U of S | Mailing List Archive | alt-photo-process-l | Re: BL light box 'blues'

Re: BL light box 'blues'



Christina...

This is a batch of the "old" Tmax 100 I have had frozen for a few years after hearing that
the 'new' Tmax 100 was going to be a problem with UV exposures and non-silver..
I still have about 600 sheets shivering in the freezer. (She Who Must Be Obeyed has been
making an increasing number of less-than-gentle hints about the high percentage of freezer
space occupied by boxes of film!!!!!)

I'm hoping to get rid of (oops.. use) it either before she decides that enough is enough or the
unstoppable neutrinos do irreparable damage.

Ken




On 30-Mar-09, at 8:19 PM, Christina Z. Anderson wrote:

Ken,
Pyro negs, as well as Tmax 100 film, do not work for UV processes...the other problem I had with this mysterious long exposure thingy with students was UV blocking glass in the contact frames. Third, in the winter with really low humidity I find that my exposure time is affected. But with BL bulbs even with my longest exposure with 1A:1B it is 24 minutes; 2A:1B is half that. Longest exposure, on Fabriano AEW paper which hates cyano...
Chris
PS SO fun being in Dallas and had dinner with Eric Neilsen, Melody Bostick, and Tillman Crane--Jeremy Moore where were you?????? We had FUN shootin' the breeze about photo!
----- Original Message ----- From: "Ken Sinclair" <photo1@telusplanet.net>
To: <alt-photo-process-l@usask.ca>
Sent: Monday, March 30, 2009 3:48 PM
Subject: BL light box 'blues'


Have recently decided to intensify my interest in non-silver, I constructed my
new UV light-box using 10 BL tubes presently 5 inches above my printing frame.

So that I could use the same negatives for both silver-gelatin, Cyanos and VDB
I switched to Pyrocat as a developer... and I must admit, they do look "sweet".

A few years ago my southern Alberta summer sunlight exposures for Cyanos were
running around the eight minute mark... which expanded to around two and a half
hours in the rather weak December sun.

The exposure times I expected using the new 24" BL tubes are nowhere as short as I had
hoped... Cyanotypes seem to be requiring around 40 to 50 minutes while I have not
yet reached the 'end-point' for acceptable VDB exposures, it seems as if 60 -70 minutes
might be the absolute minimum.

I do not have a stouffer wedge to assist reaching my standard exposure times, my patience is
wearing (as my frustration level rises).

I have just put a VDB out on the deck to enjoy some natural UV rays from the sun
for a time comparison...

Are my BL light-box test exposure times "out of line" with times experienced by others?

Ken

Quando omni flunkus moritati (R. Green)


Quando omni flunkus moritati (R. Green)