Salted paper prints in combination with paper negatives were used from 1840 through to the early 1860s. Albumen silver prints in combination with wet-collodion negatives were introduced in 1851, and from the mid-1850s through the 1890s, dominated the field of photography
The two portraits Spencer Compton, 2nd Marquis of Northampton and Rev. Dr. George Cook, both by the partnership of David Octavius Hill and Robert Adamson, reveal the characteristic matte appearance of salted paper prints. The portraits, which were made outdoors in Edinburgh, show the bold massing of darks and lights in the slightly softened image, created by the silver salts that lay embedded within the paper fibers. The two images are untoned prints.
The introduction of wet-collodion glass-plate negatives in the early 1850s provided photographers with a smooth, transparent support for dense negatives, one ideally suited to albumen papers. With albumen papers, the silver particles lie suspended in a layer of albumen that separates the paper from the image surface, allowing for a highly detailed, glossy print with a much longer tonal range than was possible with the salted paper print. Francis Frith’s 1860s albumen print of a Francis Bedford negative of the south door of Barfreston Church, Kent exemplifies the characteristic appearance of these prints.