I am by nature curious. Threfore, when your tests are complete I will be
interested in the results. However, I have to agree with Luis and Dave in
that the information you get from this test will be of little use in
manufacturing a direct carbon paper. It may be of interest to know which
colloids were used in manufacturing the paper but will give no information
as to how the layers were applied. Over 15 years ago a friend gave me the
results of a electron microscope scan of a piece of fresson paper. The
analysis revealed a lot of information (that there were several layers of
colloid, of which at least two were pigmented, the fact that the pigment
was dispersed "in" rather than applied"on" the collid layers, etc.) but I
found this information to be of no use when it came to the actual coating
process.
I think Dave got it right when he wrote:
>I guess I am still trying to understand why some people are trying so hard to
>imitate a process instead of just making say color gum print? I understand
>that there is a special look to Fresson, but doesn't most pigment printed on
>fine-art paper has some unique, artistic, visually pleasing characteristic?
>
The fact of the matter is that there are quite a number of folks out there
doing some excellent three and four color work in direct gum and other
direct colloid processes (cassein, gelatin/gum, cassein/gum, egg
whites/gum). A colleague and good friend of mine, Sam Wang, who used to
contribute to this list, has made full color images with both gum and
cassein which are in my opinion every bit as good as color Fressons in
terms of color balance, tonal rang and sharpness. Color Fressons do have a
unique look, sort of semi-pointillistic, that apparenlty results from the
grain of the small format separation negatives from which they are made.
Contemporary workers using same size negatives for contact printing do not
achieve this look but that is due to the method of exposure, not the nature
of the colloid, or how it is applied. However, if the desired Fresson look
is the grainy effect it should not be particulary difficult to achieve this
with an appropriate filter with digital negatives.
Sandy King