Alt Papers: getting stuff

Posted on Posted in alt photo, diy filmsc, Getting Stuff, Prints, The Other

In new country may mean new clothes. Printing and printmaking are different. They began in different places, and diverged into different schools — education of the doers. Some of the words may sound the same. They aren’t.

Works on paper is the big arch. The base of the image is a paper, that very old fundamental object. It is quite nice on its own. So nice, that many are makers of paper; done. that is all that is needed. Make the paper. Show the paper.

Others, most of us, put something onto that paper. Photographic prints are on very limited range of papers. Hand-coated emulsions extend that range, as does digital printing. In fact, many digital printmakers chose that method because of the range of paper surfaces. Some of the most ardent devotees of the chemical cult do so because they dislike, disapprove of the paper surfacing above the plastic sheen of 20th Century Gloss.

Look List:

PaperProcessComment
Hahnemuhle Platinum Rag (HPR)PlatinumUse as delivered
Arches Platine 300gsmPlatinum“”
Bergger Cot 320gsmPlatinum“”
Legion Revere PlatinumPlatinum“”
Clearprint 1020HPInexpensive 100% cotton
Arches En Tout Casone side hot pressed, one side eggshell textured
Awagami Platinum Gampi
Hahnemühle Sumi-e:
Legion Thai Kozocoat with brush.
Canson Vidalon Vellum
Canson Opalux Vellum
Rives BFK 280gsmgum /pigmentmy first paper for litho back in school. for alt prints requires acidification.
Fabriano Artisticogum printsrequires acidification
Papers used for alt photo as well as printmaking

These are papers that are proven to work well across processes. find a vendor, then get samples to test in your work conditions. Your water, workroom conditions of temperature and humidity. How well they dry. How well they coat. How well, and comfortable you are in their use.

One size rarely suits all printmakers. Chemical Printers are confined to accepting that which is commercially, meaning widely acceptable. That is, the “classic” look of “air-dried” gelatin. Or, the commercial Glass Gloss display print. They don’t have much choice. As a printmaker, you do. Make the most of that …

nutshell: Masking

Posted on Posted in coursenotes, dye transfer, labnotes, the Lab1 Comment

an overview of masks: what they are; what they do. Masking is selective dodging.. consider it a precise, custom, graduated neutral density filter. Masks are most often used this century to alter contrast of B&W film. They also increase local contrasts, thereby altering edge effects making a print appear sharper with more gradations. These are the “unsharp masks (USM)”

In last century, during the growth stage of masking, they were used in color processes to alter, and correct contrast and color. Masking increased the contrast of the magenta and yellow, overcoming deficiencies, impurities of colorants.

If the original transparency isn’t underexposed, and the contrast of the scene is low, no masking is required.

Films I have today for masking: Ilford PanF (120). Ilford Delta 100 (4×5 & 8×10). Ilford Ortho+ (4×5, 8×10, special roll). Note the Ilford weight. I do, and it makes me nervous, since Ilford hangs on the interest of real estate ventures in a country of short term values.

From the past; more for the Rosetta stone. Translating data sheets. Why that film/developer was made.

From the past, The mask film used was Tri-X Plate. Masks were made using film available. No special film.

The layout, exposure configuration was typical Kodak method used and taught for over 40 years.

Pan Masking film in Versamat — was the standard method at the end of the Kodak Dye Transfer era.

Masks should never be greater than 40%. Coated (APO) lenses require higher percent masks.

The appearance of color swatches in separation negatives is best indicator of correct mask exposure.

Most of the original guidance assumed the use of the Standard Light.

Developer for masks, like those for seps should be non-staining and not “fine-grain” solvent type. It is easy to recommend DK-50, DK-60a as best options, even this decade. For ready mix, try HC-110 one-shot. All masks and seps should be processed following a one-shot protocol. Use the mixture one time and discard. I use fresh developer for each sheet of film.

FilterUse
F- 29 RedRequired
N- 61 GreenRequired
#96 Neutral density: 0.10 / 0.30 / 1.0Strongly recommended. Equalize exposures. Reduce reciprocity differences.
#33 Magentaoptional
#15 Yellowoptional
Filters for (color) masking

Be assured that masking cannot make a color that the dyes, if mixed outside the system, cannot produce. This is why we always tried for better and better dyes (colorants). To correct all the cross-talk of dyes, six masks are needed. Contrast of masks is proportional to errors of colorants being modified.

compensate blue and green in CYAN2 masks
compensate for MAGENTA2 masks
compensate for YELLOW2 masks
the gammas must be corrected for each change in original color (transparency). If the chrome’s emulsion or processing change, a new configuration of correction masks would be calculated. [see Friedman for method ]
J S Friedman

Not a realistic effort. Particularly since most images/ viewer sets can’t discern the improvement in real world conditions.

MASKING COLOR NEGATIVES

footnote for ongoing readers: notation on confused Large format masking board:

board note: CN[C41] film is designed for printing using a ‘hot’ light onto a color print [RA4]. BW films are more sensitive than the intended color paper. Recent discussion has much alteration discussion. What they are achieving is on this blackboard exercise.

Removing the “Orange” mask: If you want this brightest color to have a neutral hue, you need to expose, such that Dred = Dgreen = Dblue = 0.9, i.e. a uniform gray strip with D = 0.9 will be the brightest neutral color you can create. With extra exposure you can then reach all colors in the range (Dred = 0.9, Dgreen = 0.9, Dblue = 0.9) + (ΔDred, ΔDgreen, ΔDblue) with ΔDred ≥ 0, ΔDgreen ≥ 0, ΔDblue ≥ 0.

1950.. D-76 the standard developer for separation negatives. Its alternates were the DKs. See the footnote above for target gammas.

There was no magic in separation negatives. It has always been a balance between exposure types, filters, film + developer + agitation method.

I rarely used Super-XX as a sep film; only when clients required it. And on a small year, I made around 200 first prints – this, during my first 5 years working.