Re: gold

Luis Nadeau (nadeaul@nbnet.nb.ca)
Sat, 14 Mar 1998 14:22:13 -0400

At 9:59 AM -0500 98/03/14, Edward Meyers wrote:
>On Sat, 14 Mar 1998, Jacques Verschuren wrote:
>
>> I am looking for a means to add the colour gold onto a (black and white)
>> picture. I don't mean Goldtoner, but something (maybe a toner? or
>> pigments?) that adds a somewhat transparant layer to (a part of) the
>> image. It should be visible, but not just when you hold the image in
>> your hand and move it somewhat so that the light hits it and the gold
>> reflects.
>>
>> I have been messing around with pens, but they sort of cover the
>> underlying image and are in no way transparant. I have tried Palegold
>> (Schmincke), which is a sort of paste to be mixed with e.g. linseed oil,
>> but it doesn't really mix with the emulsion; it tends to stay on top of
>> the emulsion and doesn't really show, unless you move your paper, so
>> that the light will hit the gold and it will reflect. Using pigments
>> might be possible, but how (with what) are they to be mixed in order to
>> blend into the emulsion of my photographic paper?

Your best bet would be a carbon transfer print on a surface plated with a
thin layer of gold. The idea is not new. Somewhere in my files here I have
a turn-of-the-century French patent covering it. Since carbons can be made
on any waterproof surface you could also use gold colored foil. It is
probably not made of real gold but the effect would be the same.

The advantage of carbon transfer, aside from giving you a full
continuous-tone photograph of the highest quality, is that if the developed
image is not perfect you simply wash it off with a sponge and reuse the
same support.

Luis Nadeau
NADEAUL@NBNET.NB.CA
Fredericton, New Brunswick, Canada
http://www3.nbnet.nb.ca/nadeaul/