Jim Boyd (boydj@worldnet.att.net)
Sat, 13 Feb 1999 08:01:45 -0500
Katharine Thayer wrote:
>
> Jim Boyd wrote:
> >
> >
> > I have a question that has always puzzled me, and that is; what is the
> > conventional thinking or opinion regarding print edges? I've seen
> > professional prints that show the pigment brushstroke in the border ...
> Hi Jim,
>
> You must have come back on the list recently enough to have missed a
> thread on this very topic a month or two ago. The "conventional wisdom"
> if you can believe anything you read on this list, seemed to be that the
> brushstroke edges are considered important in gum prints. One woman said
> that when she sends a print out to a publication without brush strokes
> on the edges, they ask her to put them on. And someone else knew someone
> who creates his negatives digitally and actually adds "brushstroke
> edges" to the digital image with some kind of Photo Edges software, so
> the "brushstrokes" are built into the negative. No one, at least no one
> posting to the thread, seemed to think there was anything to question
> about this.
>
> I personally think it's tacky, and although I'm not as impeccable as
> you, (I do have brushy edges) I don't show them; I crop them out with a
> mat when presenting them or making slides from them.
> But how do you keep from having them? Do you measure the space the image
> covers and coat that area exactly with the emulsion, so there is no
> emulsion outside the image area? Or do you black out all the borders on
> the negative and aroound the negative, so that no light reaches the
> border area? My borders on my negatives are clear, so outside the image
> area gets the full exposure, so of course the brushy edges of the
> emulsion area are exposed and insoluble, no matter how much sizing there
> is. The sizing has nothing to do with it, it's a function of the amount
> of exposure the area gets.
>
> Katharine Thayer
Katharine,
I mount the negative on goldenrod paper and mask off the edges with ruby
lithographers tape. This along with the hardened (formalin) 3/3 coating
of sizing generally assures that there is no exposure in the margin.
When I first started in this process I unintentionally stained the
margin because the paper was not properly sized and pigment would
penetrate the fibre.
Jim Boyd
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