Digital neg curves for cyanotype and Van Dyke

Jason P. Mitchell (jmitchel@sunset.backbone.olemiss.edu)
Sun, 15 Feb 1998 00:52:26 -0600

I'm new to the list, and I have already searched the (very extensive)
archives and found no answer to this question, so if I am rehashing old
ground, please take pity of me and spare me your Jovian fire.

I have recently begun tinkering with the digital neg business, after
reading the info by both Burkhalter (sp?) and Fokos. The only curve files
I have been able to find are for use with silver or platinum. Silver
doesn't interest me much anymore and platinum, well, I'm a grad student, so
it's out of the question, at least for now.

So, has anyone come up with useful curves for cyanotype or Van Dyke? I am
assuming that the latter should work well with a platinum curve, since both
require rather dense negatives, but it seems that the fairly heavy
negatives resulting from using the platinum curve do not work too awfully
well on cyanotype.

At least this is my experience. Maybe I should just expose them for
several hours....

Any advice (or curves) will be most appreciated.

While we're at it, does anyone know how well the platinum curve will work
with negatives intended for gum printing? Based on some preliminary
experiments, they seem to work OK. Has anyone else worked with digital
negatives and gum?

Thanks for your help. If you need any info on American or Southern lit,
I'd be happy to return the favor.

****************************
Jason P. Mitchell
Department of English
The University of Mississippi
University, MS 38677

jmitchel@olemiss.edu
http://www.olemiss.edu/~jmitchel

****************************