Keith Schreiber (jkschreiber@worldnet.att.net)
Fri, 23 Jul 1999 02:57:52 -0700
David Lee wrote:
> Could I trouble someone who can give me the benefit of his or her
> experience in selecting a lighting system for contact printing?
There has been much discussion here about light sources over the past
several years. It might be worthwhile to search the archives.
> What lights seems to work best? Florecent? Mercury Vapor?
To some degree it depends on what materials you are using. Mercury Vapor
systems, especially those with vacuum frames such as the nuArc 26-1K, are
great if you happen to have or have access to one. There are several useful
types of fluorescent bulbs including BL (blacklight), SA (super actinic),
and AQA (aquarium). The black (disco-type) blacklight bulbs will work but
are considerably slower and probably more expensive.
> How long is the exposure time as opposed to using the Sun?
Depends. Here in Arizona, sun exposure times are probably a bit shorter than
in, say, Minnesota. The point is it could be longer or shorter depending on
your circumstances.
> Any advise you could provide would be greatly appreciated and will
> prevent me from making a purchase mistake while buying the components
> for an indoor contact printing system.
There are several sources for with good plans for building your own light
box. A few that come to mind are the Palladio manual, The New Platinum Print
by Sullivan and Weese, and most of Luis Nadeau's books. On the web try
http://www.eepjon.com/ubldit.htm
I think the main mistake made in homemade fluorescent units is not spacing
the bulbs close enough together. They should be only about 1/4 - 1/2 inch
apart. The farther apart they are the greater your working distance must be
in order to avoid banding and consequently the longer you exposure times
will be.
Good luck,
Keith
Keith Schreiber
jkschreiber@worldnet.att.net
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.0b3 on Thu Oct 28 1999 - 21:40:37