Re: fixing van dyke brown AHEM!!!!!
Oh Christina, Just over 10 years ago I was in a real pickle and asked this list this very same question. I had a class of students and no sodium thiosulphate crystals (it hadn't arrived yet, beginning of the year and all that). For the life of me I couldn't think what dilution of Hypam to use to fix our Van Dyke prints. If it's any consolation to you - I didn't get an answer then either and it was, like, 1996. Probably the worst part of the story is that I can't remember what I did in the end. It was an emergency but I don't remember what dilution I used or if any prints survived the test. (I've probably blocked out the whole awful drama!) So that's why I didn't respond, guilt, bad memory and shame.... sorry Catherine PS I reckon I would have done what you did though. From: "Christina Z. Anderson" Subject: fixing van dyke brown AHEM!!!!! > Well, I'm going to pull a Michael Koch-Schulte on y'all and grump about NO > answers to my fixing van dyke brown question, except one nice person > offlist. Am I chopped liver? Is everyone comatose? I can't believe no one > does VDB lately. Are y'all just too busy doing GUM for heaven's sake? Or it > must be that dreaded solarplate. At least my question didn't deal with > tonal inversion... > > My original query: > > VDB requires a 2 minute 2-5% sodium thiosulfate bath fix....I was wondering > if any of you get > by with diluting regular rapid fix, and if so, how much. > > Well, I went ahead today and just did it. Thank heavens I don't have to > test hydrochloric acid and pt/pd at the same time--thanks, Bob, for that one > and I can't wait to hear the results. I diluted paper strength fix by half > and I did not see any bleaching. Am I the only one that sees it this way? > Or maybe it is just on Weston that it doesn't bleach? I fixed for 2 > minutes, after a 2 minute water bath. > > The Weston paper is stupendous for VDB--rich, velvety bittersweet chocolate > tones, very deep. Next to Arches Platine it is so much better > looking--Platine seems greyish to me. Convincing enough to have students > decide to use it instead of Platine. Convincing enough to look like a "poor > man's palladium" in a sense. > > The one thing you have to watch out for in Weston, though, is not to touch > the surface while wet because the top layer will abrade off. It is very > delicate--somewhat like using a Japanese paper but thicker. But not as thick > as Crane's Cover. But I may have already said all this in a previous email. > > Did I also say it was made from recycled blue jeans? > > Thank heavens my class moves into gum next week so I can get back to my > process of choice. > > Chris > > CZAphotography.com > > >
|