From: Keith Gerling (kgerling@ameritech.net)
Date: 11/12/01-01:43:45 PM Z
Obviously, my comments were in reference to my own work - which to my mind,
seems to need a black layer. Certainly I make no assumptions about your, or
anybody else's technique, and I'm envious that you have succeeded where I
have failed. Much of my work is made using digital negatives. I've tried
using RGB reversal negatives and using CMY negatives, and I'm not able to
get the same degree of DMAX that I get when using a additional black layer.
It's not that the three colors don't add up to make black, because they do.
It's just that the shadow areas in prints using three colors usually are
weaker. There just doesn't seem to be enough pigment on the paper, and when
I add more I don't like the contrast.
Keith
-----Original Message-----
From: Katharine Thayer [mailto:kthayer@pacifier.com]
Sent: Monday, November 12, 2001 4:57 AM
To: alt-photo-process-l@sask.usask.ca
Subject: Re: Zimmerman's gum process
Keith Gerling wrote:
>
> Even when I'm looking for a softer look, I always use black to some
degree.
> Without it, the print lacks "punch" (and I realize that a "punch-less"
look
> is exactly what draws many people to gum printing - but not me.)
This is one of those issues that doesn't have a "right" answer: whether
to print tricolor or to add a black layer, and the slogan I've always
used here holds: "To each his own."
However, the assumption that those of us who don't see the need for
black like a print that lacks "punch" by which I assume you're saying
that we prefer a print that doesn't include a true black, is not quite
accurate, at least not in my case. I do often like to print a soft
unsaturated color print, when I do print tricolor (which is almost
never any more) but where I think black is called for, my tricolor
prints are quite black. Today I am going through slides and jpegs of
some of my gum prints to select images for a website I've promised to
contribute to (Yes, D, I AM working on it, even though it might not look
like it) and just for fun I looked at the histograms of some of my
tricolor work, to see if I've been kidding myself that you can get a
really dark black by printing tricolor. These are straight scans of
slides, with no autoexposure and no manipulation in photoshop. The
prints were shown and sold years ago so I can't compare the actual
prints to the electronic file, but using the slides as a gauge, I
believe that the scans are an accurate representation of the tonal range
in the actual print. In each case, the histogram shows a complete range
of tones, from 0% to 100% black.
kt
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