Re: Sterling contact paper?
I used to use Sterling paper when it was still sold. It is a perfect paper
for lith, producing wonderful pink tones. I would suggest buying Fotospeed
Lith developer from Freestyle or whatnot and mixing it 1 part A to 1 part B
to 12 parts (or even up to 20) water. Development times are anywhere from 5
to 15 minutes. Then the fog that occurs is perfect for the process because
you get those creamy pink highlights.
A week or two ago I taught the lith printing unit to my Experimental class.
Some people had paper that wasn't working so I gave them a packet of some
really old paper that Don Bryant had sent me for free. Beautiful grainy
lith prints. I don't know how old the paper is but it is BUCK old...like a
dusty old box of Agfa Brovira, if I remember. At any rate, none of the
papers Don gave me are made anymore and they work perfect for lith printing.
Golfball grainy, coldtone images.
Speaking of lith, Forte warmtone (if you can get it) and Bergger VCCB are
perfect for it, too.
Chris
----- Original Message -----
From: "Richard Knoppow" <dickburk@ix.netcom.com>
To: <alt-photo-process-l@usask.ca>
Sent: Thursday, November 08, 2007 4:03 AM
Subject: Re: Sterling contact paper?
----- Original Message -----
From: "Panmedia" <panmedia@comcast.net>
To: <alt-photo-process-l@usask.ca>
Sent: Wednesday, November 07, 2007 7:40 PM
Subject: Re: Sterling contact paper?
Thanks I may ask a few people running a test for me for this paper. I
thought about taking the whole lot but only if the paper is still usable.
Phil
The shelf life of paper is quite variable and also depends on how its
been stored. The cooler the better. About the only way to find out if the
paper is still good is to try it. Paper looses sensitivity and contrast
with age and picks up fog. In general, the slower the emulsion the better
it takes aging, but again, paper varies.
Test for fog by fixing out an undeveloped sample of the paper and
comparing it to one that had been developed. After washing they should be
the same. Slight fog can usually be cured by adding some anti-fog to the
developer. Potassium bromide works OK but benzotriazole is better because
it is a more effective fog suppressor but doesn't loose as much paper
speed as bromide.
Unless you want to print using a printing box there is really not much
purpose to contact paper. One can make perfectly acceptable contact prints
using enlarging paper and a weak light source. Most of the virtue of
contact printing comes from the method rather than the paper. The
persistent idea that contact paper has a longer range of densities or
better gray scale rendition than enlarging paper is based on the materials
of some seventy five years ago. Modern enlarging papers have a greater
maximum black than the old papers of any type. Tone rendition is a
characteristic of the particular paper, it varies all over the place.
Negatives for contact printing on "normal" grade paper need to be more
contrasty than those for condenser enlargers but about the same as for
diffusion enlarging.
The last contact paper made by a major manufacturer was Azo, made by
Kodak. Azo was a silver chloride emulsion. Kodak made a paper with that
name from the 1920's, maybe earlier. They bought the company who
originally made it. Azo was intended for general purpose industrial and
professional photography IMO there was never anything special about it.
For many years Kodak also made a very warm tone contact paper called
Athena and a blue-black fast contact paper for photofinishing called
Velox. From my experience Velox was unique in having a truely blue-black
image. Ansco and Defender also made at least two contact papers each,
usually a cold tone and a warm tone one.
In any case, Freestyle has Foma contact paper in stock. However, it is
an RC paper with matt surface, not quite what fans of contact printing
want.
---
Richard Knoppow
Los Angeles, CA, USA
dickburk@ix.netcom.com