Re: Sterling contact paper?
Dear Sandy,
I'm not Chris but will provide some info anyway; AFAIK, you can get
the best results with warmtone papers (in other words, papers that
form images with relatively small silver particles/grains). The only
way of knowing if a particular paper is fine for Lith printing is to
test it. BTW, some papers that are not suitable for Lith Printing can
still be used by bleaching and then redeveloping in a Lith developer
-> but that's not true Lith Printing + to some, introducing another
variable into the already complex (and often inconsistent) process may
is not wise idea.
Regards,
Loris.
Quoting Sandy King <sanking@clemson.edu>:
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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