Testing

TERRY KING (KINGNAPOLEONPHOTO@compuserve.com)
Sat, 11 Apr 1998 05:15:33 -0400

Message text written by Peter Charles Fredrick
>
It may be a pain Dave but don't cut the testing remember "If you wont to be
the best you have to test"

pete

<

Sure enough Pete but people need to be warned that testing can become such
an obsession that it can become the end in itself.

So before you test make sure that consider the relevance of the test and
whether W & N and Kodak or whomever might have been paying people for years
to do those tests for you. One of thee classic cases of silliness for me is
the table of dilutions of colour in 'Keepers of Light'.

I like to warn students to beware of the overcomplicated and the
irrelevant. Understand the principles and keep it simple !

On another tack, I also found it surprising that you think in terms of
percentages of colour in a mix and that you found that more colour was
likely to lead to less staining.

In general I have found that more colour leads to dangers of staining and
of the colour cracking in gum prints. If one remembers the basic principle
that the less colour one uses the easier it is for the light to do its job
, the less the there is a risk of staining or degradation of the highlights
and of the pigment cracking. So use a little of strong pigments and make
your judgements on a palette and get people to throw away those little
bottles of percentage solutions that lead to so many unnecessary
difficulties.

Terry King