Re: theoretical gum question
Thanks, Loris, Phritz and Katharine...
I started thinking about this after reading the Lukas Werth article in PF,
in which he uses pt/pd-range pyro negs for his casein printing. I know
casein is not gum, but reading about him doing up to 10 layers and getting
this beautiful long-range print had me daydreaming ;-)
Katharine, when you say they don't look as clean and crisp, do you think
that has to do with the contrast?
Paul
----- Original Message -----
From: "Katharine Thayer" <kthayer@pacifier.com>
To: <alt-photo-process-l@usask.ca>
Sent: Wednesday, September 09, 2009 9:11 PM
Subject: Re: theoretical gum question
Good question.
I've done it both ways, and remain convinced that the best way to print
gum, especially if you're interested in a longer print tonal scale than
gum can print in one coat, is to stick with the old tried and true method
of using a negative with a longer dynamic range and printing two or three
times for the different parts of the range. As phritz says, as long as
you have to print more than once to get deep open shadows,
well-separated midtones, and nicely gradated highlights, why not?
I'll answer the part about tricolor later, because that will take longer,
but on that too, I think you're on the right track, at least I made
beautiful tricolors for years without matching the negative to the range
of the gum, and I'm not convinced that the tricolors I've been making
lately, matched to the emulsion and using ChartThrob- generated curves,
make better prints than my old standard method, in fact the prints don't
have such a clean and crisp look; they're not so tonally satisfying to me
in general as the old ones.
As in everything about gum, each to his own.
Katharine
On Sep 9, 2009, at 11:04 AM, phritz phantom wrote:
Paul Viapiano schrieb:
Same with single neg type gums, should we use a longer scale neg
knowing that we're going to print 3 or more times at different
times/ratios/etc...?
Paul
good question,
i've been wondering about that too. the use of curves would eliminate
the use of different exposure times with different contrast performance.
maybe using a too long (for just a single coat) negative and multiple
passes yields better results. when using curves, one always (?) tries to
get the best possible result within the limits of a single coat.... and
then usually (with gum) add more layers anyway.
so, if i'm going to make more than one coat anyway, why should i aim for
a optimal neg for single coat?
(i hope this does not sound critical of certain ways of working. i'm
just curious.)
phritz
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