Albumen silver print

A photographic print that uses albumen, more commonly known as egg white, as a binder layer. To make the print, a glass-plate negative is placed in direct contact with the sensitized paper and exposed. The result is that the print and the negative are the same size. Albumen prints are admired for their tonal range and strong blacks. To increase stability, these prints were often toned with gold, which turned the warm yellow image to a lush purple. Albumen silver prints were the dominant process from 1850 through the 1880s, when they were replaced by collodion and gelatin silver prints.