You ask :
>Do you also feel that over adquate technique can also get in the way? I've
>see far to many "perfect" prints that have lost any and all emotion.
My approach is that if you are going to go to the trouble and expense of using
platinum you might as well try to get it right both ways. But there are never
simple answers to these questions and the end result must depend upon individual
intention and method. For example when the subject matter has a brightness range
of more than ten stops does one use compression techniques to get it all onto
the paper. In platinum I prefer to use what I can see. Now this is a point where
I did go on a bit.
>Would you also not agree that using the pt to pd relationship has move to do
>with image tone than image contrast.
That rather depends on the range of contrast in the original negative. I was
asked last Saturday whether, if one went out with one's full plate camera, one
had to shoot separate sheets of film for silver gelatine and platinum. My
answer was' yes' because one is speaking a different language when printing in
platinum/palladium. I say that because, to my eye, using contrast controls to
print from the silver gelatine neg, produces, to use the language analogy,
'fried French' or, to mix the metaphor, brown shoes died black..
I would add that my preference is to avoid the standard ' platinum' papers
because the results one gets on the finest water-colour papers are better.
Terry