Re: The consistency of gum

Very interesting. I'd like to hear more about your results and conclusions
as the testing progresses.

Dave Rose
Big Wonderful Wyoming
http://www.alternativephotography.com/dave_rose.html

----- Original Message -----
From: "Katharine Thayer" <kthayer@pacifier.com>
To: <alt-photo-process-l@sask.usask.ca>
Sent: Tuesday, December 02, 2003 2:43 AM
Subject: Re: The consistency of gum

> Katharine Thayer wrote:
> >
>
> >
> > But now I'm looking at six gums, one of which is the Bostick & Sullivan,
> > and they all behave about the same; they all brush smoothly, their
> > consistency is very, well, consistent, as is their behavior. (Yes, there
> > are differences, but the differences are subtle, not dramatic.) So I'm
> > not included to credit the idea that there are huge differences between
> > gums. My 2cents.
>
>
>
> Slight clarification: I'm testing 5 gums mixed directly from powder and
> one dark lithographers' gum (daniel smith's standard gum) All six are
> about the same consistency and coat about the same; they "work" about
> the same is what I was trying to say. But it wouldn't be accurate to say
> that they all print similarly. The differences between the five light
> gums are very small, so small that when I run the same test several
> times, different gums come out on top each time. This is to say that
> statistically there's not much difference between them, and I'll need to
> run more tests to be sure that the small differences I think I see are
> real. But the lithographers' gum is very different from the other five
> in the way it prints. It clears fastest, although they all eventually
> clear completely within a reasonable development time. But more
> problematic for me, it prints significantly fewer steps than the other
> five, and the steps are very distinct from each other in tone. This
> makes a really pretty step test, but a bad gum print from my point of
> view. It may be just what someone else wants, but too jumpy for my
> taste; I want much more subtle tonal gradations. This is such a
> consistent finding that I feel confident to report it, while the
> differences between the other gums I'm not so sure about.
> kt
Received on Tue Dec 2 12:09:29 2003