~~~~ Excerpt from the Guide to Platinum Palladium Photographic Printmaking by Jeffrey D. Mathias ~~~~
No part of this document may be reproduced in whole or in part without the express written permission of the Author.
updated February 2001

 
Notebooks
To record the experience learned by many hours and years of platinum palladium printing, it is an excellent idea to keep a notebook of all printing activities.  Two notebooks may even work better.  One can be used to record all the information learned about the process and any tests that are performed.  The other can be used to record all the information for producing each individual photograph.

The first contains information such as this guide.

The other contains all of the specific information for each negative or print such as:

For Negatives:   For Prints:
   
Date photographed Negative Number
Location and Subject Date printed
weather (optional) Paper used
Lens Chemistry used for coating
Any other unique equipment      Sensitizer
Film type      Metals
effective film speed (ASA)      Contrast Agents
Meter readings and range Type of Drying (Wet or Dry)
Filter Ambient Conditions
Aperture      Temperature
Shutter speed      Relative Humidity
Development (planned) Lamp distance or time of day
Development time (actual) Exposure time
Developer concentration (actual) Burning and Dodging information
Any other unique processing info Developer
Clearing
Any other unique processing info
A convenient way to organize negatives and prints is to catalog them as follows.
For negatives: YYMMDD-XX

For Prints: YYMMDD-XX-PP

YY = year of negative exposure
MM = month of negative exposure
DD = day of negative exposure
XX = film holder number (assuming the same film holder is not
          reused the same day)
PP = print number
Each negative and print will have a unique number.  It is important to keep tract of the information for all prints, even those rejects that are destroyed.  Information might be helpful in future endeavors.
 

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