acetic acid and three individual grains of potassium
or ammonium iodide or one grain of elemental iodine. You may
find that the latter precipitates out and falls to the bottom. Filter
this solid out of the solution.

Albumenized plates can be sensitized in a tray or a vertical-dipping

bath. Photographers using the wet collodion process beginning in
1851 initially adopted both of these methods, but eventually cast off
the tray for the vertical bath. Regardless of the technique, it is very
important to cover the plate with silver solution was quickly and
evenly as possible, without hesitations. If the plate is stopped, for
the slightest moment as it slides into or is washed over with silver
solution there will be a hard line at that point on the final image.
 Tray Sensitizing

Glass or ceramic tray

small piece of plastic adhesive clay
Waterproof adhesive tape

It is important to have a tray that is easy to clean. Glass or well-

glazed ceramic are the best choices, but a serviceable tray can also
be made from acrylic. Albumen and collodion plates are tray
sensitized by lowering them face down in solution. This is the
easiest way to sensitize plates if you don’t have the tools to make a
dipping bath. Before filling you must place two little buttons made
of plastic adhesive clay (used for sticking papers on walls) on the
bottom of the tray at the corners of one end. These rests will allow
one end of the plate to lay slightly elevated, preventing the
albumen surface of the plate from touching the bottom of the tray.

Pour more silver solution into the tray than is needed to cover the
plate. Attach a loop of adhesive tape the center of the back of the
plate to act as a temporary handle. In the old days, a piece of
sealing wax was stuck to the back for this purpose or the plate was
lowered into the solution by a silver hook.

Under red or yellow safelight, hold the plate by the tape loop and
put one end into the silver solution at the end of the tray without
the rests. In one motion, lower the plate into the solution until to
makes contact with the rests at the other end of the tray. The plate
should not be completely under the silver solution with the upper
end of the tape in the air.

Sensitize for no more than twenty seconds and then remove the
plate and place it, albumen side up, into a glass dish of tap water.
Distilled water is often suggested in period instructions but the
addition of a chloride in the wash seems to prevent spotting in the
final image. It is important to know if your tap water contains
chlorine or not. A single drop of aceto-nitrate of silver in a ounce or
two of water will show a precipitate if chlorine is present. If it does
not, add a very small pinch of sodium chloride to your water before
introducing the plate. Wash the plate for four changes of water, or
until you no longer see a milky precipitate of silver chloride.

While you can use the plate in its wet state, it better to begin your
experiments with dried plates as they are less apt to blister
provided the glass was well cleaned. Dry the washed plate on a
rack (in total darkness) or quickly on a hot plate as before. The plate
is now ready for exposure.
 Dipping Bath Sensitizing

Dipping bath
Light tight box
dipper

The dipping bath eventually became the symbol for the wet
collodion process. While it required more solution to fill, this was
often seen as beneficial as its volume contributed to longer use with
out strengthening. It was also easier and cleaner to use. A dipping
tank can be made from acrylic plastic or with sheets of double
weight glass glued together with silicon, in the fashion of an
aquarium with the walls an inch apart.

This tank is then placed into an outer box, which is fitted with legs
that allow the box to lean back at a 50 degree angle. A dipper, to
lower the plate into solution, can also be made from acrylic. In its
simplest form, a dipper is a long flat piece with one end turned up
slightly to hold the plate.

The plate is placed onto the dipper, albumen side up, and slid into
the solution without hesitation. The time in the silver bath as well
as washing instructions are as already described for tray
sensitizing.

Exposure

Albumen plates represent the slowest form of silver-based latent

image photography. This is particularly so of albumen formulas
using only an iodide and without other additives. The speed of the
film is also affected by the thickness of the albumen, the
proportions of silver to iodide and the amount of restrainer in the
aceto nitrate of silver solution. There may also be other factors
relating to the eggs used in preparing the albumen as well. There is
a good reason why nearly all the images made with this process in
the 19th century were taken in strong sunlight.

As with any in-camera process, it’s best to start out by making a

series of test exposures of a simple still life. A piece of marble or
plaster statuary is the traditional subject for these tests and it’s still
a good idea. A good starting point is a 12-20 minute exposure at f
4.5 in full sunlight.

Development
 Gallic acid
Distilled water
Hot plate
Flat bottomed glass or ceramic dish
Cotton wool
Aceto nitrate of silver
Eye dropper

Like the paper negative and collodion process albumen plates are
physically developed. That is, free silver must be present along
with the reducing agent to achieve full development. Because gallo-
nitrate of silver developers were in use for the calotype and waxed
paper negatives it was natural that the same agent would be
adopted for the albumen process. With the introduction of the
collodion process, pyrogallic acid and ferrous sulfate were also
used with albumen plates.

