and Jennifer wrote before:
>potassium bromide/2 g potassium dichromate/H20 to make 1000-formula in "Keepers
>of the Light"), with the bleach diluted 1:3, sodium thiosulfate 5 minutes, then
>washed another 30 min. I dried the prints and resoaked them before trying to
>ink them, as recommended. The ink took to everything everywhere, and although
>there was a VERY faint hint of a start of an image (with a COMPLETE loss of
>detail) the image was reversed, blacks being slightly lighter, etc. I fooled
>around with it for a long time, but it was obvious that it wasn't going to go
>anywhere. Ethol LPD as a developer was recommended in "Keepers of the Light" as
>a non-hardening developer-is it really? I also wasn't thinking and mixed the
>bleach with tap water, although it is filtered. Is there something that I am
>missing? I assume that the gelatin was hardened all across the board by
>something, but why is the image reversing? Help, help, help!!!
When reading all the message exchange according to CARBON, GUM and
other processes, the remark 'one of the most difficult' is a little bit
overdone.
To say that the vintage books makes no sense anymore cannot be taken serious.
Of course, the books of Luis Nadeau and David Lewis are very valuable, but on
the other hand: any piece of extra information, out of what source ever, is of
great value.
The remark from Jennifer concerning the non-supercoated Luminos paper:
the Luminos paper seems to be a Kentmere DocArt paper from England, so there
is a coating on it. According to the Whalley/Symes 'vintage' book, for this
papers an intermediate soaking -at high temp.- and drying , is of great
importance before the final soaking and inking.
I did it that way, and it is true!
Jennifer, you did not mention a rinsing after the bleaching and before the
final fixing; not done ?
What about the hardness of the ink ?
The reversal problem can be a result of insufficient washing of the bromide
print or slight hypo or developer contamination in subsequent stages.
You have to work with very clean dishes etc.
Reversal can be cured by clearing the print with a swab of cotton wool soaked
in petrol.
(reversal may also be due to the use of h a r d water making the
bleacher).
All this I found in 'vintage books'!
I am practizing bromoil for a year now and results are coming; the first time
I really saw what it can be: using real non-coated bromoil paper ,
manufactered in Croatian. The relief was really visible after the soaking. A
pleasure to work with, hopefully they continue to make it.
Besides this the video of the old english bromoil printer Gryspeerdt is also
of a great help for starters.
greetings , Henk (the Netherlands)