Re: Some Vellum

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From: Clay (wcharmon@wt.net)
Date: 04/23/03-10:14:16 AM Z


Kerik and Stuart are the major league vellum users nowadays, but they've
given me the bug, so I'll chime in with what I find works for me. And to
give credit where credit is due, this is almost all received wisdom from
those two printers, a sort of vicarious school of hard knocks.

1) some vellum wrinkles like a potato chip when you put anything liquid on
it. Wyndstone does this to a maddening degree. Solution: don't use it.
Others like the Mars vellum seem to handle the liquid load pretty well
without big time wrinkling.

2)two light coats are better than one heavy coat. The Dmax difference with
two coats is pretty incredible. With the Mars, I go from 1.25 with one coat
to 1.5 with two coats. I cut my normal volume of sensitizer to 2/3 of the
normal Platine load for the Mars vellum

3)I like drying each coat with a hair dryer after a 1 minute 'rest' . My
impatience may be the biggest factor here.

4) coat an area larger than your negative and try to coat right to the edge
of the paper. Putting it on top of another piece of paper or a towel keeps
the mess in check. The reason is that any uncoated area will not expand like
the coated areas when the sensitizer is added. This causes the edges to sort
of 'bow up' and get difficult to to flatten. So coat to the edge, then trim
a thin strip off of the edge inside the 'crinkling zone' so the paper will
be flatter in your frame.

5) minimize handling through the wet steps.Do everything in one tray if
possible. I have crinkled a few prints accidentally, and the creases will
show up when the print dries.

6) I have found vellum in general to be more contrasty than platine. So if
you have negative that is perfect with no restrainers when printed on
platine, it may look too harsh on vellum.

7) Put your finished print on several different hues of paper underneath.
You will be surprised at how much the tone will change depending on the
color of the surface underneath the print.

8) You might want to put subliminal text messages on the surface underneath
the print.

Clay

----- Original Message -----
From: <jeffbuck@swcp.com>
To: <alt-photo-process-l@skyway.usask.ca>
Sent: Wednesday, April 23, 2003 9:37 AM
Subject: Some Vellum

> Any comments/lore on printing platinum on CANSON OPALUX or BEINFANG?
Also,
> where can you get the latter? Not seeing it at NY Central or Kinsella.
> Thanks. -jb


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