Re: Fresson's beauty - Re: Fresson secret?

[petermarshall@cix.co.uk (Peter Marshall)]

> 
> John,
> 
> I believe that the real beauty of Fresson lies in their monochrome 
> prints. >From a distance they look very much like a gum print which has 
> had enough
> coatings applied to build a really dense shadow tone. However, they are
> different in that the surface reflectance changes along with density so
> that highlights are slightly reflective while the shadows are absolutely
> dead matte black.  In fact, the shadows are so intense that look as if 
> you
> will pick up a smudge of pigment when touched.  When viewed without 
> glass,
> they exhibit a sort of 3D effect which I think is due to the reflectance
> change. 
> 
> The color images do not have the reflectance gradient but are also 
> unique
> as they can exhibit a pointillistic effect which I have not seen in any
> other contemporary alt photo process. 
> 
> Sincerely, Art
> 
> 
> Art Chakalis
> Columbus, Ohio, USA
> 
> 

Art,

I've often looked at colour Fressons and thought how similar they were to 
some experiments I did years back using 4 colour gum applied using random 
halftone screens (made by printing photographic grain onto high contrast 
film), which created a similar pointillistic effect, although somewhat 
coarser as the halftone screens I made were rather coarse.

I also made some fairly similar effects by using random halftone screens 
to make 4 colour silkscreen images. 

Easier to get Fresson to print them though!

Peter Marshall
Photography Guide at About          http://photography.about.com/
email: photography.guide@about.com
_________________________________________________________________
My London Diary	              http://mylondondiary.co.uk/
London's Industrial Heritage: http://petermarshallphotos.co.uk/
The Buildings of London etc:  http://londonphotographs.co.uk/
and elsewhere......