Re: Sterling contact paper?
Chris,
What are the requirements of a good paper for lith printing? Does it
have something to do with hardness of the gelatin coating?
Sandy
At 7:20 AM -0700 11/8/07, Christina Z. Anderson wrote:
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
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