As in the earlier processes, gallic acid is used in a saturated

solution. This should always be made fresh as needed by putting
1/2 gram of gallic acid powder into a bottle with 500 mls of
distilled water at room temperature. Cap the bottle and shake it
vigorously for about one minute. The fact that not all of the gallic
acid dissolves indicates that you have a saturated solution.

Under red or yellow safelight conditions, place a flat bottomed

glass or ceramic dish on a hot plate set at moderate heat and pour
enough of the gallic acid to cover the plate. Put the plate into the
solution.

Do not expect the image to appear immediately. When the tray

begins to warm up, adjust the hot plate so that the gallic acid
solution remains between 100-125 degrees. The albumen will
require at least 15 minutes at this temperature to soften enough to
allow development to begin.

After the first 20 minutes, pour the developer from the tray, into a
cup. Add 2-3 drops of aceto-nitrate of silver from the sensitizing
bath into the warm gallic acid and stir with a glass rod to make
sure that it’s incorporated completely and pour this back into the
tray. After about 20 more minutes you may start to see some
evidence of the highlights of the picture if the plate was given
enough exposure.

Once the image starts to appear, it just a function of time before the
image is fully developed. Patience is the most important tool in
developing albumen plates. Some of the best images take hours to
develop.

You may remove the plate from the developer from time to time to
inspect the progress during this procedure. However, in the early
stages of development the image is often more easily seen against
the white bottom of a porcelain tray than by transmitted light.

When you see that there is sufficient information in the highlights

and middle tones, though without any density, you should very
gently wipe the entire surface of the plate with a piece of cotton
wool, keeping both the plate and the cotton under the solution. The
purpose of this is to remove any residue created during the
development process. Removing this veil allows the development
to proceed more effectively.

Pour off this used developer and add some new developer
containing 2-3 drops of aceto-nitrate of silver. The image should
start to gain density. Rock the tray to keep the developer flowing
over the plate. Eventually the developer will appear dark and
muddy. Wipe the image with cotton wool again and pour off the
muddy developer. Add new developer and aceto-nitrate of silver
as before. Repeat this sequence until the desired density has been
achieved. As with the calotype, specific areas can be coaxed by
heating them from below with the same steamer used to facilitate
coating the plates with albumen.

It is very tempting throughout the development to speed up the

process by adding silver more often and in larger quantities. Such
tactics are the cause of most failures. When the silver is added too
quickly, too strong or without sufficient acid, the reduction of
metallic silver occurs in the non-image areas resulting in fog, and
on the outermost layer of the albumen film creating a barrier
preventing continued development.

After the plate is fully developed it must be washed thoroughly in

several changes of tap water. Avoid using water that is too cold in
the beginning as this is apt to shrink the warm albumen causing
reticulation.

Fixing and Washing the Plate

Tray
Tap water
Sodium thiosulfate

The washed plate may now be fixed in a 15% solution of sodium

thiosulfate. Mix 15 grams of sodium thiosulfate for every 100 mls of
warm tap water. The plate should remain in the fixer three times as
long as it takes to visually clear the undeveloped silver halides.
You may use a hypo-clearing agent to make the final wash more
effective. Agitate the plate for two minutes in a tray containing a
1% solution of sodium sulfite.

Wash the plate in several changes of tap water for at least 30

minutes. The plate may now be placed on a rack to dry in a dust
free place. Once dry, the albumen is very tough and scratch
resistant. For this reason, they were rarely varnished.

Color of the finished Plate

The image color of an albumen plate can range from a light olive
green, cool brown, chocolate brown, to red and even bright orange.
Much of this has to do with the exposure and the way in which the
silver was introduced into the developer. Most 1850s era negatives
made in camera tend to be cool brown. The earlier Langenheim
Hyalotypes, positive transparencies contact printed from negatives,
are frequently an orange red. Albumen plates were also
occasionally toned with gold chloride, changing the color to a more
neutral tone.

Additional Information

The albumen process was never popular enough to warrant a

comprehensive text on the subject. Several books on the collodion
process include sections on making albumen negatives or lantern
slides. There are however, dozens of articles on the albumen
process in the pages of the photographic journals published
between 1853-1870.

The American Journal of Photography, The Photographic and Fine

Arts Journal (American), La Lumière (French), and The
Photographic News (English) are all good sources for formula and
technique variants.

Albumen plates are quite rare, especially negatives. Albumen

lantern slides and stereo transparencies can still be found, but are
very expensive when the seller is aware of the rarity of such an
example. Most museums do not have a clear sense of how to
identify an albumen plate and may not know if they have any in
their holdings.

2000, Mark Osterman, Process Historian,

 Advanced Residency Program for Photograph Conservation
George Eastman House, International Museum of Photography, Rochester, NY