I haven't worked much with digital negs at this point, but and I'm sure
others on the list will post their thoughts too, but generally the Van
Dyke response is similar to platinum. Cyanotype on the other hand seems
to work better with a negative that would probably print okay on a grade
2 silver paper.. In this way it is perhaps closer to gum than Van Dyke.
On the subject of Cyanotypes I recently saw an exhibition here in Paris
"the art of the nude in the 19th century" (probably a very poor
translation from French) in which a small series of Cyanotypes were
exhibited, dating if I recall from late last century, or early this one
(can't remember exactly sorry). The quality was quite astounding, frankly
I never believed you could get such seperation of tones in a Cyanotype.
> but it seems that the fairly heavy
>negatives resulting from using the platinum curve do not work too awfully
>well on cyanotype.
Just as a point of interest there is a very skilled Platinum printer in
my home town, Sydney Australia, Gordon Undy. He produces negatives for
platinum that print well on both platinum and silver (and for that matter
would work well with gum too). I've seen the results for myself and if
Gordon's results are anything to go by you may not need as much density
in the negative as you may think. I'm interested in what other people
have to say on this..
>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.
My take on this would be that it depends what you want, I've worked with
rather dense continuous tone negs (Kodak DD film) that produce a good
solid result in gum (though I have found I need to do a lot of printings
to get the detail and contrast I want) and also work well with Van Dyke.
More recently I've returned to working with Kodalith and dilute Dektol
and for the work I'm producing the results are satisfying. The Kodalith
doesn't have much in the mid tones, but this level of contrast works well
with gum. Using the Kodalith allows me to build detail and contrast much
quicker than with the DD film. Whether it would be as successful with say
Cyanotype I cannot say, though when I initially explored Cyanotypes these
kinds of negatives produced good results.
When I analysised the Kodalith negs under the densitometer we found that
while the shadows and highlights were present, the mid tones were
lacking. From what I understand (and I'm open to correction) the gum
process usually doesn't resolve the mid tones all that well. So a
slightly higher contrast negative works rather well.
> Has anyone else worked with digital
>negatives and gum?
I haven't yet but I am very interested. Currently I'm reading everything
I can about it. Hopefully I can start making digital negs a little later
this year.
>Thanks for your help. If you need any info on American or Southern lit,
>I'd be happy to return the favor.
BTW I'm a great fan of James Agee Carson McCull... (sorry complete mental
block)
Hope some of this is useful.
Cheers
Hamish
>
>
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"We have no theology, we have no dogma, we just dance"
Hamish Stewart
Gum Bichromate Photographer
Astrologer
Tarot
http://www.vrx.net.au/ad163/artists/hamishstewart.html
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