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Re: staining in the center of a ziatype (long post)
Don,
I haven't caught up with Dick Arentz' new book yet, but I don't find any
extra sizing needed for Cranes 90# cover (also sold as Platinotype) or
their Kid Finish stationary papers for printing ziatypes. (There is no
Cranes "Platine"--Platine is an Arches tradename and a very different
paper). Dick may be using this method to help with really large
develop-out prints. Physical handlling at sizes like 12x20 gets very
different from little prints.
Especially for a print as small as 4x5 you should be able to get even
drying without an extra recovery step after blow-drying. I find it
better to use a blower/dryer on a stand and move and swirl the paper
around under it, rather than holding a dryer in hand and waving it
around. The feel of the paper in your hand is a big key to getting
proper and even drying.
Dull highlights: you may simply need a bit more contrast. Afo/LiPd is
lower contrast than develop-out Pt/Pd formulas, and if you add tungsten
it gets even softer. A touch of dilute ammonium dichromate contrasting
agent might brighten up your highlights nicely. You may have also
guessed correctly that some of the negs are too dense. Remember that you
are looking for a long range of density from thin to heavy, not just
heavy density overall.
I've heard that bleach and pyro re-develop works well for Polaroid
negatives but haven't tried it myself.
If you're getting 'acceptable' results on your first tries, that's
really good. Practice will make a dramatic improvement as you get the
feel for the sequence of steps.
As an aside, I recently had to make more than fifty 8x10 ziatypes in a
row to fill the PT "Readers Special Print Offer" orders. It took me
several bad prints before I matched the original printing from some
months before, and matching required slightly modified formulas and
exposure times. But after that, fifty in a row came through with
remarkable consistency and essentially no wastage (but, man did I get BORED!!)
---Carl
--
Workshop info and online galleries at:
http://home.earthlink.net/~cweese/