VANDYKE BROWN

The Vandyke Brown-print process is an alternative photographic print process. It's an iron-silver type, using ferric ammonium citrate (green form) as a sensitizer with silver nitrate and a small amount of tartaric acid for what seems like tone and stability. The Vandyke print is so named because of the browns that it creates before toning, similar to the shadow colors used by Flemish Baroque master Anthony van Dyck. Before toning, though, as a very simple iron-silver process, the Vandyke is quite unstable, so most modern practitioners tone it with gold chloride or one of the platinum or palladium compounds used in platinum printing.

The Vandyke is a UV process, using light between 365 and 395 nm to make an image. Unlike some other iron-silver processes like the more serious and versatile Kallitype, it is a printing-out process, which means that the final image is basically visible as it prints. While it undergoes some changes during the clearing and fixing baths, even if not toned, the finished density of the Vandyke should generally be clear even before developing.

My process is pretty underdeveloped, but it works well enough most of the time. I got most of my knowledge from forums and this article on alternativephotography.com.

My Vandyke process is as follows:

Coating:

1. First, prepare the paper. Like many of the early silver processes, sizing can be pretty variable, but I don't size at all. This can give mixed results depending on your paper surface, but I find around or over 8x10 this is perfectly alright for any hot press paper and can be good down to 5x7.
2. You should be using a watercolor paper, without a heavy gelatin size (sized papers still work but not photo paper or baryta), above 200gsm but preferably below 600gsm. It should have good wet strength, and be 100% cotton rag.
3. Soak the paper in hot water for two to three minutes, then mate it to a glass sheet or similar clean, flat surface. This allows you to avoid using an exposure frame, with paper that is flat after coating.
4. Let the paper dry, or accelerate with a hair dryer. Make sure it stays flat to the glass.
5. You can mix your solution whenever, though it doesn't keep forever — mixed solution only lasts a few months. The Vandyke process is easy because it is a single-sensitizer POP, but it's not ideal for a number of reasons.
6. When you're ready to mix, measure your three ingredients into a individual containers (all at once or one after the other) with one third of your final amount of water. Mix them very slowly to ensure that they are perfectly dissolved before combining. Failure to do this will result in failed prints forever. Do not let it happen.
7. Join the ingredients in the final container, which must be amber glass or black plastic. Unlike some other alt processes, the Vandyke is half-sensitive to visible light, so your dimroom will be much closer to a darkroom if you want to avoid fogging.
8. When the paper is only somewhat damp (no reflection, not tacky) you're ready to coat. Take the glass sheet with the paper and approximate a level. The level isn't too important, but it helps if it's stable.
9. Use a syringe or pipette to drop around 40mL/m^2 of solution along one edge of the paper. As quickly as reasonably possible, brush the solution across the page to cover it completely. Since you're not doing this from dry, it will take a little time to absorb, but it will still absorb so make haste.
10. Wait for the solution to dry until the paper surface is dull but it is still partly damp. Remember to rinse your brush thoroughly – silver nitrate stains, and the solution will stiffen it.
11. Now, you can coat the second layer. Lay a line of solution, about 30mL/m^2 this time, across the short edge of the paper and use a smooth steel rod the length of that edge and between 1/4" and 1/2" in diameter to roll it along the paper. Keep your speed consistent and remember to wear gloves, as it will stain your hands until the skin sheds.
12. Roll the rod along the long edge at between 2 and 3 inches per second, and after the coating is fairly even you can finish it with the brush. This gives both very consistent coating in the image area and the handmade look many people like from the alt processes.
13. While the paper is damp, but not wet, separate it from the glass slowly. Let it dry on a rack or hook, and the paper will be ready. Remember, room light WILL fog the paper, but cannot produce a full range of tones.

Exposing:

1. Your paper is now ready to expose! If you're sun exposing, things will be more difficult, but otherwise it's fairly easy to set up.
2. Lay your negative emulsion- or ink-side down on the coated paper, and sandwich it between heavy glass and some base material. If you're using a digital negative on certain transparency materials or some single-sided film negatives you may have to watch for Newton rings. Make sure your glass is very clean. You can use the glass you coated the paper on, but make sure to wash it thoroughly after coating, as any solution left will stain it.
3. Put the sandwich under the sun or a UV unit, preferably a 395nm LED over 25W. Watch it expose. When it looks like the shadows aren't getting any darker, and the area behind the light parts of the negative is as dark as it will get, turn off the unit or bring it back inside.
4. Separate the sandwich and remove the negative in the dim-room.

Processing:

1. Use gloves to process as well. The water from the clearing baths will contain some sensitizing compounds.
2. First, run the print under cool water for 2-3 minutes.
3. Next, transfer it to a slightly acidic wash and agitate it for 2 minutes.
4. Now, you can tone it. I use Young's gold chloride toner, with 0.6% borax and 0.012% gold chloride. Put the print into a shallow toning bath and agitate consistently until the print changes uniformly. This may take between 2 and 5 minutes. Gold toning will slightly bleach the shadows, so overexpose to account to this. You can always use a weak Farmer's Reducer to cut density after the fact if you overcook it.
5. You can actually tone Vandykes after fixing, which works better, but I never did.
6. Next, put it in the fix. The fixing bath is just a 5% solution of sodium thiosulfate, which while fairly weak will still fix most prints in 2 minutes.
7. About halfway through the fix, it is now safe for you to turn the light on. Now you can truly see your final print, though it may look a little weird through old fixer.
8. Next is the wash. Clear the fixer from the print in a 2% solution of sodium sulfite for about 3 minutes. Fixer left in the print will degrade it quickly over time, still reacting with the silver compounds even if toned. The print will look a little lighter in the wash, so don't make any final judgements about density until it's dry.
9. After the fix clear, wash the print in running water for ten minutes. Some will say you need thirty minutes in an archival washer, and you probably do, but I don't much care.
10. Hang it to dry and wait. Once it's dry, you have a finished Vandyke!

Laid out like this, the process seems pretty daunting, but really this is just establishing a process that you can use consistently. After your first few prints, it all becomes second nature. You'll have to remember to stay watchful and finish every step, but once you have the process down it'll return consistent good results.