Re: Sterling contact paper?
I have not ever heard about what makes a good lith paper as far as
gelatin/hardness goes. In other words, supercoated papers lith just fine.
But developer incorporated papers do not work, some papers work but not all
that well, warmtone papers work well, the old cadmium containing papers were
excellent.
Chris
Christina Z. Anderson
Assistant Professor
Photo Option Coordinator
Montana State University
CZAphotography.com
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----- Original Message -----
From: "Sandy King" <sanking@clemson.edu>
To: <alt-photo-process-l@usask.ca>
Sent: Thursday, November 08, 2007 11:27 AM
Subject: 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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