[Video] Why I love traditional silver gelatin baryta prints

My new video demonstrates the beauty of a real silver gelatin fiber-based print with baryta surface

In this video, I give a quick intro to one of my recent black and white photographs, and demonstrate the surface quality, sheen, and texture that makes fiver-based baryta prints unparalleled in beauty. This paper has a lot of descriptors: real silver gelatin > fiber-based > baryta surface. Let’s briefly break down what these mean.

• Silver gelatin: silver gelatin photo papers consist of a paper sheet, coated with a thin baryta surface that coats the paper and supports the emulsion layer of light sensitive silver salts. Silver gelatin papers are exposed to light and wet-processed in photo development chemicals to bring out the image.
• Fiber base: This simply means that the photo emulsion and coating are on top of a paper support. As a contrast, resin coated (RC) prints are a another type of silver gelatin prints that use plastic layers as a support.
• Baryta surface: a thin coating of barium sulphate that primes the paper, and makes it easier to support the light sensitive emulsion layer. As you can see here, the baryta surface has a slight gloss, but is not super shiny.

In the past, papers have used other coatings, including egg whites (albumen), to coat the paper surface and support the emulsion. Platinum prints and cyanotypes use no coating on the paper at all, allowing the paper surface and texture to interact with the light sensitive emulsion. Silver gelatin fiber prints are offered on my website as my premium photo prints. Read more about the types of prints I sell here. Thanks for reading! Be sure to visit me on Facebook, YouTube, Pinterest, or on my website at keithdotson.com. ~ Keith