From: Judy Seigel (jseigel@panix.com)
Date: 02/23/02-10:59:46 PM Z
On Sat, 23 Feb 2002, dina Fraioli wrote:
> I thought you put dichormate in the first water bath to control
> contrast...which never made sense to me since it is running water and it
> would all spill out. Me and My professor were just podering this fact
> actaully.
I've never used a running water bath for first bath... for one thing,
because my water is metered and it's wasteful, for another it isn't
convenient in my studio setup, for a third, if you're using a large
sheet of relatively thin paper, running water can twist it, and for a 4th
-- whatever.
But if you've got a large sheet in a relatively shallow bath, you might
want to dump and refill... at some point. (On the other hand, with all
those lakes & waterfalls in Canada, you may have all the water you need.
We're anticipating severe drought this summer... So perhaps you'll send us
down some extra ?)
But this I haven't seen mentioned: VERY striking in tests my students and
I did was that the length of "first bath" is a definite variable. That
is, it's customary to bathe just until water runs clear, maybe 2 or 3
minutes. We found that the print was much smoother, richer, generally
peppier, with at least 5 minutes, more with a thick, absorbent paper, and
if I were working for consistency I'd *time* that bath.
However, that said, I never heard the one about adding dichromate to the
wash water. As for why dichromate in emulsion changed contrast here & not
in South Carolina, I don't have a clue. I'd assume some variable in
procedure... or water, or chemicals... I didn't like the visual effect of
the dichromate & didn't pursue it, but maybe you want to try it in still
water & see if it does anything there.
best,
Judy
> Then again I'm still just learing the art of non-silver. :) You all are an
> incredible help!
>
> -dina
>
>
> >From: Sandy King <sanking@clemson.edu>
> >Reply-To: alt-photo-process-l@sask.usask.ca
> >To: alt-photo-process-l@sask.usask.ca
> >Subject: VDB Contrast
> >Date: Sat, 23 Feb 2002 18:12:51 -0500
> >
> >Judy,
> >
> >I appear to have lost your last message on this but remember the content.
> >
> >
> >I have no idea why you got greater contrast by adding dichromate to
> >the sensitizer when I did not. Perhaps one of us is absolutely wrong,
> >or perhaps we used different materials which changed the results. My
> >tests were made with fresh VDB classic solution, all mixed with
> >distilled water, potassium dichromate mixed with distilled water, on
> >Fabriano Uno, Fabriano Artististico, and Arches Aquarelle. No change
> >of contrast with any of these papers, just a drastic reduction in
> >printing speed.
> >
> >If others have tried this with VDB it would be interesting to hear of
> >your results. However, for this type of test one really does need to
> >use a step table or densitometer to evaluate results.
> >
> >Sandy King
> >
>
>
>
>
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