U of S | Mailing List Archive | alt-photo-process-l | Re: The case of the missing gelatin: Gum printing problem solved. Ith

Re: The case of the missing gelatin: Gum printing problem solved. Ithink.



I was thinking days ago of suggesting the cat might be at fault but thought that might be too much of a long shot.

Mark Nelson

www.PrecisionDigitalNegatives.com, PDNPrint Forum @ Yahoo Groups, www.MarkINelsonPhoto.com

On Dec 10, 2008, at 9:32 AM, Diana Bloomfield <dhbloomfield@bellsouth.net > wrote:


Well, here's a follow-up to all my gum printing woes. It got a little warmer here a couple of days ago, so I decided to try sizing some paper again. I have one of those little scales with weights, so I can measure out my gelatin, etc, and since I'm the only one using this, I usually just leave the weights in the scale, which is located in what I thought was a safe and inaccessible (to all but me) place in my darkroom. Well, I started measuring out some gelatin, and I realized that one of the weights (5 gram weight) was missing. I eventually found it, but I realized I must have left the door open at some point, and one of my cats must have been in there, found it, took it out and started playing with it. So I wondered if that was the problem I was having before with my printing. The weight must have been missing before, and I hadn't noticed, and so I was using 5 grams less gelatin than I normally use. I wouldn't think 5 grams would make such a difference, but rather than size some fresh paper, I decided to simply add some sizing (the 5 grams that was missing) from that earlier batch that wasn't working. So, I did-- and the gum prints I've made from that same paper, with the added gelatin, now seem to be working fine.

So I'm thinking the missing 5 grams was the problem-- not the cold air. Is that possible? I also sized some new paper a few days later, in the same relatively cold air as before, and I've had no problem with that paper, either.

I blame this all on the bad cat.

Diana