saltedpaper

Salted paper refers to a photographic printing process that was popular in the mid-19th century. It was one of the earliest methods for creating positive prints from a negative. The process involves sensitizing paper with a solution of sodium chloride, or common salt. This salted paper is then coated with a solution of silver nitrate. The silver nitrate reacts with the sodium chloride to form light-sensitive silver chloride within the paper fibers. When an exposed negative is placed in contact with this sensitized paper and exposed to light, the silver chloride is chemically reduced in proportion to the amount of light that passes through the negative. This creates an image. After exposure, the print is typically fixed in a solution of hypo (sodium thiosulfate) to remove any remaining unexposed silver chloride, making the image permanent. The resulting prints, often called salted paper prints or albumen prints (when albumen, or egg white, was added to the paper coating for a glossier finish and to bind the silver salts more effectively), are characterized by their rich, warm tones, ranging from sepia to reddish-brown. While largely superseded by collodion-based processes and later silver gelatin prints, salted paper prints remain historically significant as a foundational photographic technique.