Carl Weese (cjweese@wtco.net)
Wed, 28 Jul 1999 14:39:39 -0400
Gary Miller wrote:
>
> While it was mentioned by Jan, about how much the sensitizer soaks into the
> paper, what is the general opinion on how long to let the sensitizer soak
> into the paper, Platine for example, after coating and before drying.
If you are going to force-dry the paper, my practice--and what I've
heard from countless other workers--is to let the coated surface change
from shiny to mat, then start the blower. However, it isn't necessarily
best to use any forced air. My favorite way to use Platine, either with
traditional develop-out or with the Zia POP method, is to simply coat
it and let it hang on a line for a while before printing. Kerik Kouklis
-- whose prints are superb -- told me he uses Platine that way, and I
found it works well for me too.
However, don't do it with Zia and Cranes Cover: for some reason the
print goes gritty/grainy unless you force it surface-dry with cold (room
temp, no heat) air. Also, prints in pure platinum to be brush developed
should be printed absolutely bone dry. I rediscovered this at a workshop
I taught recently: a student who had been making POP prints tried an
extravagatype and he *thought* he'd followed my instruction to get it
really dry before printing, but the print crashed and burned. For the
next try I made sure he got the sheet totally dessicated before
printing, and it worked like a charm.
It's important to realize that the point here isn't to "get it right"
because there is no one right way to handle these humidity issues. What
they are really, is a set of techniques that give you enormous control
over the appearance of your final prints.
---Carl
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.0b3 on Thu Oct 28 1999 - 21:40:38