U of S | Mailing List Archive | alt-photo-process-l | Re: Anti Newton Ring now Dye Transfer

Re: Anti Newton Ring now Dye Transfer




On Sun, 27 Aug 2006, phowey@saginawartmuseum.org wrote:

AAACCKKK!  I saw the message subject and was instantly
transported back to "Dye Transfer I" class during undergrad
- using the "newton ring poofer" filled with talc or
powdered glass, not sure which.  I think Kodak pulled the
matrix film off the market before the semester of "Dye
Transfer Printing II" ended... our dept. head was the ex-dye
printer for David Plowden.  Great way to learn advanced lab
processes and densitometry, I guess.

I should dig up and scan those old prints.  Anyone else work
in that process many moons ago?
Yes, I did -- it was the first official course in photography I took -- taught by Nina Prantis at Pratt. And yes, we immersed the 35 mm neg in oil, tho that being 27 years ago I don't remember what kind of oil... probably mineral.

But now that you mention it something awfully interesting happened. Nina checked our tests before we did the full size separation negs (or maybe it was the matrix film -- I can't remember yesterday, let alone 27 years) & said mine looked a bit contrasty so I should give it a flash before exposing. What that did I didn't recognize at the time, but when it kept repeating I figured out that it was solarizing. The effect was spectacular -- making outlines and all sorts of variations, and of course in those days it was my karma to "solarize," which I did in SG printing for years.

Needless to say, Kodak shortly discontinued that film, and now I'd "solarize" with "command M" -- the curve tool in photoshop -- anyway. (mistakes aren't so expensive.) But that dye transfer (my first & only, printed in about 8 different versions)-- & looking a lot like Japanese woodcuts) is tipped in in color (not the original, a laser copy, sorry) in Post-Factory #2, page 33.

As for anti-newton ring, I did the poof method with cornstarch and a yellow plastic ketchup squirter, worked VERY well.

cheers,

Judy