Category: The Positive

Prints and all their jazz

printon before ciba

Posted on Posted in labnotes, The Biz, The Positive

do you expend, or do you expand

… and Printon took an hour to soup .. it also had latency effect; the color balance changed over time between exposure and processing. A print that was exposed and processed beginning within 15 minutes of the exposure time looked one color, whereas, one which took 45 minutes before processing looked a different way. 15 minutes to 45 minutes varied towards the warm colors showing up more in a flashed border, making it possible to have a neutral print but warm toned borders; portrait shops loved it. Ansco filters were too broad stepped for fine rendering so I used them along with exposure thru wratten filters to achieve better color clarity. 

Along with these operations I could overprint using dye transfer matrices. This knowledge expanded to other print materials. I never knew of anyone else doing these things even though I told Kodak reps along with teaching methods to employees, and later, art students.

Color in one line: Dye- /coupling /transfer /destruction /diffusion

[ prelude … ]

noted: “Like many, I watched with sorrow in February as the Washington Post slashed its staff, including its classical music critic, Michael Andor Brodeur. That blow came a little less than a year after the New York Times shook up its culture desk and reassigned its classical music critic, Zachary Woolfe, to serve as the obituaries editor. (The paper is now actively searching for a new classical music critic.)” from: https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/newsletter/2026-09-25/essential-arts-template?

The Paper is Key

Posted on Posted in minimum daily requirement, the Lab, The PositiveTagged

Ink, metal, chalk, or dye on paper, it is the paper that holds the “stuff of” and it also is the source of the light.

Albumin Printing: https://www.bostick-sullivan.com/product-category/alternative-process-kits/albumen-printing-process/

Or, albumin paper: https://analoginside.com/en/product/20-papeles-albuminados-85×11-216x277cm/

Unsensitized photo-paper: https://www.fotoimpex.com/brands/adox-art-baryta-241×305-cm-95×12-inch-50-sheets.html

Reflection requires smooth surface — smoother is more reflective. This provides higher “saturation” — the Dmax. The topmost covering produces the first and last light scatter. In photography of the Silver Gelatin type, this is Gelatin. Albumin has also been used. Many colloids have been tried in search of the perfect holder; that stuff with perfect properties — lasts, passes liquids, blocks gasses… No perfect single thing has been found — we live with a suited to purpose answer.

The ‘goo’ adds color– albumin is different color than gelatin. They age differently. As matter of cost,the albumen silver print uses more silver than the silver gelatin print

Make it smoother; get higher density. Gelatin seems our easy, cheap solution. That is what we have used at industrial scale since the 1930s. Keep the emulsion thin and smooth to achieve higher density.

The secret to Dye Transfer’s intense color isn’t due to the matrix nor the dyes but to the paper, one of the most protected secret of the process. That was the item causing Kodak to stumble in the 80s. The process of the mill was little understood by much of the Kodak elite.

Additional to coating is HOW you coat; the tool, coater, as well — how many coatings. Making the emulsion means controlling crystal size, dispersion and “layer” —

chemical photo: stuff

Posted on Posted in alt photo, art biz, The Negative, The PositiveTagged , , ,

January 2025. GETTING STUFF. supplies in a ebb market.

NOTES:
too much… getting too much.
choice must be clearly known to be choice.

Shops selling items for the darkroom.
In Germany, Hans O. Mahn GmbH & Co. KG brings out the Rollei products through the website Macodirect which also sells Adox products. The website Fotoimpex seems closely related to – and sells all – Adox products –does not sell Rollei papers

Stores:
the wet lab is drying out; few places remain, but here are some online sources

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