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Re: development for alt-process
Hi Shannon... This is either let's all jump on Shannon day, or let's all
HELP Shannon -- either way, seems to me a couple of points are being
overlooked.
1. You can't just develop the "right" negative for a process in a vacuum.
Each paper/ formula/ water/ light combo has its own curve. (As i noted in
P-F #5 with a rundown on the way different papers print cyano.) Permit me
to suggest that you print a 21-step with the formula(s) you have in mind
on a paper you think you like (or several -- you never can have too many
21-steps!!!), and then count the ways, that is the steps... And aim to
sort of approximate that in the neg.
Or go the other way... if your negs are reasonably in the ballpark, find a
paper they print nicely on.
This is not to say you really have to make a special match between paper
and neg, but simply that you may be trying harder than you have to.
2. I think I recall that your neg was developed by tank & you began with
the times given for tray (or vice versa). I don't THINK those will be the
same. In fact, in my experience, the touch of your hand in tray
development is sui generis -- or I sure tried to duplicate results of a
friend in tray flipping..... I never could. I practically wore his
t-shirt... Mine were consistent, but SERIOUSLY unlike his. His lab was at
116th street, mine downtown. Was the water different? Maybe... but I
suspect the aura -- or the touch.
3. To "read" the negative, if you don't have a densitometer (you
mentioned, but didn't say you did or didn't get one), check Post-Factory
#1 about the white cards with the holes punched to measure the negative
density -- and then match to the step print made from the 21-step.
4. Look at the bright side: Your dilemmas get to be of an increasingly
higher order.... the best any of us can ask for.
cheers,
Judy
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| Judy Seigel, Editor >
| World Journal of Post-Factory Photography > "HOW-TO and WHY"
| info@post-factory.org >
| <http://rmp.opusis.com/postfactory/postfactory.html>
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