Re: Luminosity and ease of making carbon prints.

Luis Nadeau (nadeaul@nbnet.nb.ca)
Mon, 09 Jun 1997 10:01:43 -0300

At 4:11 AM 97/06/09, Terry King wrote:
>Message text written by Luis Nadeau
>>
>My point is that if you take 500 people who have used one of my carbon
>books to make carbon prints, you end up with about 300 people who will give
>up the process before they have achieved a single good print.
><
>
>When I think of the hundreds of people who have made successful carbon
>prints on my workshops from Autotype G25 tissue the only conclusion I can
>draw is that carbon is no more difficult a process for the beginner in
>carbon than platinum or silver gelatine are for beginners in those
>processes. The same applies to those who have made successful carbon
>interpositives for photo gravure on the gravure workshops I run.

I can also say that 100% of my students have had good results in a workshop
environment. If you were to check with those students one year later, two
years later, and so on you'd see their numbers dwindling drastically
compared to those who studied Pt/Pd. The large majority abandon the process
for a variety of reasons, e.g., can't be used in the summer because of the
heat, etc.

My original comments were about people who learn from books. There are many
more of those.

>Clear instructions and simple procedures produce good prints. The only
>limitation is the minimum order for the G25 tissue, one hundred and forty
>pounds Sterling, and the colour, that I like and Luis does not.

This is the second time in less than a day you misquote me. Several people
said they did not like it, including the curator of Lacock Abbey who is now
making his own. I don't think I have seen a single specimen made with the
G25 tissue but whatever color it is, people will grow tired of it and will
want some variety.

>From my book sales and the number of prints readers have sent to me over
the years I would say that platinum & palladium are 50 times more popular
than carbon printing.

As for the minimum order of G25 tissue someone said on this list that there
is an outfit in the US willing to provide smaller amounts.

Luis Nadeau
nadeaul@nbnet.nb.ca
Fredericton, New Brunswick, Canada