Re: Pigment types (and order)

Peter Charles Fredrick (pete@fotem.demon.co.uk)
Tue, 30 Jul 1996 21:10:45 +0000

>I have.Your turn.<

Hello members of Alt-Photo-Process:

>I am not interested in flaming or being flamed such behaviour is irrelevant
to why I am here.
I may have opinions that contradict those expressed in the archive of this
list.

Mark A. Morrill<

Hello Mark,
I must apologise if my rather terse reply to your original e;mail, has
given you offence, none I can assure you was intended.From your e:mail I
assumed obversely and incorrectly that you were talking hyperthetically,
and not from personal experience, :-

>If doing gum Printing it is my opinion that the yellow layer first is best,
because the yellow pigments usually have white in them for some reason, and
this white will change the way all previous layers appear.<

As far as I know most yellows do not have white in them, however they are
opaque in the same way as white,although Chinese white is in fact
translucent. This does not excuse my erroneous assumptions for which I can
only say sorry.

The case for the use of a transparent yellow has much force and has been made
in a recent thread I think Carson Graves best expressed it as ;-

From: carson@zama.HQ.ileaf.com (Carson Graves x1507 3NE)
Sender: alt-photo-process@cse.unsw.edu.au
To: Multiple recipients of list <alt-photo-process@cse.unsw.edu.au>
Date: Tue, 23 Jul 96 07:23:25 +1000

To finish what Peter started, you always start with the cyan printer
(made from the red separation). This gives you an idea of the overall
contrast and density of the print. A lot of times, you can stop there
if you see that the cyan layer isn't giving you the contrast you need.

Next comes the magenta printer (from the green separation). This adds
a bit to the density and begins to give you a clue as the final colour
balance. If you see the colour balance going off (takes a little
practice) you know you might have to modify the yellow printer.

Last, you print with yellow (blue separation), which has almost
no effect on the overall image density, but strongly affects the
colour balance. Adding a little yellow at a time is a good idea if
the process you are using allows it. You can also mix tints with the
yellow if you want to alter the balance.

Overall, the process of going from cyan, to magenta, to yellow is a
logical one, allowing you to work first with the contrast and last
with the colour balance. With lots of alternative three-colour processes
you don't need a black printer, there is enough density with just
the three process colours to give you a decent black.

Anyway, since Peter mentioned "The Colour Print Book" (now sadly op)
you can see an illustration of one of my colour gravures in it.
Offset printing doesn't do justice to the velvety shadows in the
print caused by the ink thickness, but that's a road we have already
been down.

Carson
carson@ileaf.com

You go on to state :-
I >certainly am
interested in critical comments about Alternative Photographic Processes.<

I don't know it all.< Neither do I Mark!! so lets gather more information
together.

pete

Also wellcome to the list